With the rise of AI in today's society and conversations, this novel could not have come at a better time.

In "Hum", author Helen Phillips has created a word in the not-so-distant future with technology has taken over an even greater proportion of our daily lives, where facial identification and fingerprint technology are the norms of ID, where "hum" AI machines serve key functions in day-to-day life as well as non-stop advertising platforms, and whereas adults may be glued to their cell phones an extension of themselves, children are raised with "bunnies" attached at their wrists that serve nearly identical functions. It is a jarring and troubling world that is concurrently dealing with the effects of worldwide pollution and climate change, but also startling resembles much of our current time.

The story centers on May, who's been recently fired from her previous employer and struggles to make ends meet with her husband Jem, and their to children Sy and Lu. In an attempt to earn some money, she willingly signs up for an experimental procedure that alters her facial appearance to the point that she is no longer recognizable to the hum machines that run much of daily life. While Jem attempts to take on more freelance work on a Taskrabbit-esque app (putting down mousetraps? cleaning out a deceased individual's closet), May is determined to use some of her earnings on a family trip to the Botanical Gardens, and having her family members leave their technological dependencies (bunnies and cell phones) at home. Her decision ultimately has unintended consequences, however, highlighting just how pervasive and inextricable our daily lives have become from the technologies that we've created.

While relatively short, the novel is dark and troubling, and there's an extensive amount of world building done within just a few chapters. I found Phillips' detail and structure to this new world well done; concepts were introduced over time and presented in digestible, understandable portions. And though there's certainly a focus on the omnipresence of technology and AI, the novel also calls out the pitfalls of parenthood and motherhood, and the all-encompassing desire for parents to want the best for their children - sometimes at the expense of the greater good. I wish there was a little more time that had been focused on the actual characters themselves, as I felt like we didn't really get to know May, Jem, or their children very well (and honestly, sometimes I got annoyed with Lu and Sy) and there wasn't much overall character development.

Excited to hear what readers think when this novel is published in August 2024!

Loved this dystopian look at the intersection of parenting, tech and surveillance culture. It was a riveting read!

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the opportunity to read Hum by Helen Phillips.

Hum is a quick moving story that takes place in the not so distant future. We follow the protagonist, May Webb, and her family as May undergoes a major sacrifice in order to provide some much needed financial and emotional bandwidth for her family. The writing is crisp, the emotions are real, and the nuance of reality vs. perception is even more highlighted than in our already social media saturated world.

If you are a fan of Sci-Fi shows like Fringe or Dark Mirror, give this one a try!

Thank you to Net Galley and Marysue Rucci/Simon and Schuster for the chance to read this advance digital copy in exchange for this honest review.

What an intriguing, fast paced story. I mostly loved it. The writing is easy to follow, and the short, short chapters keep it snappy. Although, these same short chapters add a lot of white space which makes the book seem longer than it actually is--if that makes sense!

I felt vested in the main character, May Webb, until about midway, then her rather neurotic behavior got tiresome. She didn't evolve or devolve in an arc that I found satisfying. So I ended up not caring much about what she was experiencing. For a while, I thought this was the intent and, small spoiler, that the book was going to take a cool, dark turn where we actually start wanting the hums to take over. In the last 1/8th or so, there's a scene that I found entirely superfluous; it bogged the terrific pacing down.

I adored the tech Helen Phillips came up with. As some reviewers have mentioned, it's very Dark Mirror. I also agree with other reviewers that the end was a let down. There didn't seem to be much purpose to the tension that was building--unless I missed something.

The book is still totally worth reading and I'm sure many readers will feel more bonded to the characters--the flesh and blood ones, that is!

2.5 stars.

Hum was an interesting reading experience. We follow May, a woman who is out of work after being made redundant by AI, after she undergoes a face-altering procedure for quick cash. The world is facing a dystopia based on a global environmental crisis, and we watch the ramifications of May’s procedure quickly catch up to her in a story featuring too many uncomfortable parallels to life in 2024 to count.

First, this book is stressful. While reading, I felt very stuck in the world and with the characters. I like the hums and the concept of the world itself—there’s a very unique tone of existential dread that starts on page one and never really stops. It’s hard to describe, but there’s almost an uncanny feeling going on here, very much like a Black Mirror episode. There’s a strong feeling of plausibility, a what-if?, this constant awful feeling of already being halfway in May’s shoes. The uneasiness and the blurred lines between this version of the future / our present? Fantastic. There are times when the world feels perfectly natural and not so concerning, usually quickly followed by clever moments where everything sort of slaps you in the face. I liked all the times I was able to see myself in May, the further integration of consumerism into society, the real events identifiable in the text (and cited at the end), the whole idea of making yourself stick out more in an attempt to blend in. Seriously, this book has all the cool pieces!

My biggest positive is that the ending is clever, if a bit rushed. I absolutely loved the literary aspect of it. A million yeses for a thematically rich ending that forces you to sit with the book and think for a few minutes after finishing; kudos to Helen Phillips for that. I debated pretty hard over rating this two or three stars. Clearly, there was a lot of love and a strong concept put into this story—so, what exactly didn’t I like about it?

Unfortunately, the writing missed the mark. I get nervous with books around 250-70 pages—I’m almost always left thinking that the finished product should have been either 50 pages longer to fill out the world or 150 shorter/cut into a novella. Hum was no exception. In my opinion, this is one of the ones that would have done better as a novella with a narrower scope. While the synopsis claims “taut” and “urgent” prose, it honestly doesn’t seem intentionally stylistic so much as it seems to be an excuse for the book being extremely underwritten: For the majority of the book, I struggled to find a paragraph longer than two or three sentences, and this is definitely an author who abuses the enter key. Lines should be powerful enough to stand on their own in a paragraph; they shouldn’t need the manufactured emphasis of hitting enter every time you want a beat or a moment of drama. That’s what punctuation and descriptive language is there for, and regrettably, Hum didn’t rise to the challenge. (It also frequently committed the cardinal sin of repeating the same word numerous times within a couple of sentences when there's a common synonym right there.)

Things certainly happen, but there’s very little description of the environment or what anything looks like. We get a brief paragraph at the beginning describing what the hums look like, and then the author never really describes any of them in depth again. We’re told there are fingerprint scanners, we’re told there are hums, we’re told what a bunny does, we’re told what the characters are looking at, we’re told the environment is a disaster, we’re told we’re told we’re told, but there’s very little creative language or visual worldbuilding. This adds to the dismal vibe of the world but not always in a good way; it’s very difficult to immerse yourself in a world that resists construction. It also makes it hard to contrast the Botanical Garden against the outside world when the Botanical Garden really isn’t described in all that much detail aside from listing the types of plants and animals found inside as the characters encounter them. The point of this book ultimately gets lost in the messy, unrefined prose.

It was really disappointing not being able to connect with the characters as much as I wanted to. I think to a point the detached, distressing tone is the point, but I also think there’s a balance that needs to be struck to make the husband and the kids less like cardboard cutouts. Because we’re seeing them exclusively through May’s eyes and anxieties, with no backstory prior to the beginning of the story, I spent a lot of time trying to discern their motives when it didn’t actually matter.

My biggest pet peeve with the writing was the incorrect punctuation heavily present in Sy and Lu’s dialogue; they’re constantly starting their sentences with interjections and the author refuses to put a comma after them, which provides the incredibly irritating feeling of reading an unedited fanfiction and makes it difficult not to trip over the dialogue. “Ugh,” “okay,” “look,” etc, are frequently placed at the beginning of sentences without proper punctuation, which is a pretty inexcusable fundamental grammar issue for an author with five books under their belt.

I really don’t intend to come off as overly harsh, especially as I frequently enjoy books from this imprint, but on the other side of that same coin, I would expect better editing from an imprint of such a major publishing house. Marysue Rucci Books is responsible for some of my favorite titles—only a few months ago they gave us Mona Awad’s new release. Hum just isn’t at the same caliber, and knowing the high quality and careful editing this imprint is capable of curating, I almost felt cheated.

Like I said, I think this is conceptually strong—I genuinely enjoyed the plot despite it being a fairly simplistic arc. The final scene is smart and delivers a taste of what the book could’ve been; Helen Phillips is an author with a clear voice and the know-how to create an enveloping, emotionally charged world. Ultimately, I felt that the book fell victim to the inclusion of too many ideas, too many broad statements on the issues the characters face, and not enough analysis of the admittedly fascinating and all-too-real issues and ideas presented. The final chapter felt like the author was hitting her stride, having laid out all the points she wanted to talk about, and then it just suddenly…ended. Without talking about any of them.

TLDR: I liked Hum, but I can’t recommend it. I thought there was serious potential, and another (intensive) round of editing could have easily made this a four-star read for me. I would certainly try another title from this author.

A sincere thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing an advance copy in exchange for an honest review!

Hum captures the dread, anxiety, and chaos that comes with being a caregiver in an age of environmental danger and pervasive technology. These feelings emerge sharply from May's narration as she attempts to protect her children from a world dependent on AI called "Hum" assistants and the environmental decline. May longs for the unattainable: true nature, not the synthetic recreations of nature the AI presents. This longing feels nostalgic and human, which is contrasted with the unending advertisements, fake niceties, and privacy invasions the Hums bombard the family with. Overall, I enjoyed what this book was doing with its immersive worldbuilding and character voices that captured existential dread. At times, I felt it hard to grasp the other character's traits through May's narration, and wished the other characters had undergone a more complete arc as I didn't always fully understand their motives. However, I applaud Hum for presenting the existential dread we all know from being alive in the 21st century in a new, terrifying scenario. Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC for my honest opinion.

I feel that I am fairly critical with my reviews. I try to be vague in an effort to not spoil the story or experience for others.

This book make me feel so much anxiety, dread, unease, hope, love, and laughter. This is why I gave it 5 stars.

Following May’s story was a whirlwind of emotional. You can’t help but be nervous for her as she under goes her procedure and then skeptical of Jem. Constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. What an experience. Definitely worth the read!

Thanks to @netgalley and Simon and Schuster for the chance to review Hum by Helen Phillips. This was a book unlike any that I’ve read before. May is trying to better the lives of her two children and undergoes a procedure to change her face so that she is unable to be recognized by the intelligent robots called “hums”. She takes her earnings and books a getaway for her family, but everything is not as it seems. She tries to get her family to unplug from their devices. So many themes - AI, marriages becoming distant, and the desperation and lengths that a mother will go to provide and keep her family safe. This was a book that made me a bit uncomfortable, in the best way!

May undergoes a procedure to slightly alter her face in exchange for a good sum of money after being laid off from her previous job. With that money, she takes her family to the Botanical Garden, a place rich with green plants, fruit bearing trees, and animals her kids don't recognize.
This was fast-paced and anxiety inducing. It feels like where our world is heading, the practice of over-consumption and materialism, the regret, and the unhealthy attachment to devices, what mothers have to go through, climate change, and AI. I wish it didn't end the way it did. The creepy appearance of the Hum at their home was my favorite part, but I wish there had been more to it. Regardless, it was a good read.

HUM by Helen Phillips takes a hard look at the possible coming future concerning artificial intelligence and a post-climate change world.

The closer a storyline is to the truth, the more scary it is. This book will be giving me nightmares for weeks!

Facial recognition to the point of zero privacy (cuz cameras are everywhere) prompts a mom to alter her face. Now she has to use her fingerprints to pay for anything, prove her identity, enter the subway, open a cab door. Still seems like an invasion of privacy to me. When fingerprints won’t suffice as ID, her DNA is used. Still, cameras record, then blast on social media; and strangers think they have the right to contact her and tell her how horrible she is. And the ads! Good lordy the ads are non stop! Ads are bad in real life, imagine them a 100 times worse. Dystopian but also not really; we aren’t too far from this being real life.

I think the part that struck me was when the kids are playing and it’s a game to look for hiding places in case of an active shooter.

In 20 to 30 years, people reading this book will either be bored cuz it’s not fiction compared to what they live every day, or will be amazed at how well the author foretold the future.

Reading Hum is like watching a YouTube video to learn how to give the heimlich but being interrupted by an advertisement before you can save the person from choking. Phillips truly captures what it feels like to live in a dystopian capitalist nightmare: unrelentingly frustrating, deeply unfair, and completely absurd. I could not put this book down: it is definitely food for my anxieties!

When May’s job becomes redundant -another casualty to the efficiency of AI-her best option for employment is to teach students about history by pretending to be a person who existed before the internet. In an effort to keep her family afloat, she participates in a procedure that makes her face unrecognizable to facial detection software. Interestingly, becoming unrecognizable in a world where every face is known makes May even more visible. It also puts her family at risk. This is a really interesting conceit for the story and it is well executed throughout.

The plot moves quickly and kept me engrossed in the story from beginning to end. It’s like an elevated page turner because the story is not particularly sensationally dramatic but I still could not put it down. Phillip’s does great work playing on our underlining anxieties- I felt most stressed when May made unnecessary purchases with dwindling job prospects. But that is the world we live in. Hum calls attention to how difficult it is to navigate a world designed for consumption.

As much as I found May’s decisions frustrating, I was deeply invested in how her family’s fate would unravel. The family
dynamics are unsettling but also very familiar. I can see how our ever growing dependence on technology can slowly displace human connection. May can see what is lost and is desperate to hold on to the last threads of reality connecting her family. She wants to keep her family anchored in the natural world but there is so little nature left to explore, unless you can afford to purchase the experience, of course. May is not a fully developed character- but that makes sense. She is so immersed in escapism that she can’t quite figure out how to be fully human again.

Readers of The Heart Goes Last and Good Mothers will enjoy this story. There are many connections to ideas about motherhood and how the public holds the power to extend or withhold grace to mothers. Living under capitalism is weird and makes very human desires like love and lust and joy so much more difficult. Phillips wrote an incredibly successful dystopian novel that is about so much more than my review can do justice.

Thank you to the publisher and to Net Galley for the ARC for review.

I really enjoyed this book - I couldn’t put it down! I would absolutely recommend it to my literature students, and I will be buying some copies for my classroom library once it’s available. I appreciated the way the author built dread in a way that resonates with our tech/social media experiences today, as well as showing us an ominous view of the futures . It also critiqued how mothers are treated versus fathers in an important and thoughtful way. The way this author writes is mesmerizing in its muted terror: The Need grabbed me in a similar way.

Hum, mmmmm! Compelling work. Enjoyed how this story explored a lot of what is our current culture. Thought provoking or anxiety inducing… depending your take either way great writing and take on family and motherhood as well. Thank you for the chance to review this ARC.

Hum, a compelling work of speculative fiction by Helen Phillips, immerses readers in a world where the lines between dystopia and utopia blur, making us question the cost of technological advancement and the sacrifices we make for the sake of survival.

The story revolves around May, a wife and mother living in a city plagued by climate change and dominated by intelligent robots known as "hums." After losing her job to artificial intelligence, May undergoes a risky procedure to become undetectable to surveillance, all in a desperate attempt to provide for her family. As she grapples with the consequences of her decision, the narrative takes us on a thought-provoking journey through themes of family, identity, and the impact of technology on our lives.

Helen Phillips' writing is taut and urgent, pulling readers into a world that feels both familiar and unsettlingly foreign. She masterfully explores the complexities of marriage and motherhood in an era of rapid technological advancement and environmental decay. The character development is profound, and May's struggles and sacrifices resonate on a deeply emotional level.

The juxtaposition of a deteriorating world with the allure of the Botanical Garden, a green refuge from the chaos, adds layers of complexity to the narrative. May's attempt to disconnect her family from their devices highlights our society's addiction to technology and raises questions about the true meaning of connection and freedom.

As the story unfolds, it's impossible not to reflect on our own relationship with technology and the environment. Phillips paints a vivid picture of a future that is uncomfortably close to our present, making us ponder the consequences of our choices and the world we are shaping for future generations.

In "Hum," Helen Phillips has crafted a thought-provoking and beautifully written novel that challenges us to confront uncomfortable truths about our world. It is a poignant exploration of the human spirit's resilience in the face of adversity, a cautionary tale about the perils of unchecked technological progress, and a testament to the enduring power of family bonds.

I would like to extend my gratitude to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. "Hum" is a must-read for those who appreciate speculative fiction that pushes boundaries and prompts introspection.

This was up my street — anxious, urgent, and un-put-downable. May was a sympathetic enough character, caught up in the overwhelming pace of the times. However, I never felt like I got to know her enough to care about her or anyone else in the book. This is largely how the story was written, and perhaps purposely so — people's individuality is often erased or overshadowed by marketing, technology, surveillance, etc. I felt somewhat mentally overwhelmed reading this, which is how May clearly felt, so Phillips was really successful in this way.

That being said, I did think the ending was a bit abrupt. To raise such high stakes and then <spoiler> dash them without consequence and with no real explanation for why seemed a bit, "Welp, I'd better wrap this novel up now"</spoiler> and was a bit of a letdown as a result, but only slightly. This was a fast read, with fast storytelling, and feels very much the way life is heading for many of us, sadly. We're already at a place where we value technological connection rather than real, human connection with one another and the earth, so this was a sad mirror to the way we're all heading.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

I usually quite like Helen Phillips' writing. The Need and The Beautiful Bureaucrat were both so evocative and weird - in a good way - and her use of language was so clever and original... Unfortunately, I struggled with this book in a way that I didn't expect, and was ultimately unable to finish as a result. She tends to write odd tales with dystopian elements, but this time the darkness just overwhelmed me and I could not find my way into the story as a result. I generally am not a fan of dystopian novels - the real world is dark enough these days without throwing myself into an immersive version of it that is falling even further into a black hole of horribleness - and that may well be where this one and I diverged so much. This one felt darker and heavier than the others - which is saying a lot - and I just couldn't get past that feeling to actually enjoy the story. There's nothing wrong with it, it just wasn't a good fit for me.

I requested this e-galley based on the description---recently, I've been a sucker for speculative-y literary fiction. And this did not disappoint! There was so much care put on the level of motherhood as a thread that really made this novel stand out. In this sense it was a lot like The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan, dystopian novels about the surveillance placed on mothers. HUM tells the story of a woman who undergoes an experimental surgery to make her face undetectable to surveillance technology. Her and her husband are in a financial rut. With some of the money she earns from the surgery/trial, she takes her family on a trip to the Botanical Garden (this is a novel about climate catastrophe as well), and there things take a bit of a turn. I enjoyed this novel, its briskness, its tenderness. Thanks to the publisher for the e-galley!

May Webb has lost her job to AI, her husband is only able to find gig work through an app and they are struggling to support their two children. She is offered an opportunity to make ten months worth of pay if she is willing to have a procedure done that will slightly alter her face. In a world where technology is taking over, this experiment is an attempt to see what will happen if surveillance is unable to detect her face. In desperation, she accepts the offer and then splurges on a 3 day family vacation at Botanical Gardens, an expensive retreat lush with forests, animals, fresh fruit, real beds. The kids are horrified when May insists that they unplug and leave all technology behind. Her plan to escape reality at such an elite paradise results in unexpected obstacles and events that threaten her family.
Hum is the exploration of technology in the future, a lost Mother’s attempts at protecting her family in a desolate world. This book gave me anxiety, and made me sad although I believe that was the intention.
Thank you Simon Element, S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley.

Hum was an anxiety inducing, dystopian peek into the natural trajectory of our own world, but with so much to say, I feel that it wasn't able to say enough about any one theme is attempted to explore.

May has hit a rough patch in life. Recently laid off from her job due to the rise in automation and the introduction of artificial beings into the workforce called Hums, she has been struggling to land on her feet so she can continue to help support her husband Jem, a gig worker, and her two children, Sy and Lu. After a former coworker connects her to a local startup that is apparently exploring how to surgically modify faces to become unrecognizable to the big brother-esque security networks, May has enough money to finally have a bit of a safety net for her family, and a slightly new face. She takes this opportunity to buy a three day stay for her family to the Botanical Gardens, a half fake nature oasis in the middle of the city where they can disconnect and explore urban nature. After MUCH coaxing, May convinces Jem to leave his phone and removes her children's "bunnies" or child friendly computing devices (think apple watches, or iPads on demand for kids), they finally start to enjoy themselves despite the growing tension between Jem and May that she would make such an expensive purchase when they need to save in their financial instability. After a scary incident at the gardens, the family narrowly avoids tragedy with the help of a Hum, but this is just a start to their problems as the family tries to return to their stressful lives. Dealing with the fallout of this incident and their daily lives which includes incessant advertising, distant children addicted to screens, a lack of mutual trust with Jem, and the world's eyes casting judgment, May is stretched thinner than ever, desperate for a life line so she doesn't drown.

Despite the over arching story being fairly straightforward, there was a LOT going on in this book. Each tiny chapter about May's life was filled with advertising, natural disasters, technology addiction, viral videos, and job insecurity. Just about every dialogue she had with her son Sy mentioned another depressing fact about some animal going extinct or a viral video the children were addicted to. Every conversation with a Hum was littered with advertising. Every description of the outside focused on the heat, the humidity, the air quality index, and the crowds. I understand the purpose of this, but with so much going on, it was difficult to find the message here. While this whole book might be summarized as "phone bad," I do think an attempt was made to make it more nuanced. But this was lost in the attempt at creating this building anxiety within the reader. I think that was intentional, but I don't think it was intentional to distract from the main takeaways from the story. This could have been really interesting had it been a bit more focused in what it was trying to do by perhaps eliminating some of the more unexplored themes like the dangers of "going viral," the strangely out of place tension May seemed to have with Jem, or the seeming afterthought of humanizing Hums. Overall, it was a bit convoluted for me to really enjoy. While this could have been very thought provoking, with so much going on, I fear the meat of it isn't really going to stay with me.