WHEN I TELL YALL, I SCREAMED... I'm not kidding. I am so thankful to Rebekah Bergman, Netgalley, Tin House Books, and PRH Audio for granting me advanced digital and audio access to this dystopian scientific nightmare of a read, before it publishes on August 1, 2023.

This is a book where all the characters are connected before they know the significance and how deeply it impacts the nature of their loved ones.

8-year-old Maeve accidentally drowns one summer, is revived, and then falls into a decades-long state of sleep, not aging in the process. Her mother was a scientist for an experimental aging company who sought to cure "aging" and stop it in its tracks, after discovering the harmful and damaging environmental aftermath, she took her own life (or did she?) Hundreds of the wealthy elite are looking to sign up for this anti-aging injection/process, but many are suffering the same consequence as Maeve, and there are definitely evil intentions at play here.

Can each involved member unveil whats causes these comatose victims, or will the serum continue to collect more souls?

I love interweaving characters and storylines, but it became a bit overwhelming to keep track. Philosophical books with deeper meanings will always suck me in, they are among my favourites, and even though it took a while to be taken by this one, I appreciate what the author was doing with the message. The cover is absolutely gorgeous and I enjoyed the writing. I would recommend this to people who like to pick apart meanings of stories and books that make you think.

Rebekah Bergman has set herself a high bar by titling her debut novel, “The Museum of Human History”. But, as they say in the world of athletics: “You can’t score if you don’t shoot.”

Our species has many unique obsessions. One category of preoccupation that sits atop the list is “eternality” - the quest for youth, longevity, and endless happiness (with the inverse aversion to aging and pain, and the inevitability of death).

Bergman takes this all on in “The Museum of Human History”. She fearlessly addresses the intersection of media, celebrity, biotech gazillionaires, predatory pharmaceutical companies, and manipulative advertising in an especially thought provoking and disquieting way.

What clinched the deal for me is Bergman’s style and voice. “The Museum of Human History” is a page turner, but you best be careful because the pages you turn can jump from ancient times to a generation back to a minute ago and then back. You are forced to think, problem-solve, and wonder. Is it all equally plausible? Maybe not, but it is an especially engaging journey, well worth the read

Thanks to Tin House Books and NetGalley for the eARC.

This was a beautiful book but it felt like a fever dream. The writing was gorgeous and some lines I will always remember, but I struggled with the storyline and the plot. I think the way the characters are all connected is brilliant; however, I kept expecting something else to happen.

This has a slow start and may lose some readers as a result. It is a creative approach to story telling, and the result is good overall, but it didn't always work. Kudos to the author for an interesting story told in a unique way.

Thanks very much for the free copy for review!!

I believe this book should be under the Art genre. Gorgeous stories, delicate prose, flowing monotone atmosphere…yup, this was more Art than fiction. I wanted to be told this story. What a spectacular cover! This was a delight to get from NetGalley. I wanted to fall in love with this, but it did fall short. I was looking for the meat and potatoes of the book right away or at least hopefully somewhere in the first fifty pages and it kept serving delicious appetizers and then I realized I was already full from the melting pot of background and events. By page 104, I was still wondering what is going on and waiting to be sucked in. Characters weaving in and out, only to show up later, except it was too much later and I’d already forgotten about them, so maybe they weren’t that memorable?

I can’t stress this enough, I loved everything about what the author was doing here. What an incredible idea, and I think one idea led to another, and I think there became a job of sorting through the stories. (Maybe the ideas piled on too freely and then it was a lot of work for the writer to shave down the ideas into what would fit together) To tackle this was very brave. It’s the author’s job to do that, I really felt like I was working too hard to try to follow these story lines and keep them straight. Entertain me, Fire up my emotions, good or bad. But don't make me work too hard.

The cover is absolutely beautiful, props for that. I do feel like this is a book I will pick up again at some point and see if there was something I missed. I liked the characters, but I wasn’t allowed the time to become invested in them or really love or hate them, before they were replaced by others. I get it, though. I get what was going on. It felt very sad and dull, mostly. It wasn’t for me, or rather, wasn’t for me right at this moment in time.

It is well written and an interesting concept, but I prefer books with a single POV and this had me a bot confused, and a lack of emotional pull early on made me consider ditching it a couple of times. Some people will love it though.

I really wanted to like this book but unfortunately felt very flat to me. It jumps from one POV to another constantly, some of them irrelevant in my opinion. It was rather confusing. I feel very sad that this book felt long and made me consider abandoning it several times. Nevertheless, I don't think it was a bad book, it probably just wasn't for me.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

An interesting, unique take on a storyline for sure. Kept me turning the pages...the second half of the story does pick up, so don't go e up if the first part seems a bit slow.
A new author for me. Will look forward to more.

I have featured this book on my Booktube channel. The video can be accessed here: https://youtu.be/pfWtcM9airs

this was a beautifully done concept, I was hooked from the first page and was invested in what was going on. I really felt for the characters and thought they were realistic for the story. Rebekah Bergman does a great job in keeping you invested and it was written perfectly. I can't wait for more from the author.

In an unspecified, near future, a young girl sleeps for years, a woman chooses to die of cancer, and a biotech company releases a new miracle drug.

I imagine this book will be weighing on my mind for a long time. The intricacies of Bergman's characters and their connections to each other leave a lasting impression, and the recurring images have stuck in my mind. I imagine looking at a whale or a red rock will always remind me of this book.

With all of that in mind, though, I did only give this book 4 out of 5 stars. For me, the issue lies in that for the first third of the book, I didn't love it. If I didn't have an obligation to finish it, I likely would have put it down. There were some quirks in the way that the story was being told that I found off-putting, and it wasn't until the halfway mark that I understood why those choices were being made. I certainly don't feel that books have to be 'easy' in order to be good, but with this one, I didn't feel that the plot and the characters were enough to keep me going despite the issues I had with the text. About a third of the way through, when it all clicked, I did feel that it was worth it. But the difficulty in the beginning is a flaw.

I likely would recommend this book to others, but with the caveat that you have to push through until it all starts to make sense. Once it does, the story is gorgeous and profound. I just worry that people won't be willing to stick around that long.