The unbelievable tale of social class and wealth via the points of view of three very different voices. We start with a long article detailing the assault of a man (Pegasus) by another with a gold bar. The article becomes a fictionalized show for television and the author is highlighted in our next portion of the book. Also included in the banker, the owner of the gold bar and an atrocious man! Finally we round out with the dreaded Lenny, an equal opportunity misanthrope who is against "The Woke" and has found her place amongst the anarchists whose worldview has become more global and is now known as The Universalists!

The complex rendering and fitting of the points of view are a cat and mouse game all in itself. How Brown manages to create this world and so easily fall into the personal world views of so many others just blows my mind. This is a book you will be hearing about for a long, long time.

If you love a book about contemporary society, a book that is almost an ouroboros of itself, or just want to read some truly sharp and brilliant literature, Universality is for you!. #randomhouse #universality #natashabrown

Natasha Brown's UNIVERSALITY is at once about both a lot and almost nothing. It's about capitalism, it's about woke culture, it's about classism. Unfortunately, it doesn't actually interrogate or plant a flag into any of its intrinsic debates, and for that the book suffers.

I quite enjoyed the opening section - an article about a gold bar that was stolen off a farm and used as a weapon in an attempted murder. The young journalist who reports on the events is brought to the story through a tangled web, and reveals a lot of messy, juicy twists in the process. The book then goes on to tell chapters from a few characters connected to the article: the journalist herself, the gold bar owner, and the woman who gave the tip to the journalist about the story in the first place.

I wish every subsequent section had gone further at really poking the issues that the book brings up. Ultimately, it's a slim and shallow novel, as incoherent as the book itself accuses the lynchpin of being.

2.5 stars. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This was a pretty good book, but I do feel like there was too much going on at once and felt messy and not too thought out at times. I think it should have been less hectic and I would have enjoyed it more. It was just okay

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for this complimentary ARC in exchange for an honest review!!

I appreciated the author's debut, Assembly, more than I liked it. But her follow-up, Universality, true to its name, had more of an immersive, inclusive appeal.
The book can be described in deceptively simple way as the circumstances and aftermath of one man hitting another with a gold ingot. The beautiful thing about this novel is that there is nothing simple about it. The author expertly peels layer after layer to create a complex and oh-so-spot-on representation of the modern zeitgeist: wealth division, racism, xenophobia, privilege, wokeism, and all the rest.
The book is visceral, clever, brilliantly written, and difficult to put down no matter how repulsive its characters may come across. Each individual's perspective is presented in a such matter-of-factly way as to remind the reader that these people are all around us, that this is who you're sharing the world with, and their perceived evils and sins can be tragically, shockingly ordinary.
What's more remarkable is that the author managed to do all that well under 200 pages. And this is, in fact, considerably longer than her debut. Natasha Brown's writing is succinct but never sparse. And it's so impressive in this day and age of oversized books and a beautiful reminder that a novel can have a serious weight to it without doing so literally. For that alone, I'm uprating my review to all stars.
A great, thought-provoking, compelling read. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

Immediately after finishing this book, I didn't think I'd enjoyed it very much. I open my notes & highlights, I've highlighted paragraphs on paragraphs on paragraphs - all of which still make sense to me, without complete context. That tells me I did, in fact, enjoy this. The first section, A Fool's Gold, was the standout to me; no surprise if you read my reviews often, as dissection of the 'mother' role is my kryptonite.

Across all sections of this book, Natasha Brown gives readers numerous opportunities to identify with the characters she creates. Written from a perspective of victimization, you navigate topics like sexism, classism, racism - a lot of the '-isms.

Admittedly, comprehending this took a lot more thinking that I'd anticipated. This wasn't a book I could coast through or give only partial attention to. That being said, I'm going to wait until I have a little more mental bandwidth before I dig into her debut, Assembly.

{Thank you bunches to NetGalley, Natasha Brown and Random House for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!}

The writing is sharp and clear, and really pulled me in. The opening chapter, which chronicles a surprising act of violence, was my favorite part of the story. I loved the structure of the novel-it is unexpected and engaging. There are lots of characters and provocative questions regarding truth, power, class, race that I don’t feel like were fully explored - however, the author packs an impressive amount of plot into five chapters. Recommended to anyone in the mood for a smart, through-provoking read that doesn’t offer easy answers.

Thank you very much to Random House and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.

the majority of the novel feels like it doesn't really get to the point but it's by design. the beginning starts out with something wider: a young man is nearly killed by a gold bar at an illegal rave. then the novel gradually zooms in by following a journalist who wants to uncover the truth of this crime. i don't think brown sticks the landing but what i found most compelling was in how brown explored language and how there is something intuitive about constructing an argument that resonates. in particular, there's something intuitive about scientific process and how humans rely on this process to make sense of the uncertain. however just because the scientific process is utilized doesn't mean everyone will come to the same conclusion, but it's the act of relying on that sense of rationality that can be dangerous if left unchecked.

The book begins with a man almost killed after being struck by a solid gold bar at an illegal rave. In the aftermath, a young journalist begins to uncover the truth, drawing connections between an amoral banker landlord, an iconoclastic columnist, and a radical anarchist movement that has taken up residence on the farm.

This short yet insightful novel is a character-driven narrative that is similar to the themes and captivating writing of Brown's debut, Assembly. However, the key difference is in the narrative structure. While Assembly is told from a single POV, Universality has multiple POVs. The first chapter initially felt a bit overwhelming with the introduction of numerous characters.

What intrigued me most about this novel, as highlighted in its synopsis, is its exploration of language, "the book focuses on what we say, how we say it, and what we really mean." At the beginning, the journalist is determined to reveal the truth of the events, a truth that I, as a reader, initially accepted. However, as we dive deeper into the perspectives of various characters, it becomes clear that each one posseses their own version of the truth, ultimately positioning themselves as victims in their own narratives. Significant themes throughout the book include the cultural wars within journalism, classism, and race, all of which contribute to its thought-provoking depth.