Trying to deal with the death of her son Anna tries to talk to his best friend Samantha who’s not saying all she knows about being the last person to see him alive. In the meantime her conscious upload is not saying either and asked to be free from her owner. This was definitely a unique science fiction take on AI and humanity. A powerful short story

I don’t think I was quite the audience for this book. I did really enjoy the different points of view, and felt they were very distinct. But the actual story confused me a bit and I felt the middle part lagged. I’m sure it’s for someone out there, just not my cup of tea.

3.5 ⭐️ — This story had all the ingredients for an exceptional novel, but it didn’t quite come together for me.

Maybe it’s just me, because I genuinely loved the writing style, the concept, and the originality—but somehow, it still fell a bit flat.

The Unworld is set in a not-so-distant future where people can choose to have a chip implanted that stores their consciousness. While I wasn’t entirely clear on the mechanics, it seems these chips are able to separate from their hosts once removed, which is a fascinating idea.

Given how front-and-center AI is in our world right now, I really appreciated the novel’s dive into AI rights, laws, and regulations. There’s so much thought-provoking content here.

The story ambitiously tackles themes of AI rights, grief, addiction, and the fragility and power of memory. But in trying to do so much within just 200 pages—and through the voices of four narrators—it felt like it spread itself too thin. A more focused narrative or a longer page count might have given these complex themes the depth they deserved.

That said, the writing was beautiful and accessible. This is clearly an ambitious work, and I’m genuinely glad I read it—but I can’t help feeling like it had the potential to be so much more.

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The premise here was interesting - dealing with your child's death in a world where there can be digital backups of your experiences, and those digital backups might want personhood at some point. Where it falls apart for me is in the execution of the last chapter or so, which brings a plot twist I was kind of expecting but wasn't sure they would go for, and then ultimately doesn't deal with the revelation. It's a solid enough book, but it feels like it needed more time to actually unfold.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for the E-ARC. 3.5 ⭐️

This literary sci-fi/dystopia imagines a world where you can upload your consciousness, which can then experience moments you aren’t physically present for via sensors and chips. Only, the Uploads have gained sentience, and some have gained “emancipation,” where they are cut off from their tether body.

The story is around the death of a boy named Alex, and cycles through the various beings that surrounded him in life, and up to his death.

I found a lot of the characters to read sort of the same. Which makes sense for some, but not for others. The demeanors described for some characters didn’t really gel with the internal monologue(s) they delivered. That said, I enjoyed the book and its cast (except maybe Rick but we never get in his head anyway).

It’s a story about how we carry grief and try to find meaning in death. About anxiety being mistaken for quirkiness in youth.

UnWorld is book that deals with AI, memory, and grief.
It's set in a future where everyone has an AI chip in their brain that records their memories.
It's crazy to think that we maybe closer to this future than we relaize with the use of AI in today's world.
But, this story never came together for me, it feels a little all over the place but, it was a good concerpt.
Thank you so much to NetGalley & Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor

This is an insightful look into the relationship represented with our use and control of AI. When grief and confusion reign, AI may have the answers we seek, but it may be more than we can handle.

Jayson Greene has touched on something complex here, that I will be chewing on for quite a while. While this book centers around a virtual reality, both gaming and AI, it is clear that each of these characters is deeply and painfully human. I was an early fan of Jayson’s memoir, Once More We Saw Stars, and the thread of grief, growth, pain, and love, has once again woven its way through his gorgeous writing. There were sentences that stopped me in my tracks, little gems to roll over in my mind, that gave me a deeper understanding of each character. This is a unique little novel, at times hard to read, but ultimately redemptive. Thank you to Knopf and NetGalley for my gifted ARC.

Thank you to the author, NetGalley, and the publishers for this book in exchange for my honest review.
This book was my favorite five star read for February 2025. I think the author did a fabulous job of showing multiple POV’s, the sci-fi feature was done quite well, and the thrill factor was uber creepy. I could see myself wanting to experience “Unworld” myself.

I think "UnWorld" would have resonated more with me as a short story. The slow narrative and characters didn't develop enough to make a lasting impact. The intricate plot made it hard to follow any single thread, and ultimately, not much stood out to me from the story. That being said, there are some beautifully written chapters in this novel.

UnWorld is a virtual reality game in a world in which everyone has an AI chip in their brains that records their memories, but the chips are achieving sentience as the world navigates their emerging civil rights issues.

The book uses Aviva, the chip, as the central character, while dancing between various points of view, including Anna and Rick, who are grieving the loss of their teenage son, who took his own life.

This book had some interesting things to say about personhood, technology and grief, and it did a decent job at building dread, but it felt like it should have been a short story. It didn't have enough of a plot. And I found the characters so unlikable, for example Rick and Anna's unhappy marriage, that I found it hard to stay interested in the story.

We seem to be having a proliferation of AI stories now but they are almost too close to our current reality for me to get into a lot of them, rather than saying anything new and unexpected. This seems to have been inspired by Elon Musk's plan for brain chips.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance review copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

UnWorld is a trippy mix of grief, memory, and AI, set in a near-future where the lines between human and machine get super blurry. The concept is wild and definitely makes you think, especially about identity and loss. But the abstract style made it a little hard to fully connect with the characters—it felt more distant than emotional at times. Still, it’s a unique, brain-bending read if you’re into reflective, futuristic fiction.

I loved the premise of this book- an upload of yourself in your consciousness. This is not an idea I’ve come across yet in the sci-fi genre but that could just be me. How successful was the author in getting his idea across?
The story is split between 4 different groups: Sam’s family whom we don’t spend much time with, Anna and husband Rick, Alex’s parents, Catherine, Alex and Aviva- Anna’s “upload, with Sam.

The main point of the story is Alex’s death and the effects of his death on all of the remaining characters, including Aviva, Anna’s upload.
The upload idea is unique to me and was well defined! Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

This book is about grief and loss and how a mother faces such grief and loss in the world of AI. As a mother myself, I can't imagine losing my kid before my own time has come and I was hoping for this to hit a bit harder than it actually did. This book touches on the philosophy of the human experience but almost lacks direction. It's a bit ambiguous and attempts to feel intellectual without it just flowing naturally. There were many unanswered questions. However, the writing itself was well done.

This book had an amazing premise but the actual experience of reading it just missed the mark for me. It was hard to relate to or connect with any of the characters and the story itself was very slow moving. I had to force myself to keep reading, it just didn't hook or engage me. Might be enjoyed by those who really like abstract plots and writing. 2/5 for me.

The UnWorld is a futuristic look at a world run by AI, including the ability to upload one's self for friendship and assistance. There are moral questions that arise regarding what constitutes personhood. This book explores morality, motherhood, relationships, humanity, loss, and a host of complex and thought-provoking subjects and ideas regarding the human condition. Very well done, and I highly recommend.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book.

While the concept for this book was a conceptually ambitious attempt at an exploration of grief, the human condition, and technology—there was too much going on for the point to hit home or be as impactful as it could have been. It got a lost in it's own web of ruminations.

Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this ARC!

This was a pretty good book! I do think it had a bit too much going on, and that if they took some layers out it would be more enjoyable and easier to follow as a book. I think they need to just simplify it a bit, but other than that it was great, and kept me entertained!

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

Unlike most emerging science fiction centering on the apocalyptic realities of near future technocapitalism, Greene does not turn outward in his exploration in Unworld. Instead of worldbuilding in great depth and describing the technological possibilities of AI expanded worlds inside worlds, Greene turns inward exploring the interiority of his characters – both human and AI – and their relationships in an only moderately more advanced imagining of our world. If you’re looking for a sci-fi book in which the technology itself is expounded upon so much it might as well be a pseudo character, look for another book (I know this is a bit ironic considering Greene actually does have a character that is AI)… but what I mean is this book is about a handful of characters, their relationships, their feelings, their experiences and their connections. It is not a traditional sci-fi. It reminded me of Harpmen’s I Who Have Never Known Men, as it was much more speculative fiction than anything else.

In a time when more boys are suffering from depression and anxiety and turning to the digital world rather than the real one, the central plot line of this book felt acutely alarming. I found some of the relationships and characters in the book to feel real and believable, like Anna and Alex (mother and son). However, other characters' interiorities, particularly Cathy’s and Aviva’s, felt flat. Also not sure how to feel about such extreme anthropomorphizing of AI – and though the book does cover some of these ethical questions and grey areas through discussion of them in a contrived college seminar setting, I was left unconvinced that the characterization of the AI made much sense.

Overall, it was a book that succeeded in provoking thought about how AI will impact human connection on a much more intimate, smaller scale than other books on the topic. Unworld has a fresh and novel perspective to offer, even if not all its experimental components jive together at times.

There was so much going for this book. It's curious and intellectual about the topic of AI, asking us to think deeply about what makes humans human. Can AI ever become human? Is human affectation truly irreplicable? Can fact-checking "uploads" ever come close to unburdening us of the weight of memory? Though conceptually engaging, the book got lost in its own web of ruminations. I almost wish the plot focused on a single narrative voice, Sam or Aviva perhaps, to buttress us to the novel's most foundational ideas of death, anxiety, connection, and ennui. It would have been more rewarding if we had gotten a chance to see the fullness of either one of their private worlds rather than try to balance the four unequal (and often repetitive) perspectives we got. The ending, as a result, seemed to deflate rather than bloom.