I feel like I can't review this book because after reading it I'm not exactly sure what the heck was going on. In a world where memories can be stored to the collective there are some ethical questions to ponder but as a while so many characters had me scratching my head as to who was who and how they interconnected. I kept waiting for a moment, like in cloud Cuckoo Land (which I loved) for it all to make sense but unfortunately it just never clicked for me.

Go in to this one when you can devote your full attention to it and be fully immersed in the story. Also consider making a character map as you go!

Also, maybe read Goom Squad first. Maybe that's where I went wrong?

This was very creative but was also heavy on the technology. This isn't one you can read in one sitting; I needed multiple sessions to finish. Each chapter seemed to be written by a different author, but it ended up working at the end.

I received an advance copy. All thoughts are my own.

Sometimes when reading a novel, your head is just not in the right place. This happened to me with Jennifer Egan's The Candy House. I was never able to get on Egan's wavelength, and struggled to connect with the characters and the story. I really love Egan's work overall, so I may find myself revisiting it in the future, but for a first go-round it was a challenge.

I had to DNF this. While I appreciate the premise and was really excited about it from the get-go, it just meandered a little too much for me.

I'm not quite as big a fan of this best-selling writer and Candy House didn't change that. It's ok but not something I simply couldn't put down or might even read again.

The Candy House opens with the staggeringly brilliant Bix Bouton, whose company, Mandala, is so successful that he is “one of those tech demi-gods with whom we’re all on a first name basis.” Bix is forty, with four kids, restless, and desperate for a new idea, when he stumbles into a conversation group, mostly Columbia professors, one of whom is experimenting with downloading or “externalizing” memory. Within a decade, Bix’s new technology, “Own Your Unconscious”—which allows you access to every memory you’ve ever had, and to share your memories in exchange for access to the memories of others—has seduced multitudes.

In the world of Egan’s spectacular imagination, there are “counters” who track and exploit desires and there are “eluders,” those who understand the price of taking a bite of the Candy House. Egan introduces these characters in an astonishing array of narrative styles—from omniscient to first person plural to a duet of voices, an epistolary chapter, and a chapter of tweets. Intellectually dazzling, The Candy House is also a moving testament to the tenacity and transcendence of human longing for connection, family, privacy, and love.

Another excellent novel from Jennifer Egan - it's an amazing continuation of the A Visit from the Goon Squad story.

This book was amazing. I coudn't put it down. It was magical. Higly recommended! The characters, the plots, the writting: wonderful and perfect.

Book received for free through NetGalley

Read 45% of the way into this book but kept starting and stopping and ultimately forgot about it. Figured it was better to review as is. It was written well just not my cup of tea.

I am extremely thankful to multiple award-winning author Jennifer Egan, her publisher Scribner, and to NetGalley for providing me an advanced digital copy of Ms. Egan’s follow-up novel to her Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award winning A Visit from the Goon Squad, titled The Candy House. Unfortunately for me, I hadn’t read the first book before reading the follow-up, which I think might have made reading the sequel a bit easier to both understand and follow. Nevertheless, I found the book extraordinarily interesting both in its form and in its concept.

Although it jumps between characters and time periods, from past to present to future, and the characters all bear some relationship to each other, it’s not easy to discern the who’s, what’s, and how’s much of the time. The storytelling is disjointed and takes on various formats, including something akin to a military training manual excerpt. Despite all of this, I liked it. I liked the characters; I enjoyed trying to discern their relationships and how they got from A to B and maybe even to C. Now I have to read A Visit from the Goon Squad to really put the puzzle pieces together!

Jennifer Egan once more exceeds high expectations with her follow-up novel, The Candy House. Meant to be a companion to her renowned A Visit from the Geek Squad, it can also be enjoyed as a standalone. The author provides a unique setting that is an alternate version of 2010, almost identical to the real world, but with some important twists. In her rendering, a technology has been developed that allows users to upload their exact memories, to review and share. Egan employs a variety of scenarios and perspectives to postulate how lives might be affected by the technology, for better or worse. The Candy House asks why people would want to expose themselves and their personal data for public view. As would be expected, such an ability would create controversy and divide those who refuse to share their data. The book follows characters who are acting as representatives from both sides. By placing the plot within an alternate reality that closely mirrors our own, Egan can creatively reflect how quickly technology can drastically change a culture, on a personal to global level. Excellent, challenging and masterfully rendered, The Candy House is a fitting addition to Jennifer Egan’s illustrious body of work.
Thanks to the author, Scribner and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

The Candy House by Jennifer Egan is about technology and how we can use it to store memories in the cloud- a place where if you choose to, you can access the memories of others, the only catch is that you'd have to upload your own memories in exchange.
The book is written in short chapters all from different characters and perspectives but threaded together neatly; whether it's by offering a different angle to a shared experience or how they're connected through work, life or family.
I had read that most of these characters were from a previous novel by the same author that I had not read however this book was a standalone story and readable even if you hadn't read the previous title.
Overall it was an interesting story about people and technology, at times a bit dense but unique.

This is an interesting Black Mirror-esque speculative fiction book. The story is told through many different point of views that all all have slight overlaps to tell the plot. I'll admit I found it difficult to get through some of the chapters, as done of the characters were more interesting than others.

At first I thought that I might not have been smart enough to figure out what was going on in this book. I did choose to stick with it until the end and really got into the book as what seemed like really disconnected stories started to weave more and make sense.

This is one of the most confusing books I've ever read! The POV keeps changing between and sometimes within chapters. What's more, the speaker isn't at all obvious so it may take several pages to figure it out. and then you need to figure out how they relate to the rest of the huge cast! Some parts are in first person and others are in third person.

There is a chapter of all emails and another of all texts. There's one chapter of all field notes of a spot. The time setting changes in each chapter, sometimes going back in time 20 or 50 years out ahead 2 generations. This makes it all sound more interesting than it was. This book was very heavy on character and very light on plot.

It would have been easier to understand with even the name of the speaker/main character per section listed at the start of the chapter. A chart showing relationships between all the cast would have helped a lot.

All that said, I think the method of changing speakers was intended to demonstrate the collective conscious discussed in the book. Also, Egan has an incredible way with words, having the most tangible descriptions and observations!! I really loved that! ❤️

I received an electronic ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

As with A Visit from the Goon Squad, the writing in this novel of interconnected stories is really fabulous. And though I was both moved and gripped equally by many of the threads , I found that I didn’t quite connect so consistently with every character here. Some of these took my breath away, yet others I found cold, keeping me at arms length. And maybe that was the point? The speculative concept of memories and technology combined, was fascinating and unnerving. But despite some reservations, the brilliance of Eagan shines. Challenging, but definitely worth it.

The Candy House premise was incredibly intriguing and since I have heard so many great things about Jennifer Egan, I was very excited to jump into this one!

The Pros:
• The concept of “Own Your Unconsciousness” is wild and fascinating!
• This book is told through a series of narrators who are each experiencing life through vastly different lens, which keeps the book interesting
• Once you knew the premise, you could read a chapter, fully digest it, and return to the book later to begin an entirely new journey
• Fantasy is not my usual genre, but once I accepted concepts along the lines of a ‘multiverse’ and being able to step in-and-out of accessing memories, it challenged my thinking!

My own personal cons:
• Having never read any of Jennifer’s other books I had no knowledge of returning characters or their backstory. Since this story is told from several narrators, I thought maybe more layers of each would be revealed as the story unfolded; however, there was little crossover between stories, so it made backstory from Goon Squad even more valuable to fully understand a character’s POV.
• The story is told almost like a series of snapshots rather than a cohesive plotline.
• The ending is sudden. It makes you think that there may be more to this narrative and perhaps we will see some of these characters again.

I cannot fathom having the advanced imagination needed to create a story like The Candy House! While I did not prepare myself by reading Goon Squad prior nor is fantasy is not my typical genre, I absolutely can appreciate this novel as a great work of fiction.

Thank you NetGalley, Scribner, and Simon & Schuster for this ARC!

While I was excited to read Egan’s latest, I found it became convoluted and dragging towards the late third of the book. I feel the space could’ve been used to tell more of the story but instead became confusing, losing the reader rather than building on the first half (and the prior book)

I liked the premise but hated the characters and writing style. Since I couldn’t finish “A Visit to the Goon Squad” or “Manhattan Beach” either, it is confirmed that this author and I do not mesh. I will not try again. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

I really enjoyed this but also thought there was a lot in here that was probably over my head. Love a good collection of interconnected stories and thought that the tech stuff was super fascinating. Not sure has fully sunk in yet!