I was really intrigued by the premise of this book , but I found the back-and-forth , the time swapping chapters , and while some of the characters were very interesting, others were not easy to relate to at all.

I got about 40% finished , and then gave up because I just wasn't interested enough to keep trying to slog through it . Maybe this book just wasn't for me . I think the author has great promise and will try another of their books some other time

Thank you to NetGalley for a Kindle ARC of The Companions.

I'm not an avid reader of sci-fi dystopian but I was excited when my request was approved.

The premise is a strong but familiar one; after a virus has decimated most of the population, survivors are sequestered in their homes. The wealthy have one reprieve, the ability to upload their consciousness before death into a 'companion.' The rest are not so lucky.

Readers are introduced to Lilac, a rare companion because she is a First Gen model, which means she's not like all the others. She has a purpose. To find her murderer.

Now that pulled me in right away: a sci-fi mystery with an unusual protagonist set in a post-apocalyptic environment?

Count me in!

The chapters started off strong, but something got lost along the way.

First, there was a lack of world building.

How did this virus affect the population? Where did it start?

Who is Metis, this multinational corporation that owns the 'companions?'

What kind of hate and fear does a companion engender when meeting humans?

Can a companion and human fall in love?

Second, there are one too many characters, which is a tricky endeavor, regardless of genre.

I think the author wanted to offer a range of POVs that all have a stake in the business of the companions but this was hard to sustain because I never felt connected to anyone and I forgot who was who and what their purpose of the story was.

Third, years pass and tumultuous events happen off page so when they are referred to by a character, the emotional impact is lost and readers lack exposition and understanding as to why a particular character is acting this way or headed to a certain destination.

There was so much potential with this premise; the world building, the character development, the mystery behind Lilac's death, the bond between companions and humans, the fear and hate some humans would have for these for the companions and the existential questions they would pose: does a companion have a soul?

The writing is good, but the lack of a cohesive narrative and strong characters made The Companions a disjointed and confusing read.

I read 1/3 of this and then couldn't convince myself to keep reading. It was too confusing to keep what seemed like several different short stories in mind.

This book started great, but went downhill fast for me. I was intrigued by the premise and the first few chapters of low Lilac, a former human teenager now with her conciousness trapped in a machine designed to serve a family, who finds out she can defy orders and run away. The book continued revealing a bit of what life was like for her as a human vs. as a machine and soon we were joined by other characters, some humans and some machines.

The book really went off the rails when it looped in so many different stories and characters. Details were given on things that didn't seem relevant till much later when readers might have forgotten about or no longer cared about them. The author teased things but didn't follow through. For example, she mentioned several times that the humans and machines could be intimate with one another, but didn't really put in scenes with that, if you're going to mention it over and over again, have the scenes already.

I found myself skimming a lot. I just stopped caring about which characters met up, which conciousnesses were put in their third, fourth, etc. body and even the mystery of how the original character was betrayed which lead to her death was no longer appealing. The ending was a let down and felt like it was missing a few pages.

This was almost a DNF for me, 2 stars as it had some of my attention, if I could give 1.5 instead I would.

Maybe this book is not meant for me. I got so hyped up regarding the description of this one but I am hugely disappointed.

The first chapter started out good but yes, the chapters are so terribly long and it feels like the read was just dragging on and on. New character introduction and the various events described are somewhat too mundane considering it's a sci-fi dystopian kind of read. Considering the main theme tackled that is regarding quarantine, I couldn't see much relevance regarding it in the plot build up. The characters are too mundane for such kind of read. And the plot gets really weak. The characters seemed so bored and uninterested. I lost interest in the book totally at around 44 per cent.
The last few chapters are really slow and the ending was no surprise.

Sadly, this one is not for me.

Thank you #NetGalley for the book #TheCompanions in exchange of an honest review.

In this weirdly fantastic view of a bleak and frighting future, death is the least of your worries. Californians are under quarantine, forbidden to leave their homes and high rise apartments. But the dead are free to roam, not as zombies, but something even more dreadful. The wealthy are having their consciousness uploaded before they die, so they can stay with their families. The rest of the population isn’t so lucky, their personalities, their very essence, transferred into mechanized bodies that become the property of the Metis Corporation. They become virtual slaves, forced to do whatever their new “owners” want, until one teenage girl discovers she still has the will to fight and resist. While Lilac goes on the hunt for the woman who murdered her, other “companions” also throw off their bonds of servitude, looking for revenge and a second chance at “life”. If you aren’t scared by the thought of AI, you will be after reading this wickedly clever novel