Beautifully written, and ta very surprising story. Not what I expected, but in a really wonderful way.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me read and review.

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

Not a bad storyline and the writing was ok. The writing is very descriptive and at times it got tedious and hard to keep going but it is a nice story and worth the read.

This book was so original; the writing was stunning, would recommend for fans of Kazuo Ishiguro. Kept me captivated right until the end.

What I thought would be a lengthy, dense, science fiction read revolving around leaving earth and moving to 'space', actually turned out to be a much lighter, slightly strange and philosophical read.
The book touches on many aspects of modern life that I could relate to immensely - social media, tech overload, constant connectivity, but with a gentle touch.

Personally, I loved the 'hang in the air' ending but I can completely see why it may not sit well with others.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

A somewhat uneven book that I'm not sure what the final message was (maybe appreciate what you have but also be careful what you wish for?). The best writing was centered on Iris's flashbacks to life on earth which were rendered fully and thoroughly. The scenes on Nyx seemed much too flat and underexplored to really give an impression of any growth or development. Perhaps that was the point but it meant that they dragged badly at times and the overall tone of the book suffered. Interesting literary conceit, not sure it worked for me.

This was an intriguing concept but I was hoping for so much more. It raises questions about Depression and the society we're living in. Is the grass really greener on the other side? The answer will be obvious from the start, but it felt like a mystery was set up that never really paid off.

Unfortunately I couldn't read this book due to the Kindle formatting. However what I need read sounded amazing so I am on a waitlist at my local library to take it out and finish it!

A unique concept and one I really looked forward to reading. I connected most with Iris' time on Earth and wished I had more time to see how her relationships with family and friends could have developed but it suited the character and worked well to not have this. I appreciated the view of how jaded Iris was with modern life and the quirks many of us have adopted without realising. The author used some great phrases to observe these and I liked their writing style at these points.

The flatter tone of the novel when on Nyx is intentional but I still enjoyed reading this part, though some might have hoped for more action at this point. The ending was the only part I was a bit unsatisfied with and I would have enjoyed a less open ending.

Overall, enjoyable and I look forward to seeing the author's next novel.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this book in return for my unbiased opinion.

What if you were not very happy, fulfilled or engaged with your life on earth? What if you were offered the chance to start again, irreversibly, on a new world, to reinvent yourself? What if there were conditions attached, that you would be filmed, constantly, for a TV show you would never see, Big Brother style?

This story describes, beautifully the sadness of a life lived in London, the seizing of an opportunity, and follows the consequences. Replicating showing not telling, implying the life on Nyx.

What if the people on Earth lost interest? What then?

Life On Nyx is a programme that allows 100 lucky people to escape and go to a new planet, to live a new way of life. To miss out on all the modern bits of technology that take over. If you go, you can never go back. This does not phase Iris, the main character who is intrigued to leave it all behind and applies for it. We meet Iris, who is working a stable job, with slow progression, but is it enough. We quickly learn of a torrid past for Iris, how past relationships and emotions have troubled her life.

The book is divided into a before and after, the book not hiding her inevitable success onto the programme. There is no hiding the fact that the book strongest points come on earth. The reality and sourness of life, are exemplified perfectly. No more so than when she in work, giving and having appraisals, the mundane nature of it all. The reasons for her going, what is and isn’t enough to keep her, why she would want to leave it all behind.

On The Nyx, its flatness is perhaps deliberate but no event, no matter how dramatic ever came close to the emotion felt on earth. The book became duller the more time on Nyx and less on earth spent. The typical issues, of what’s the point and finding the reason for it all were explored but in the end failed to deliver once Iris left earth.

Beautifully written literary fiction

‘A beautiful new planet.
A meaningful new life.
Are you ready?
ENTER’


Life on Nyx, a reality TV show set on a distant planet, is accepting new members. There will be a complicated admission process and interviews for the most suitable candidates. Iris, feeling depressed, feels it’s exactly what she needs: to live on a pink planet with strangers from all walks of life. More than that, she is seeking an escape. Life on Nyx will mean no communication to home. Your family will see you on TV, should they wish, but you will never see them again.’

‘Above all, we’re looking for dreamers: people with vision, people who don’t want an ordinary life.’


Would you sign up? Be tempted to contribute to the making of history? Join a community with people all seeking the same thing: a fresh start?

I found this book gripping immediately. The central premise of a new planet was exciting enough but slowly beginning to learn the character of Iris’ motivations to sign up was incredibly intriguing. For such a short book, it was startling and yet, brilliant, to see how the character of Iris morphed and changed. This was especially remarkable because Luiza Sauma flits between the ‘before’ and the ‘present’.

The ending wasn’t conclusive, but left open to interpretation in perhaps the most powerful moment. Normally I would get behind this, but with Everything You Ever Wanted, it felt incomplete. The characters had raised interesting questions- was this all just an experiment? Were they still on Earth? Was there a way home? So, ending when and as it did, didn't do justice to the mystery and the build-up of suspense. Ultimately, the book felt like a passive experience and once I realised there was no time for the answers I wanted, I felt incredibly disengaged.

I received this book through Netgalley for review consideration. All opinions are honest and completely my own.

This is a good read. I enjoyed reading certainly interesting.
Thank you to both NetGalley and Penguin Books UK for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest unbiased review

You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.
Twenty-eight year old Iris is miserably unhappy with her very normal London life and her barely-tolerable on-off relationship. Disconnected from her family, getting drunk, having sex, living her life on social media, detached from anything solid or real and seeing no future. It’s a life I’ve read about a dozen times. It’s all very normal.
Except that Iris sees her dead father everywhere. She finds herself in places and doesn’t know how she got there. She takes drugs she buys on the internet. She appears to be on the edge of a breakdown, or even madness.
Iris wants to break away, find a new life. She wants so much more. So when she hears about Life on Nyx, the ultimate in reality TV, a Big Brotheresque show in which the ‘contestants’ are a group of humans, sent through a wormhole to the distant planet Nyx, to be observed by an online audience back on Earth, Iris makes the decision to apply.
The planet Nyx is a place of pink sand and eternal sunlight, with an apparently unbreathable atmosphere, a place where all human life must be lived in an artificial biosphere, which begs the question, why send humans there at all? No one appears to be engaged in any sort of research. The wormhole only works one way; it allows occasional communication with Earth, but once the person has passed through, they may never return.
Much of this story is extraordinarily absorbing. I wasn’t particularly interested in Iris’s everyday London life, her drinking and depression - a state she calls ‘The Smog’. She seemed a very shallow, self-absorbed, not especially compelling personally. The minutiae of her job, her sex and family life, were of little interest to me. The story becomes much more engaging once she makes the decision to throw everything away and try for Nyx.
Alas, once there, little changes for her. Iris’s story slowly turns into a prison tale, a goldfish existence, as Iris tries to cope with her grief, and regret, and the day to day hardships of the life she has chosen.
Why did she want to go? Life on another planet is a reasonable choice for a scientist, or an adventurer. It appears to make no sense at all for a personality like Iris. Her only incentives seem to be boredom and a quest for some sort of fame. These are strange motivations, and speak of a very deep desperation indeed.
And there is something deeply troubling about the state of Nyx. A series of mysteries become clues that the project is failing. New recruits and needed supplies fail to arrive. Who are the controllers? Who is watching the people of Nyx?
People begin to disappear - what is happening to them? I began to wonder if Nyx was real, or was it all in Iris’s head. Iris attempted suicide when she was sixteen, was her life on Nyx connected to this?
The mystery had me gripped. On Nyx the story really picked up. What had been a so-so tale for me gained traction. It had me riveted. The deeper motivations of the Nyxians, the point and purpose of the whole experiment seemed about to be laid bare. Was it really a kind of Lord of the Flies experiment to see what would happen in an alcohol-free, internet-less society, when the food and drugs run out? Were they really on another planet? Who are the shadowy controllers? Secrets were surely begging to be told.
And then…
Nothing.
I have a visceral loathing of overly-mysterious, ‘you decide’ endings that are not endings, merely full-stops. It was extraordinarily frustrating and disappointing, and the failure to bring the thing to a satisfying ending made the whole Nyxian project ultimately pointless. These chapters could have been amazing, but the world building here is not great and without a meaningful conclusion, it all seemed suddenly rather dull and boring. It felt like a hugely wasted opportunity.
I dithered mightily about my rating for this book. I’ve given it 3 stars, but two and a half is more accurate. Iris’s London life will surely be of more interest to other twenty-somethings living that life, but I, thank God, am not one of them. It meant nothing to me. The Nyx chapters were far more interesting, hinting at secrets and lies. These were the best of the book, keeping me awake, turning pages well into the night. The fact that nothing ultimately came of all the author’s teasing was a massive let-down.

This seemed like a very cool book and I enjoyed what I could read of it. Unfortunately the Kindle file suffered from formatting that made it impossible to read. I persevered as long as I could but had to give up. I put in a technical query but didn't receive a response. From wgat I could tell it seems like a really well written book and the concept was interesting.

I was unable to finish this due to formatting difficulties, however what I did read was engaging and fascinating, I will be picking it up in paperback!

Everything You Ever Wanted is about going to live on another planet, but there’s nothing sci-fi about it. Iris is stuck in the rut of her monotonous, unfulfilling life, hating her job, passing evenings at the pub with her colleagues, navigating a tense relationship with her mother and passing through unsatisfying relationships. She is full of frustration and ennui for the way her world is, the social media scrolling and the meaningless buzzwords in meetings. It’s so relatable and real, and Sauma takes time to immerse you in this world with her. So when Iris applies to become one of the 100 people chosen to go and live on Nyx, a newly discovered planet accessible only by a wormhole deep in the ocean, her decision seems understandable. The idea of starting afresh somewhere new, somewhere without Instagram and a constant news feed, without politics and global warming and any reminders of your own past – it captures Iris. But there is a catch. The wormhole only works one way. Once Iris reaches Nyx, she can never return. The part of the novel set on Nyx is well imagined and powerful, and echoes the earlier part of the story by focussing on the everyday elements of Iris’s life. It’s thought provoking and occasionally wryly funny, and very well told.

Sauma has framed the novel as a millennial tale, defined by social media and hashtags, cynical references to veganism, yoga, and other trends. She has presented a sci-fi premise that is at once reminiscent of Bioshock or Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter’s The Long Earth but also wholly and refreshingly original, to the point of feeling energetic even in the face of depression and palpable existential dread. Speaking of which, there’s its finest glory: existing as an angry mockery of the state of modern life; our fear of fixing our world, our burnout, our lack of drive and purpose. And, at the height of its cynicism, it doesn’t offer a solution. That’s cold, but fair.

This was an interesting concept, but unfortunately the writing made me lose interest quite quickly. It's very literary and descriptive, which draws back the ideas to make way for more philosophical thoughts. I just found it to be okay- I'm sure it is a book that some will enjoy and others might not have quite a positive reaction to.