I received an advanced digital copy of this book through NetGalley.

This review has no major spoilers, but I do go over the premise of the book, and that might reveal a thing or two about the plot.

I’ll start by saying this book was not in my radar AT ALL. And after reading it, I still wish it wasn’t! And I don’t mean that in a bad way! (If there’s going to be a second book, I NEED IT NOW!) This book starts as, what seems like a sci-fi thriller, set in the not-so-distant future, and then morphs itself into a fantasy that takes place on earth, in cities that actually exist.

To sum it up, there’s a sinister organization that has been pulling the strings throughout history called the Apparatus. They are planning something BIG. Then along comes Spencer. She meets Vik, they date, get really serious, then he desires to take over the world, and we’re off!

Spencer has two really good friends. Rose and Narina. They enjoy experimenting with psychedelics. Narina goes to an ayahuasca retreat and has visions of the future…visions that actually seem to be coming true!

The story is completely gripping. The three main women are incredibly strong, and the story tells how they take their traumas, and turn them into something positive that could save the world!

Totally wasn’t expecting there to be magic and fantasy elements in this, but it fit the story perfectly!

There’s a little romance thrown in, but it totally serves the story, and it’s not there to extend the page count, or to be considered a spicy romance book. This book moves FAST, and, boy, are there are some twists!

Loved this! Need a sequel ASAP!

I really enjoyed the overall story going on in this book, it had that conspiracy thriller going on. The overall feel worked and had that plot that I wanted from the description. The characters had that feel that I was looking for and enjoyed going on this journey. Natalie Docherty wrote this well and left me wanting to read more.

The writing, pacing, and chapter structure of this was artfully pulled together to create quite propulsive reading. The author has a good handle on how tech works which was refreshing! A lot of the shady stuff the Architects were cooking up were reasonably plausible. When I first started reading this, I was really enjoying it! But then, we spend a lot of time in a long YA-esque section on Spencer’s dating history which wasn’t so great. But when the lead women get magical powers, it totally fell over for me. 🫠

None of the characters felt like real people to me and our lead trio felt a lot younger than I think they were supposed to be. At times, the dialogue is quite stilted and unnatural which didn’t help. The characters were pretty one-dimensional and I wasn’t convinced by anyone’s motivation or the mechanics of the world in general.

Ultimately, I didn’t like this but I’m not sure it’s the book’s fault. I think it’s let down by its presentation. The cover suggests a more literary offering and the blurb is a bit interpretative (I genuinely didn’t think “powers” would be magical powers). Based on the cover and blurb, I was hoping for a dark, dystopian (maybe feminist?) tech thriller, not a heavily supernatural good vs evil showdown with spiritual themes. I wanted rich, dystopian world-building and less conspiracy theory. 🤷‍♀️ Compounding my frustrations, the book doesn’t end so much as stop, creating a cliff-hanger for a sequel.

There will be a readership for this: it might do well as YA or at least be a bit more explicit about the supernatural/magic elements so it can find it. If you're looking for the themes of Ripe or Severance, you won't find it here.

The folks who enjoy sci-fi dystopias or tech thrillers might not be the same folks keen to read about magical energies, sex magic, and conspiracy. I know I’ve been banging on about this for years but it’s a good example of why science fiction and fantasy really need to be decoupled.

Thank you Natalie Docherty, Netgalley and Pacific Books Press for this free ARCh in exchange for a review.

Despite the important, reality-based subject matter, the info dumps at the beginning were very annoying. This style of writing isn’t compelling. Showing what’s happening and avoiding telling, makes for compelling reading.

This went on for two chapters and that was more than enough, so I stopped reading. Life is too short to finish mediocre books.