Unfortunately, this one really wasn't for me. The premise was promising (even now, post-Covid), but the execution left a bit to be desired. I felt like the chapters were way too long, unnecessarily so. As a result, the story began to drag and I really had to convince myself to keep going with it to finish. I totally get where Flynn was going with this and what she was trying to accomplish, but sadly, it fell a bit short for me.

I was expecting to adore this book based on the description, but it was difficult to read. It read almost like an overview or rough draft, but I believe it was a very nice idea that simply needed a lot more work. However, I will surely keep a look out for this author's upcoming works.

The Companions by Katie M. Flynn *sounded* so great. It is marketed as a cross between Station Eleven and Never Let Me Go - both books I LOVED. This book fell short of the greatness of those two. I wanted to love it, but I just didn't. Maybe it's not the book for me. I've seen plenty of films and read other books with the whole "uploading older consciousness/souls" into newer models before they die. This just didn't quite do it for me. I found myself bored and never truly got excited about it.

2 stars out of 5

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery/Scout Press for the opportunity to read this in exchange for my honest opinion!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Gallery/Scout Press for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I'm really loving near future sci-fi lately and The Companions was such an interesting read. People can choose to have their consciousness uploaded in the event of their death. They become companions, either staying in their own family (if they're wealthy), or as companions to other families. We follow Lilac who is the companion to a young girl. As the story unfolds we found out what happened to Lilac during her life and how she died.
The story explores who is considered a human and when we begin to lose our rights.

When I saw The Companions by Katie M. Flynn being compared to Station Eleven I knew I had to read it, and now that I have, I am left feeling very unsure about it. I don't really think it matches up to Station Eleven very well besides the fact that these are both dystopian-type novels, and the virus in The Companions sounds suspiciously like Covid. I did enjoy the unique storyline since I haven't read anything quite like this before. The companions themselves did remind me a little bit of a different book I read, but still definitely different and I found the concept super interesting. I really liked Flynn's writing style and think this is a solid debut, but it did tend to get confusing at times.

I listened to the audiobook which is narrated by multiple people - Michael Crouch, Ramón de Ocampo, Hillary Huber, Erin Moon, Rebekkah Ross, Candace Thaxton, Jesse Vilinsky & Emily Woo Zeller. I loved the audio and all of the different narrators and thought it was done really well. I also don't think any of my confusion came from the audiobook, but the writing itself. I thought it started out really strong, but by the time I got to the end, I was a little lost and wondering what the ultimate point of the story was. If you like science fiction and speculative fiction, I would still recommend checking out The Companions though. If Flynn does put out a sophomore novel, and I hope she does, I will definitely be reading it.

I received a complimentary digital copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Perhaps reading this before a pandemic, I would have gotten more enjoyment out of it. Sadly, I felt that it was slow and didn't have a well thought out plot.

I am disappointed with this book. I was expecting one thing and received another. It had potential but it was not well written.

This is a great book for people that want to read a lesser-known speculative fiction story that takes place after a quarantine period and involves a pandemic. However, I have to say the idea is better than the execution itself. It started strong —interesting, gripping and well-constructed—, but I lost interest from before the second third of the through until the end. Unfortunately, I had to push though to finish it and became indifferent towards the plot and the characters.
Nonetheless, I am looking forward to reading whatever Katie M. Flynn writes next, because her style and themes have many characteristics that speak to me.

I want to thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for giving me the opportunity to review this book. I admit in my joy at joining NetGalley I may have been overzealous in my requesting numbers. As this book has already been published, I am choosing to work on the current upcoming publish date books in my que. As I complete those I will work on my backlogged request and will provide a review at that time. I again send my sincere thanks and apologies.

I started this one a couple different times after I it’s received it. Other things kept pulling my attention. Then I was looking though The Hollywood Reporter’s “8 Pandemic-Themed Books to Read Amid Coronavirus” from a link in an email and I recognized the title. I thought “what the heck? I’m home. I’m not allowed to go anywhere or see anyone. I already have this book. Let’s give it a shot.” Quarantine. Interacting through screens. Humanity and AI. Once I got into it, this book proved to be a swift read and made me think. Would it have hit home if I wasn’t in a quarantine of my own? Probably not as much. I think recent human event and historical events have changed my relationship with dystopian fiction. This one is well worth a read ... maybe even a second read!

This was an interesting story concept that perhaps was not well executed, This story was a good idea but unfortunately could have used more cohesion and character development/consistency . There was a lot of potential, as well as thoughts and decisions, that were left unexplored that unfortunately caused this great idea to fall flat.

A book about a pandemic, during a pandemic could be a good idea, but for me I didn't enjoy it as I was unable to escape the reality of the world!

For a debut novel this was enjoyable, however I think the voice could be improved in the future

Imagine my surprise when I picked up Katie M. Flynn's debut novel The Companions, published in March 2020, and discovered that it examines a pandemic-stricken world where people have been in quarantine for years. Talk about a timely story! I sure do hope that our pandemic situation turns out better than the one in The Companions, however. Confined to their homes throughout the never-ending plague, people have turned to robots to combat their loneliness. But these aren't your average robot - no, in Flynn's future America, dying people can have their conscience uploaded and inserted into a robot so that they may go on "living forever" in perpetuity. If you think this sounds like a situation that could quickly turn bad, you're right.

The Companions is a series of inter-connected vignettes, following a rag tag group of people and robots just trying to get by in this new, confusing world. Every character has a part to play in this narrative, and their lives intersect at various points throughout the story. The narrative starts with Lilac, a low-rent companion to a quarantined high schooler who would do anything to actually see and experience the outside world. Murdered as a teenager, Lilac decides to go rogue and avenge her killer. This series of events puts her in the path of a wide variety of characters who all play a role in this companion-crazed world.

The Companions is a mixed bag with both good and bad aspects. The world that Flynn has created is intriguing and oftentimes disturbing when you consider the core components. However, her execution is weak and confusing - she introduces far too many characters and switches the narrative voice often, making it difficult to follow along. Additionally, this book really has no plot. Rather, it serves more as an examination of a world where the medical community has taken matters of life and death into their own hands. The Companions is certainly interesting, but is lacking in the fibers that make for a truly compelling narrative.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I was excited to read this book when I first saw it before the pandemic was really a thing. It sat on my shelf for months before I read it. When I did, the most interesting thing about it turned out to be how eerily similar the current pandemic is to what's described as having happened in the book.

The book description claims to follow Lilac's journey, but Lilac only appears heavily in the first chapter or so. After that, her appearance is sporadic and mostly through the eyes of other characters. The "chain reaction" her realization sets off is rather lackluster and boring with no real explanation behind the actions people are taking.

Frankly, each chapter felt like its own short story - and even then, I often felt as if I watching a movie that I came into late and then left early. No introductions and no conclusions.

The characters did not feel like distinct characters to me. Names could have been swapped at the tops of each chapter and I wouldn't have thought anything of it.

This book felt very haphazard, with lots of missing information and pieces. Lilac died as a teen but when she confronts her killer, the killer is much older than expected. So how long ago did Lilac die? How long was she "on ice" somewhere before being loaded into a companion body? Or how many years did this virus and quarantine happen after Lilac's death? The only timeline being offered is "4 months after quarantine" or "10 years after recall" with no other information to orient us in time.

This book description promised a lot. And I think the premise has that promise. It just needed more work to live up to the promise.

DNF. Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for this early copy! I decided to not keep reading this one, it was not for me. Thanks!

Strange reading for Covid times, and certainly inspired conversations in my household about how times would change with access to androids and personalised technology.

I can't believe this book was published in March 2020. But while The Companions does have a pandemic in its background, and it is structured around quarantine, the story is much more focused on the titular companions: a sort-of AI living occupying various generations of bodies, beginning with clunky robots (I pictured a sleeker version of Rosie from The Jetsons) to almost indistinguishable humanoid bodies.

And I say "sort-of AI" because they aren't quite "just AI." Instead, people can have their consciousness, their memories, uploaded and then turned into these companions. This quote summed it up nicely, I thought: "They upload our dead and lease them back to us."

And that's where the intersecting stories of Lilac, Gabe, Cam, Diana, Nat, and others all come together. They weave in and out of each other's lives: some companions, some humans, and some wind up being a bit of both. The Companions is about where we belong, and who we belong with - those we choose to be with, those we're forced to be with, and those we sort of wind up with. It is about relationships formed through friendship and love that extend beyond death. And it is about how memory, in turn, defines us, haunts us, and can inform our futures.

In her debut novel, The Companions (Gallery/Scout Press, 2020), Katie M. Flynn weaves a complex history that feels familiar yet refreshingly unpredictable. The Companions propels readers head-first into a not-so-distant, science fiction future in which technology has transformed the process of death: rather than escaping the world’s quarantines and deadly viruses, those who die become “companions” for the living. As a companion, the dead person’s consciousness is uploaded into an artificial body that can range from primitively robotic to impressively humanlike, and they begin their new life—if it can really be called that. The Companions is set to be released March 3, 2020.

The novel follows the main character, a companion named Lilac, who initially lives with and looks after Dahlia, a young girl who pursues her education while quarantined in her San Francisco home due to the deadly virus that ravages California. Unlike more fortunate companions who belong to richer families, Lilac is a lower, less advanced model who resembles a robot with her square head, wheel track, and joints where strands of Dahlia’s golden hair often become stuck. Even so, Lilac’s relationship with Dahlia is very much human.

While Lilac merely serves as Dahlia’s companion and is despised by her mother, Lilac genuinely cares for Dahlia. She constantly aims to make Dahlia laugh and amuse her with stories from the past, as if to distract the young girl from the horrors that now plague her world.

Although this system may bring to mind Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go upon first glance, Flynn’s take on futuristic companionship has added complexities as technology progresses and the differences between humans and companions dwindle. Flynn encourages the reader to look past Lilac’s initial clunky, contraction-less speech and affirmations of her technological limitations as a less advanced model. As we learn of her inability to escape her jarringly real past and of the extent of her whole-hearted devotion to Dahlia, who Lilac later addresses as her sister, it becomes difficult not to register Lilac as a human character.

The Companions moves quickly and transports readers between different narrators, from California to Russia, and across time within the turn of a page. Even with the novel’s focus on Lilac, The Companions shares its 272 pages with a total of eight narrators, including the wild, rebellious nine-year-old Gabe and well-intentioned caretaker Cam, among others. With such a large pool of both companion and human characters to work with, Flynn’s clear and authentic prose adapts to her narrators’ distinct voices as they recount either their experiences as companions or their experiences with one. In addition, the novel is told in three parts, beginning with two years after the introduction of California’s quarantine before transitioning into the quarantine’s end and finally finishing with the recall of all companions.

While at times disorienting, the novel’s organization simulates the reincarnation of companions as we receive a glimpse of the world through the eyes of a different narrator with each new chapter, waking up in different places and at different points in time.

Through the diverse narratives showcased in The Companions, Flynn comments honestly on the often destructive power that technology has over life, death, and humanity. She asserts that in the face of this growing power, freedom tends to wither away but continues to be something that everyone deserves, regardless of their identities. As the novel progresses, the characteristics that set companions apart from humans dwindle, and Flynn urges the reader to carefully consider what it means to be human and what it means to be alive.

With her accessible and dynamic prose that seamlessly molds to embody each of her narrators, Flynn effectively encourages sympathy for all of her characters, leaving the reader both in awe and horror at the history she writes—the history that feels more emotional than artificial, more lifelike than fiction. At the same time, Flynn seems to offer a warning to her readers and does not shy away from the dangers of achieving immortality through AI.

All in all, The Companions is more than the typical dose of dystopian sci-fi. It is a commentary on the power of technology and showcases the spectrum of experiences that comprise life. Through this novel, Flynn inspires readers to reflect on how we all experience love and loss in their complicated, messy, and beautiful forms, regardless of how different we may be told we are.

Published by Gallery/Scout Press on March 3, 2020

The Companions would have benefitted from a more purposeful plot. The story recycles themes that are common in science fiction — storage of human memory in an artificial body, the exploitation of artificial constructs that have a connection to humanity, the faint line that separates what is human and what is machine — yet the exploration of those themes serves an unclear end. While characters occasionally have moral reservations about their conduct, the story never brings into focus the message, if any, that Katie Flynn wants to convey.

Companions are cheap robots that have been programmed with memories uploaded from people who are about to die. They are available for lease, not for ownership. They are said to have consciousness but no soul. Companions are useful for people who are quarantined or living in eldercare facilities. Plenty of people need them because of a virus that continues to do its deadly business. The quarantine is in the background so if you are looking for a story that provides insight into the world’s present plight, this isn’t it.

The story begins with a girl named Dahlia and her companion Lilac. Lilac retains the memory of her death as a teenager at the hands of another teen. She knows her friend Nikki was present when she died but doesn’t know what became of her. Her consciousness was uploaded shortly before her death. It then became the property of Metis, the company that manufactures companions. Flynn largely ignores the legal and ethical questions that surround private ownership of another person’s consciousness, except to suggest the obvious, that it might be a bad thing to own the equivalent of another person’s living brain.

Dahlia and her mother live in San Francisco. Dahlia’s mother resents paying for Lilac, despite purchasing a first-generation unit with an inexpensive processor that does not allow Lilac’s mind to mature. As Dahlia begins to outgrow her need for Lilac, and as it seems clear that Lilac will be recycled, Lilac lets loose the rage that she has kept contained.

From that opening chapter, the novel covers a period of years. For the most part, each chapter is told from the perspective of a different character. Novels that change narrators in each chapter must find a way to build a connection between the reader and at least some of the narrators. Flynn never made me care about any of them. Part of the problem is that few of the narrators felt like a unique individual. With the exception of Gabe, whose uneducated dialect is exaggerated, the characters speak in the same narrative voice. If the chapter headings did not announce the narrator, it would be difficult to understand whose voice the reader is hearing.

In any event, a damaged Lilac visits the person she believes to have killed her human body. She thereafter goes through various incarnations, hooks up with other renegade companions, and deals with an evolving world that eventually decides companions should be recalled and scrapped. A pivotal chapter in the novel’s middle tells of a woman approaching death whose plan to upload her consciousness to a companion is interrupted by an attempt to hijack the companion so that another consciousness will have a body. A later chapter introduces a farmer who takes on the recycling of defective companions as a side job and the daughter who eventually carries on that business. Those chapters also introduce a disturbed child named Andy who seems to prefer the company of companions, if only to have control over a consciousness other than his own.

Because it jumps from character to character, the story has a disjointed feel. Investing in or sympathizing with any character is difficult. That’s a drawback in a novel that is probably intended to make readers feel something for the plight of companions. Lilac turns out to be a disagreeable consciousness; her eventual reinterpretation of her own death made me shrug. A good deal of care went into the construction of a plot that is intermittently interesting, but if Flynn had a purpose in mind when telling this story, it eluded me.

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