This is a smart, powerful novel that explores the intersection of connection and technology and the soullessness/destructive nature of digital marketing through a 30-something Londoner's perspective. There are some astute observations here about being constantly connected to people through technology but disconnected in real life, and the personal and societal issues this causes. There are many echoes of Brave New World present, which I enjoyed.

The two female leads are both distant - I didn't like either of them - but their detachment reflects the questions the book raises. I can't say I loved the experience of reading this; it's not a warm read, and it doesn't attempt to answer any of the questions it raises. With that said, I think it is an important book with a lot to say about modern life among the always connected, well-off, young, urban crowd and the companies that are always monitoring us, and monetizing us, through our devices.

Thank you to NetGalley and FSG for the ARC!

DNFed at 55%.

I went into this book expecting a bisexual love triangle with some interesting conversations on identity and online dating. If these things do happen, they do not happen within the first half.

I found that the book just kinda throws you in with little explanation or world building. I didn't really have a proper grip on what was happening ever and that was a bit difficult for me to get into the book.

I found the tone of this book to be a bit lackluster and things just didn't really grip me in any way. I'm sure this will be a fantastic read for someone else, but I just don't think it's for me.

Thank you so much to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me an advanced copy.

BONDING was fantastic. I devoured it. Mariel Franklin is the real deal.

Thanks to the publisher for the e-galley!

had high hopes for this one as i do with most fiction with a tech theme. i'm not super sure how i feel at the end of this. it's bleak and i guess it's supposed to be.

mary is our main character. i genuinely do not like mary. she's equal parts boring and dense and at the crux of the story she's downright a villain, imo. i think she was poised to be a relatable sad girl, just trying to make it throughout the day living in late-stage capitalism.

anyway, mary starts working for lara, her ex-girlfriend and a person that mary acknowledges in the beginning is a bit of a sociopath. the start-up is called openr and it's a dating app like no other. i'm not really sure that openr established much of a difference between its obvious competitors, but there was some generally interesting conversation here about dating apps and manipulation tactics - fake profiles created to present the possibility of their efficacy to make you buy more swipes, etc.

the real toothsome part of the story is mary's relationship with tom, a chemist working on a drug called eudaxa. to be clear, for those of you who have read brave new world, eudaxa is basically just soma - it creates relaxation and euphoria, but when taken in large doses it creates a loss of inhibitions, sexual and otherwise. this is truly harrowing - girls being dosed beyond their limits so that men can groom them and rape them. and naturally, a company that's invested in profits doesn't care about the negative outcome of their drugs as much as they care about their profits.

i had quite a few problems with this one. at the end of the book, mary seems dense and uncaring about eudaxa's negative side effects... even though... she's seen it in action. it essentially handwaves sexual assault/rape.

another problem this book had was with rampant fatphobia. i feel uncomfortable about a white woman writing a pakistani man as a nerdy, unsexed, and "fat" man that feeds drugs to a girl until they have sex while she's under the influence and there's absolutely no discussion about why that's morally reprehensible. our main character has sex with him after that? like? then, later on in the book, an incel teenager that likes hitler memes is being described as fat. not one fat person in this book isn’t evil.

so idk, it's a no from me, dog.

At first I thought this was going to be an aggressively bisexual love triangle at the intersection of some interesting commentary on tech, relationships and society, so I was excited, but eventually I just found it tedious.

I find people who work in tech tend to have this very spare, unassuming, non-flowery prose which can sometimes sound meaningful without saying a whole lot, which is what this sounded like. It started off with relationships as Mary is let go from another job and vacations in Ibiza, where she meets Tom, and the two form a connection that they rekindle in the UK. Tom works for an experimetal pharma company and Mary works in marketing.

Then Mary's friend Lara, a college lover who abandoned her without much commentary, wants to hire her for her new startup, a dating app, and hounds her until she relents. I thought there was chemistry between Lara and Mary as kids but as adults Lara is cold, unlikable, has unapologetic affairs with married men, and definitely creepy. We are supposed to feel like she is viable love interest but she just came across as predatory.

Tom's firm is working on an anti-depressant that turns out to be an incredible aphrodisiac, and the two companies become intertwined as issues with consent and privacy emerge. What the app is really about is very confusing- it's not dating, it appears to be an event planner for drug-fueled rape parties. I guess there's a broader commentary there but I found it grueling to get through.

It basically felt like sitting in a meeting that could have been in an email where people endlessly rehash their mission statement using all the progressive buzzwords.

Which might be interesting if you work in tech but when everyone's also high it doesn't make a more interesting novel.

So sadly, this was very much not for me, and I felt as if I had lost hours of my life to a boring meeting at a sex dungeon.

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

Mary meets Tom in Ibiza. Tom has invented a new kind of antidepressant. Mary's friend, Lara, is a former rebellious arts student turned girlboss of a 'new and innovative' dating app. I will say that this is a book that doesn't shy away from talking about work, but I'm not sure if it pays off.

The characters dance between positions of feeling very superior to corporate tactics and marketing ploys and buzzwords, but then spend a lot of time taking marketing very seriously.

There's quite a strange tone—it seemed like characters were often commenting on capitalism or marketing or socialization or contemporary sexual relationships in a light, opinion-piece essayistic voice. Especially in Tom's storyline, there were interesting parts of characters' lives and worldviews regarding sex and relationships, but this was all in the backstory!

There's a tic of describing people's appearances as 'like X celebrity,' and a attitude of generalized stupefaction and dread and throwing one's hands in the air about the modern condition. This is punctuated by very brief moments of images or situations that are actually surprising. I found the denoument cartoonish.

A review in the Guardian made me very interested, but BONDING felt very same-same to a lot of "tech satires" that are not quite intense enough to be satirical.

Thanks to Netgalley and FSG for the ebook. After losing her job, Mary takes a trip to Ibiza and meets Tom, a chemist who works for a company about to launch an exciting new antidepressant. Back in London, Mary starts dating Tom and gets hired by an old friend, Lara, to work at her dating app that is looking to disrupt the industry. Both companies intersect at points and both Tom and Lara pull Mary in opposite directions, both with romantic designs for her. A novel that deals with how we live now with thoughtful and extreme characters popping up at all points.

I struggled with this one - it felt meandering and meaningless, and while I didn’t personally mind the shifts between first and third person narration, I think it will come across as jarring to some.