If you enjoyed A Visit From The Goon Squad you will also really love this. It has an extremely well-written and sophisticated writing style and the plot is memorable and rewarding. And believe me, when I read the blurbs calling this “dazzling” and basically touting Egan as “the writer of our time” I rolled my eyes. But she really can write! She knows how to make me feel things and look at topics in a different light. And more often than not when reading this I just kept thinking how original and thought-provoking so many of the characters’ individual journeys turned out to be. And just like the Goon Squad, this had a wonderful ending scene with a timely message. Although the two novels can be read separately, you will get much more out of it if you read them both since most of the characters are the same. I think I’ll be thinking about both books for a long time. 4.5 stars!

I received an advanced copy of this much anticipated new novel from Jennifer Egan, so thank you Netgalley.

An incredible follow up to "A Visit From the Good Squad," Egan deploys a lot of the same tricks that made that book so universally praised. Stories loop and meander and connect; characters pop up again and again. While a virtual reality-like memory capture system is woven throughout, the book steers far clear of the easy anti-tech bias that plagues other writers. Some chapters towards the end veer off into science fiction territory and loses a little steam, particularly one where a character becomes a tech enabled spy, but overall the book focuses on telling the stories of all these interconnected lives.

Writing about a world where individual privacy is a thing of the past actually seems to be our present. Being able to upload your entire past experience/emotions for either personal use later or to share with the world may be exciting to some but beyond frightening to others. I do love the chain of acquaintances that drive Ms Eagan’s chapters and novel. And through it all, most are still looking for a personal, human connection. This is a very creatively written novel by an obvious master of language and dreaming!

Thanks to NetGalley and Scribner Books for the ARC to read and review.

As kaleidoscopic and prescient as A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD, THE CANDY HOUSE was both a delight and a surprise. It breaks new ground, even in following or invoking characters from the prior novel. I loved seeing how interconnected these characters are once again, but reading A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD is by no means a prerequisite.

I’m writing this review having just finished The Candy House by Jennifer Egan. It’s brilliant, confusing, and a very challenging read. I enjoyed Egan’s book A Visit From the Good Squad (2010) but read it too long ago to remember all of the characters, most of whom reappear in The Candy House. Perhaps if you read both books in sequence, it would make more sense. While I salute Egan’s message about the dangers of technology taking over our lives, I found the sheer number of characters, the constant change of story lines and writing style, and a shifting timeline to be too difficult to absorb. Egan’s futuristic concept that you can download your consciousness into a device and share your memories or upload your consciousness into a collective consciousness is fascinating to explore. While she does connect many of the dots by the end of the book, it was too fragmented along the way and I kept wondering if I was missing something.

Thanks to Netgalley and Scribner for an advanced copy of this book.

I tried and tried, and tried with this book, but I don’t think it was my cup of tea. I could see it as being immersive if you loved reading Matrix-like stories that are lengthily. While it wasn’t for me, I will say that the author does a remarkable job of story telling, interweaving characters and truly creating their world. It is incredibly well written and I’m sure will be on all the best seller lists.

This was delightful to read, but it's somehow a book that somehow cannot be adequately summarized. There isn't a "narrative" to the story, per se, as every section follows a separate character which their own narrative and often, their own style. One section is told through a series of emails, and one section is told through a series of aphorisms. But it all connects in a way, back to a central story and a central, yet sprawling, cast of characters.

The technology at the center of this story is fascinating - basically, you can download your entire consciousness into a device and share your memories with others. Your consciousness, or pieces of it, can then be uploaded into a collective consciousness for others to mine through for their own purposes. We hear from the inventor of this technology, a woman whose research unintentionally led to the technology, someone who mines the collective consciousness data, the son of the inventor, and many more, all in separate, disconnected ways.

I read The Goon Squad many years ago and at the time thought it was okay. So when I first saw this book described as a continuation of that story, I wasn't super interested. But when I heard more about this book, including the central technology and some acclaim that its already been getting, my interest was very piqued. You don't need to be a fan of The Goon Squad to enjoy this work, and in fact, I'm not even sure you need to have read it. Even though some characters continue on into this novel, it felt very different and stands on its own.

Fair warning for anyone deciding whether to read this book: it's weird. But for me, it was weird in a really good way.

This is a tour de force of a novel which features many of the same characters from Egan’s A Visit From the Goon Squad (2010), which I read and loved. This is a book about technology – all of its perks and perils. The story begins with Bix who runs a social media company and has created Own Your Unconscious, which allows people’s consciousness to be saved on a cube, uploaded, shared, memorialized, etc. If you thought Twitter was a deluge of everyone’s thoughts, Own Your Unconscious takes it to the next level -a monsoon of participants’ every memory accessible to everyone. Not everyone is on board with this program. This is a novel that is brilliantly executed, ingeniously structured (each chapter is told from a different point of view, jumping in time in this rich tapestry) and asks questions about memory and narrative, both personal and collective as well as who should and could own the rights to one’s thoughts. While The Candy House is a novel about thoughts it is simultaneously thought-provoking. Thank you to Scribner and NetGalley for the advanced review copy.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this title. I'd forgotten I'd even read the Goon Squad, and realized this was a sequel when a character name triggered my memory. This book is not an easy read because it is constantly shifting both characters and style. Some chapters are told as emails, some as prose, some as teenagers, and some as adults. The characters are all connected, and putting them together was quite a puzzle. I felt like I could have read entire novels out of single chapters, while some of them I had to force myself through. Overall an interesting look at the future and how it's shaped by the past.

This book was a miss for me and it could be due to one of two factors:

1. Sci-fi concepts are really not working for me currently. It could be the fact that I feel like I'm literally living in a sci-fi moment of time and/or the fact that this book possibly hit a little too close to home (like it could actually be truth and not imagination) that didn't sit well with me, but it really did make me feel unsettled.

2. I may not be an Egan fan. Good Squad was not one of my favorite books and while I actually did enjoy Manhattan Beach, it was a slog to get through.

Regardless, this was not a great experience for me.

Thanks so much to Scribner and NetGalley for the ARC. Below is my review I am planning to post to my TikTok, @alistofreads:

I want to talk about these two books: A Visit from the Good Squad and The Candy House, both by Jennifer Egan.

I read A Visit from the Goon Squad when it first came out a decade ago. It’s a really interesting book that centers largely on the music business and tells several different interconnecting stories about musicians, producers, publicists, assistants, and various other friends and family and jumps through time, space, and several different narrative styles. Egan’s structure and style was very innovative and at the time, people had a lot of different takes—is it a novel? Are they short stories? The debate’s still open.

Egan’s new book, The Candy House, is coming out on April 5 from Scribner. It’s being billed as very similar to Goon Squad in structure and style, but its content focuses mostly on the internet. I got an Advanced Reader Copy from NetGalley and was excited to dig in. But as I started getting into it, within the first chapter, like 5 people popped up that I vaguely remembered in my decade-ago brain… and I hated feeling like I wasn’t 100% sure I was making all of the connections. So of course, I immediately went back and re-read Goon Squad before getting any further into Candy House—and I’m so glad I did! Because what I realized is that this book really functions like a complete sequel to the first book and almost ALL of the characters are the same or related to people in Goon Squad.

What makes both of these books great is that they feel like a treasure hunt to me—each chapter tells a distinct story with a different main character each time, but it also includes ancillary characters or events that are from other chapters or back from the Goon Squad. It takes a lot of concentration just to keep track of everyone. And while it’s a bit of a brain teaser, what you also get is a lot more context of each of their lives and this overall effect of king zooming out into this universe of people that are all interrelated in so many ways… it’s actually rather beautiful.

What also makes Egan’s books so brilliant is that she experiments with several different narrative styles and voices. She writes one chapter in first person, one chapter in third, one is a series of emails, one is a presentation, one is a really snarky news article. It’s wild and I’m just so impressed that one writer could challenge herself to write in so many ways. Each chapter truly feels like a unique experience.

And I haven’t even really touched on the subject matter! What also makes The Candy House so interesting is that it’s about the future of the internet. Specifically, about the post-social media internet and speculates what would happen to the world if we were able to record and upload our consciousness to the cloud. Very Black Mirror vibes, if you’re into that. But it doesn’t really center a fascination on the technology, but shows how the consequences radiate throughout people’s daily lives.

Bottom line, you should read the Candy House, and importantly, you should get ready for its release by reading the Good Squad. Jennifer Egan is a genius, I will hear no slander.

The Candy House is very hard to describe, because it seems to be written by an author with multiple personality disorder. Every chapter is written in a completely different style with a different character and in a different time period.

However, each of the chapters were very interesting. At first, there didn’t even seem to be a common theme amongst the chapters until about 40% of the way through. This book is about technology, how it feels so good yet has unintended consequences.

Rarely has fiction caused so much self-reflection. This book made me nostalgic for the era before the internet, when you could go to the beach and listen to the waves softly crash upon the shores instead of listening to someone screaming into a cell phone. Nowadays, people have 5,000 Facebook friends but no one to help them move or someone to call at 3 am. We are voyeurs in each other’s lives. And what lives? Are we to believe that life is all of the glossy pictures on Insta? Does anyone actually have clutter in their house or is that just mine? Is there anyone who is authentic anymore? When was the last time that we went a full day without our Smartphones? Do you remember when you used to look forward to a doctor’s appointment just so you could read the magazines in the waiting room? Are we seeking out adventure or are we spending our time surfing the Web?

This piece is complicated. Disjointed. An abstract of effort as it spins thru current, past, and future scenarios. And disturbing, because I can see this hypothetical premise coming to fruition in real life. The externalization of memories for anyone to see.
Admittedly I struggled with the first few chapters of this book. I was finally able to acclimate, but this is a lot of book to take in. Written in multiple narratives, in multiple timelines, thru multiple environments. The reader is yanked back and forth from one person to another, one place to another, one point of view from another, as it circles toward the true angst of this chronicle, separation. From those who would celebrate and exploit such immersive technology to those who protest against it, siting dehumanization and disconnection as an indigent substitute of true human connection, thought, and consciousness.
Obviously, this is not a light or easy read. It causes the reader to think. And decide. Because as seductive as it is to revisit the most beautiful moments of a life, one must ask, is being part of the Collective worth separating ourselves from achieving our own authenticity?
I predict this work will be widely discussed, and a contender for book of the year. I believe new words and phrases, such as ‘grey grabs’, ‘own your unconscious’, and ‘the Collective’ will be immediately injected into our current everyday vocabulary. And I fear, what in truth is still just a theory, will soon enough become our collective reality.
I found this book to be a challenging read. Grappling thru some chapters, I also found myself connecting intimately with others. Regardless, I liked it very much. I commend the author on her extensive insight and thought process needed to get the whole of it down on paper. I strongly recommend this work to anyone who loves the study of theory and to those who enjoy a cacophony of relatable ‘what if’ experiences.
THANK YOU to NetGalley and Scribner, and specifically Jennifer Egan for allowing me early access to this uncommon and remarkable work. I will be thinking about it for a very long time.

I am a huge Jennifer Egan fan and
really enjoyed the first book “A Visit From the Goon Squad" I was thrilled to see that Egan had written a companion book. I loved this book just as much as the first one. I definitely recommend.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in return for my honest review.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I was looking forward to this one but I unfortunately didn't like the writing style at all. I'm starting to think Jennifer Egan's writing isn't for me.

I'll start by saying The Candy House dives into some really interesting concepts of living in a world where everyone is striving to be authentic and where no one's memories or identities are private any longer. While it seems futuristic now, with the way technology is moving, it could also very well be our future. I found the topics and ideas of the novel fascinating, however.... this was not a book for me.

It's strange to find the concepts and ideas of a novel fascinating and yet at the same time, not enjoy reading it. It's not that it's a bad read, I simply wasn't the target audience for it. It was too cerebral for me, with too many POVs, too many overlapping timelines and characters, and I honestly felt lost for a majority of the book.

I'm also not a big fan of technological/futuristic-type stories, so let me reiterate, I was simply not the right reader for this book. I really enjoyed Manhattan Beach, although I'll admit I haven't read A Visit from the Good Squad, so it's not that I don't enjoy Egan's writing. The Candy House was just not for me.

I've seen a lot of really fabulous reviews out there The Candy House, and I'm happy to see so many people loving it.

2.5/5 stars for me (again... you may love it. I wasn't the right reader for this..)

Thank you Scribner Books and NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review

A copy of this book was provided by Netgalley in exchange for my honest review, thank you!

I can really only categorize this book as "I just don't get it". The story line is vague and undeveloped, the quantity of characters tied together loosely made this a difficult read.

While the writing itself is beautiful, the plot development was lacking.

Have you ever really considered being a walking algorithm, sharing your memories and life with the world through a portable memory bank, or serving, willingly or not, as a mobile surveillance device? Jennifer Egan has, in this readily written and easily read jigsaw narrative meditation on human authenticity in an impending age of artificial intelligence. Whether scary or compelling is for the reader to decide, but the book is well worthy of readers' attention.

I loved A Visit From the Goon Squad, and I love The Candy House even more. From the relevant social issues (privacy trade-offs with technology, identity in a changing society) to the keep-you-on-your-toes format, this book is a page-turner. It's loads of fun to revisit many of the characters we first met in Goon Squad and see where they ended up/where they're going next. I can't wait until this book is published so I can discuss the ending with people (after I put it into the hands of every reader I know).