Author: Rachel Heng
Publication Date: July 10, 2018
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
In Rachel Heng's debut set in near future New York City―where lives last three hundred years and the pursuit of immortality is all-consuming―Lea must choose between her estranged father and her chance to live forever.
Lea Kirino is a “Lifer,” which means that a roll of the genetic dice has given her the potential to live forever―if she does everything right. And Lea is an overachiever. She’s a successful trader on the New York exchange―where instead of stocks, human organs are now bought and sold―she has a beautiful apartment, and a fiancé who rivals her in genetic perfection. And with the right balance of HealthTech™, rigorous juicing, and low-impact exercise, she might never die.
But Lea’s perfect life is turned upside down when she spots her estranged father on a crowded sidewalk. His return marks the beginning of her downfall as she is drawn into his mysterious world of the Suicide Club, a network of powerful individuals and rebels who reject society’s pursuit of immortality, and instead choose to live―and die―on their own terms. In this future world, death is not only taboo; it’s also highly illegal. Soon Lea is forced to choose between a sanitized immortal existence and a short, bittersweet time with a man she has never really known, but who is the only family she has left in the world.
Rachel Heng’s debut is a chilling near-future dystopian story where population decline has led to strict Sanctity of Life laws and systems to extend life ever longer. What makes this story so utterly unsettling is that it is in fact believable in a future era. This book left me feeling as if something was missing or lacking. The premise is wonderful and Heng’s writing is beautifully lyrical, but I did not feel as invested in the characters as I would have liked to.
Lea and Anja are the two main characters we follow. Lea being the main protagonist, but it was the story of Anja and Lea’s father, who sparked feelings in Lea and made her reflect over her life, that I was more interested by. Anja’s backstory gives her character more spunk and her actions felt more realistic, whereas I spent so much time trying to understand Lea because I felt that she was underdeveloped.
Heng’s writing was phenomenal. She can write a dystopian world like nobody’s business. Dystopian storytelling is not anywhere near my favorite thing to read – but, boy, was I captivated by her words and descriptions. I found myself reading, rereading, and re-rereading Heng’s prose – her thought process must be astronomical, as I know her imagination is. I will read whatever she puts out next because her writing is that picturesque.
"Something has to change. In being robbed of our deaths, we are robbed of our lives."
"Someone once said that death was the best invention life had to offer."
“Before they turned milky and white, her mother’s eyes had been the color of the sea. A clear, cold gray, the color of ice on a freshly frozen lake. When Anja looked in the mirror now, all she could see was her mother’s eyes staring back at her. Her mother’s eyes, her mother’s sharp nose, her mother’s pale salmon mouth.”
“Everyone was born with a number. They ran the tests immediately after birth. A simple swab of a wailing throat, parents waiting, hands clasped nervously, for the moment that would define the rest of their child’s life. Sometimes the results came out as a mother held the baby in her arms for the first time, staring into its liquid, barely human eyes.”
***A free copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at Henry Holt and Co. in exchange for my honest review***
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