In Hum by Helen Phillips, May and her family live in a world run by AI creatures called Hums. And, unfortunately, it's a world May helped to create through her tech job. She did such a good job of making AI work that she made her own position obsolete. Out of work, she's desperate for money. So desperate that when she's offered money for an experimental facial surgery, she accepts. The surgery only alters her appearance a little bit, making her unrecognizable to a Hum's facial recognition technology. With some of the money May earns, she buys her family a trip to the Botanical Garden where her children get to experience grass, waterfalls, and fresh air, free from the constraints of their tech devices.

But this trip is also where May's family encounters trouble, turning May into a viral sensation for all the wrong reasons. All May wants to do is provide for her family and be a good mom, but she finds herself fighting to keep custody of her children.

The book is very short with some chapters only being one page. I think I anticipated the book being more about the tech in this future world, as opposed to being about May's struggles mothering in this new world, longing for things long gone, and trying to be a good wife. This book is very much about family dynamics and how one generation relates to another.

It was interesting to read about a future world that might not be far off from our own. The kids are addicted to these wrist things called Bunnies. Facial recognition software knows who you are and everything about you. The air quality is terrible. However, the book definitely did not go in the direction that I thought it would. It would bring about some good discussion for a book club.

Hum is published by S&S/Marysue Rucci Books and is available to purchase now. I received a free book in exchange for this review.

In a NYC very near to our future, people have started losing their jobs to hums, AI generated "robots" who have been programmed to do any job that needs doing. May is a mother of two who has lost her job and agrees to an experimental facial procedure to earn some money. When she splurges on a trip away for the family she has no idea that it is not going to be the idyllic time she imagines. This was a fast-moving ride through a future that could very well be ours soon.

Hum, by Helen Phillips, is an anxiety-inducing look into a possible future ruled by AI and a constant barrage of advertising and needless consumerism. Driven by desperation, the main character agrees to a drastic medical procedure in exchange for much-needed money and then has to live with the resulting regret and unfortunate fall-out. The book mirrors how difficult it is in our own time to avoid the constant pull to buy more stuff that we don't need. I enjoyed the book, but then immediately felt the need to go declutter my house!

If you love…
✅ Severance by Ling Ma, Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam, and/or everything by Jeff VanderMeer and Katie Williams.
✅ Crawling out of your skin with discomfort over the way our world is very quickly looking more and more like the stories on these pages…
✅ Thinking about how intertwined humans and technology have become… For better or worse.
Congrats!! Because you'll both love this book and hate the world we live in 🤝

This might be a contender for best book of the year for me! It's such a solid addition to the genre of "oh shit is this what our world will become???" sci-fi/speculative fiction.

I caught myself wanting the perks in Phillips' world without the costs. Give me a woom! Give me a hum! Give me a bunny! Give me the bougie Botanical Garden that is basically an oasis vaca in a bubble! But… Don't give me a ruined earth with dangerous conditions as a result of global warming (sounding familiar?), or insanely steep prices that are so far out of reach for most people in order to stay alive or access basic human rights, like clean air or water (even more familiar?).

This book is devastating but, I think, so important to read before we're literally a part of its story. And that ending… You could see it coming but that doesn't stop it from hurting so much!!

A book that began with me being very interested in what it could do but sadly I quickly lost that interest and just kept waiting for the ending.

I seldom use the term "weirdly good" to describe a book, but that's the best way I can characterize Hum. I simply could not put it down! It both scared and intrigued me, evoking a sense of anxiety while also making me contemplate. Surprisingly, it even prompted a few chuckles from me, particularly with the constant AI ads, which I found rather humorous.

The book's setting immerses you in a not-so-distant future where technology reigns supreme. Personal smart devices, AI robots that perform most jobs, and ubiquitous cameras that record everything depict a society deeply intertwined with technology. May and her family deeply rely on technology and experience a sense of deprivation without it. Sound familiar?

Hum is a short novel (272 pages). However, Phillips's succinct prose still offers vast themes that provide contemplative discussions: climate change, the complexity of motherhood, how technology affects our human connection, the quest for authenticity, and how to survive in a digital world. I'm thankful I buddy-read this with @amy_alwaysreading and @rachellelovesbooks because I needed to sort through my thoughts, feelings, and story themes. I highly recommend grabbing a buddy to read this strangely wonderful book!

I was really waiting for the main character in this novel to make some sort of action or change in their life. Nothing ever seemed to happen though. I felt like I was reading the diary of someone that was clinically depressed but never got any help or tried to improve their circumstances. The author painted an interesting, if grim, world but never really had any action or movement within it.

Hmm this was an interesting picture of the future and certainly an immersive one. There was a lot that I liked, particularly the botanical garden but I do think the ending fell a bit flat for me. There were just one or two strands that felt like they were missing in the deeper connection between the hums and the humans that if pushed a little bit further I think would’ve made me feel more invested in the journey and satisfied by the ending. Given all that though, I’m still a sucker for sci-fi and this is a quick and interesting sci-fi read. I received an ARC of this novel through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Oh man, what a disappointment for me. I don't know why I had hyped this one up so much in my head but it didn't live up to my expectations at all. I mean, a literary sci-fi horror sounds like perfection, but this one fell flat on all three accounts. I expected some sort of profoundness or existential thinking, but the literary mark didn't hit. The dystopian and hi-tech aspects were lack-luster. And it was more boring than thrilling. It really wasn't great for me. The main character was two dimensional. The children were obnoxious and for no reason given way too much weird dialogue that didn't make sense nor make me care about them. Even as short as it was, it was a struggle to finish this one.

This book desperately wants to be profound. Instead it reads as the viral video of the mother crying over her adult sons tattoos set in a world reminiscent of a technological Glasgow Willi-Wonka experience. The entire novel just feels insincere.

Hum was one of the books I was most looking forward to this year, and it absolutely lived up to my expectations. There’s a constant tension running through the story, but it’s balanced with just the right amount of wit for it to never feel too bleak or flat. Phillips does a fantastic job of weaving together multiple timely themes such as the looming threat of climate change, the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence, and the trials of motherhood in an unforgiving society.

What really hit me was how close the world of *Hum* feels to our own—it’s almost like a glimpse of our own planet's possible trajectory if we’re not careful. That sense of realism definitely served to heighten the anxiety of it all for me. The resolution perhaps felt just a tiny bit rushed, but not enough for me to really have any major complaints.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book and consider it a must-read of 2024 for anyone who’s into speculative or dystopian near-future fiction.

All of my thanks to Netgalley, Simon Element, & S&S/Marysue Rucci Books for the ARC!

I liked this dystopian look at a future that might come our way with the technology we have already. In this world, people are living their lives in large cities with no nature whatsoever, they have so much technology they are reliant upon and love their lives disconnected from one another. It reminded me of a glimpse of our world 15-20 years in our future.

In the story we meet May who is having facial surgery to earn money for her family. She is going to be an experiment to see how long it takes the technology to catch up and figure out her identity.

May uses some of this money to take her family to a botanical forest in the midst of their city (a luxury only the very wealthy get to experience) and from there things really take off.

I really liked the dystopian aspects - it made me consider how I currently use technology and the evils that might lurk just under that surface. I also liked the family story at this books’ center.

An excellent read on all fronts. Hum is a particularly poignant examination of technology’s relationship with society. Set in a not so distant future, much of the setting, while remaining somewhat fantastical, is easy enough to believe. We watch as the stories protagonist navigates modern life, with all its dwindling beauty and pitfalls.

The prose here doesn’t particularly stand out, but services the story and pace perfectly. I tend to only give 5 stars to books that resonate with me, and stand out in my memory. This most certainly will linger, as its characters and world drew me in completely and I connected deeply its dramas.

I want to thank the publisher and NetGalley for their generous ARC even though I completed it after release. If you’re looking for something modern and impactful with just enough science fiction to keep it exciting,I strongly recommend this great book.

this has stayed with me longer then i thought it would! interesting class critique set in a near future world where ecological collapse is ever present

Thank you S&S/Marysue Rucci for my free ARC of Hum by Helen Phillips — available now!

» READ IF YOU «
📱 are hopelessly addicted to your phone
🤖 love weird character-driven stories
🧑‍🔬 enjoy (are terrified by?) dystopian settings

» SYNOPSIS «
May's life is crumbling around her, and she attempts to salvage some happiness by selling her face to an AI company. With the money, she treats her family to a lavish Disneyworld-like vacation, but makes a huge blunder and becomes a social pariah because of it. Feeling the pressure, May is unsure who to trust and where to turn, especially when an AI bot shows up offering assistance.

» REVIEW «
This was suuuuch an interesting book, and man did I feel like a total loser with how much time I spend on my phone and connected to tech. So prepare for that 😂. Personally, I loved the ending because it's sort of ambiguous? It fosters amazing discussion with other readers, which is one of my favorite things that literature can do for society. This novel is relatively short but packs a punch, delving into relationships, technology, conservation, motherhood, empathy, and identity all at once. Loved it.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I use assistive readers as an accessibility device because I take medications for disabilities that affect my vision. Since the author or publisher opted not to make assistive readers available on this ARC, I am unable to read it. I apologize for this inconvenience, but devices are necessary for disabled readers and should be made available to us.

I loved this one so much! It was so creepy how close to the present this book felt. It demonstrated out obsession with our screens and questioned truly where the line for technology is.

Readers have widely anticipated Hum after Phillips’ series of acclaimed books including her last novel The Need (2019), a New York Times Notable Book long-listed for the National Book Award. It doesn’t disappoint. Because of May’s extreme and constant insecurity, reading the novel can be an unpleasant experience — like being on an anxiety roller coaster. But because of Phillips’ incisive symbolism and sure-footed plotting, the reader emerges delighted, educated and not a little worried for the future.

In this novel, we are introduced to a family that is living in the not-too-distant future where climate change runs rampant and robots have taken on several important roles in society.

Nature is no longer freely available to enjoy and be soothed by, instead, you have to pay for entry into the Botanical Garden, which is insanely expensive.

While in the Botanical Garden, some unnerving things happen that cause the family to be put under extreme scrutiny, leading to lots of distress.

Overall, it's a really interesting read that although fiction, really forces us to reevaluate our relationship with the technology we possess in real life.

It's well-written, and engaging and I enjoyed it very much!

Thank you to #Netgalley for this ARC of #hum

Thank you to NetGalley and Marysue Rocci books for an advance reader copy.

This is the book we needed for this moment in time. Hum is a fast-paced exploration of the anxieties all parents face raising kids in today’s world. It explores our reliance on technology, a future in which we have ignored climate change, and helicopter parenting taken to the extreme. It is gripping, but also tender in its depiction of the characters. Helen Phillips has given us all something to think about. Highly recommend!