Jennifer Egan instantly became one of my favorite authors as soon as I had finished reading the first chapter of her book "A visit from the Goon Squad". With that book's marvelous accomplishments my expectations were set high and I was eager to read this book.

and the writing of this book doesn't disappoint. Jennifer is still a superb master of her craft, weaving stories and characters together that seem as real as anyone you could meet on the street. I liked the themes this book tried to grapple with. I think they are relevant and should be grappled with.

I, sadly, didnt connect very well to the first main character introduced in the stories. I wish I had a more emotional connection with him, that I could have gotten the urgency of his plot. But alas that wasnt the case and got the book off to a slower start that I would have liked.

At first I had trouble getting into this book -and looked at reviews that assured me that you did not have to read "A Visit from the Goon Squad" first in order to understand and enjoy this book -- I completely disagree! I read "A Visit from the Goon Squad" and loved it so much. Egan's character development and innovative writing really pulled me in and I could not put this book down. I then turned to "The Candy House" which builds on these same characters in the future, I felt having the back stories of these characters enriched my reading of "The Candy House" even though she does provide some background and context in this novel. Given that this book is an exploration of memory, loss and history, this to me bolsters the argument of reading her other book first. The premise is interesting - a tech executive creates a way for people to "own your unconscious" where you can access every memory (and by the way so can others). The way Egan threads together all the characters' stories is brilliant. I highly recommend this book as well as "A Visit from the Goon Squad."

Thank you to Netgalley and Scribner for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This took me much longer than expected to read because I needed to focus on every nerdy little detail.

I enjoyed losing myself in the story, but I still liked Goon Squad better.

This book won't be for everyone and sometimes, it wasn't for me either. But in the end, I enjoyed the journey. THE CANDY HOUSE reads more like interconnected short stories and it was difficult at times to remember how all the pieces were connected. For the most part, the connections weren't relevant. I loved the premise of this near-future tech where we can upload our consciousness to the cloud. Such an interesting exploration of tech ethics that I'm sure we'll need to begin discussing sooner rather than later.

Thanks to NetGalley for the free ebook. Similar to The Goon Squad, I really enjoyed the jumping around between characters in this book, and seeing how they were all connected. However, I do wish I had started a character index because at times I got confused about who I was reading about and where they fit in with the rest of the story. I also appreciated that both the people who fully supported technology and those who eluded it were given space, and neither was right or wrong. There was room for both, and there were stories about people with all sorts of perspectives.

This was one of my most anticipated book of the year, and I have to say, it didn’t disappoint.
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While not as formally innovative as its predecessor, A Visit from the Goon Squad (which I highly recommend if you’ve not read it), I found myself immediately pulled in to the world Egan created. She is a world-builder extraordinaire, with characters that seem instantly familiar. Maybe it helps that we’ve previously met some of these characters from Goon Squad, but I’d give more credit to the way Egan cleverly sketches their inner turmoil with light, nuanced touches.
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A lot of the buzz around the book has focused on a new technology, Own Your Unconscious – imagine memory uploads the way we all digitized our music libraries in the late 90s/early aughts and swipable collective memories you could visit – but the true beating heart of the book is about something that Own Your Unconscious approximates but doesn’t achieve (insert metaphor here about social media &c): connection. The stories are interesting because of the promise of this new technology, or Egan’s formal experimentation, but the stories are poignant – touching, even – because of the fallible, fragile search for real connection the characters endlessly pursue.

The novel begins with the introduction of Bix Bouton’s (a character from Egan’s novel A Visit from the Good Squad, although it’s not relevant to know that) new invention a device to upload your memories. Perhaps I could have used that to make sense of much of the book. And, come to think of it, if I were to try and map out the stories and characters in a graphic organizer (as teachers are wont to do) it would probably look like an intricate mandala!

It’s not bad. In fact, I rather enjoyed many of the chapters. However, it was hard work to read and try to follow the thread through all of the stories and characters. There’s just too much!

I went back and read my review of Goon Squad - it was a long time ago! - and found that many of my thoughts are the same, so I’ll share those:

I just finished this book and am a bit speechless at the moment. It's great, it's horrible, it's confusing, it's straight-forward. There are characters I already miss and some I found annoying. I guess that's one definition of a good book...it makes you really want to think about it and talk about it when your finished... Hmmm...
Thank you to #NetGalley and Scribner for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinions.

"A forceful, wonderfully fragmented novel of a terrifyingly possible future, as intellectually rigorous as it is formally impressive, and yet another monumental work from Egan."

From my Library journal review.

I feel like I can't review this book because after reading it I'm not exactly sure what the heck was going on. In a world where memories can be stored to the collective there are some ethical questions to ponder but as a while so many characters had me scratching my head as to who was who and how they interconnected. I kept waiting for a moment, like in cloud Cuckoo Land (which I loved) for it all to make sense but unfortunately it just never clicked for me.

Go in to this one when you can devote your full attention to it and be fully immersed in the story. Also consider making a character map as you go!

Also, maybe read Goom Squad first. Maybe that's where I went wrong?

This was very creative but was also heavy on the technology. This isn't one you can read in one sitting; I needed multiple sessions to finish. Each chapter seemed to be written by a different author, but it ended up working at the end.

I received an advance copy. All thoughts are my own.

Sometimes when reading a novel, your head is just not in the right place. This happened to me with Jennifer Egan's The Candy House. I was never able to get on Egan's wavelength, and struggled to connect with the characters and the story. I really love Egan's work overall, so I may find myself revisiting it in the future, but for a first go-round it was a challenge.

I had to DNF this. While I appreciate the premise and was really excited about it from the get-go, it just meandered a little too much for me.

I'm not quite as big a fan of this best-selling writer and Candy House didn't change that. It's ok but not something I simply couldn't put down or might even read again.

The Candy House opens with the staggeringly brilliant Bix Bouton, whose company, Mandala, is so successful that he is “one of those tech demi-gods with whom we’re all on a first name basis.” Bix is forty, with four kids, restless, and desperate for a new idea, when he stumbles into a conversation group, mostly Columbia professors, one of whom is experimenting with downloading or “externalizing” memory. Within a decade, Bix’s new technology, “Own Your Unconscious”—which allows you access to every memory you’ve ever had, and to share your memories in exchange for access to the memories of others—has seduced multitudes.

In the world of Egan’s spectacular imagination, there are “counters” who track and exploit desires and there are “eluders,” those who understand the price of taking a bite of the Candy House. Egan introduces these characters in an astonishing array of narrative styles—from omniscient to first person plural to a duet of voices, an epistolary chapter, and a chapter of tweets. Intellectually dazzling, The Candy House is also a moving testament to the tenacity and transcendence of human longing for connection, family, privacy, and love.

Another excellent novel from Jennifer Egan - it's an amazing continuation of the A Visit from the Goon Squad story.

This book was amazing. I coudn't put it down. It was magical. Higly recommended! The characters, the plots, the writting: wonderful and perfect.

Book received for free through NetGalley

Read 45% of the way into this book but kept starting and stopping and ultimately forgot about it. Figured it was better to review as is. It was written well just not my cup of tea.

I am extremely thankful to multiple award-winning author Jennifer Egan, her publisher Scribner, and to NetGalley for providing me an advanced digital copy of Ms. Egan’s follow-up novel to her Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award winning A Visit from the Goon Squad, titled The Candy House. Unfortunately for me, I hadn’t read the first book before reading the follow-up, which I think might have made reading the sequel a bit easier to both understand and follow. Nevertheless, I found the book extraordinarily interesting both in its form and in its concept.

Although it jumps between characters and time periods, from past to present to future, and the characters all bear some relationship to each other, it’s not easy to discern the who’s, what’s, and how’s much of the time. The storytelling is disjointed and takes on various formats, including something akin to a military training manual excerpt. Despite all of this, I liked it. I liked the characters; I enjoyed trying to discern their relationships and how they got from A to B and maybe even to C. Now I have to read A Visit from the Goon Squad to really put the puzzle pieces together!

Jennifer Egan once more exceeds high expectations with her follow-up novel, The Candy House. Meant to be a companion to her renowned A Visit from the Geek Squad, it can also be enjoyed as a standalone. The author provides a unique setting that is an alternate version of 2010, almost identical to the real world, but with some important twists. In her rendering, a technology has been developed that allows users to upload their exact memories, to review and share. Egan employs a variety of scenarios and perspectives to postulate how lives might be affected by the technology, for better or worse. The Candy House asks why people would want to expose themselves and their personal data for public view. As would be expected, such an ability would create controversy and divide those who refuse to share their data. The book follows characters who are acting as representatives from both sides. By placing the plot within an alternate reality that closely mirrors our own, Egan can creatively reflect how quickly technology can drastically change a culture, on a personal to global level. Excellent, challenging and masterfully rendered, The Candy House is a fitting addition to Jennifer Egan’s illustrious body of work.
Thanks to the author, Scribner and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

The Candy House by Jennifer Egan is about technology and how we can use it to store memories in the cloud- a place where if you choose to, you can access the memories of others, the only catch is that you'd have to upload your own memories in exchange.
The book is written in short chapters all from different characters and perspectives but threaded together neatly; whether it's by offering a different angle to a shared experience or how they're connected through work, life or family.
I had read that most of these characters were from a previous novel by the same author that I had not read however this book was a standalone story and readable even if you hadn't read the previous title.
Overall it was an interesting story about people and technology, at times a bit dense but unique.