I liked this dystopian look at a future that might come our way with the technology we have already. In this world, people are living their lives in large cities with no nature whatsoever, they have so much technology they are reliant upon and love their lives disconnected from one another. It reminded me of a glimpse of our world 15-20 years in our future.

In the story we meet May who is having facial surgery to earn money for her family. She is going to be an experiment to see how long it takes the technology to catch up and figure out her identity.

May uses some of this money to take her family to a botanical forest in the midst of their city (a luxury only the very wealthy get to experience) and from there things really take off.

I really liked the dystopian aspects - it made me consider how I currently use technology and the evils that might lurk just under that surface. I also liked the family story at this books’ center.

An excellent read on all fronts. Hum is a particularly poignant examination of technology’s relationship with society. Set in a not so distant future, much of the setting, while remaining somewhat fantastical, is easy enough to believe. We watch as the stories protagonist navigates modern life, with all its dwindling beauty and pitfalls.

The prose here doesn’t particularly stand out, but services the story and pace perfectly. I tend to only give 5 stars to books that resonate with me, and stand out in my memory. This most certainly will linger, as its characters and world drew me in completely and I connected deeply its dramas.

I want to thank the publisher and NetGalley for their generous ARC even though I completed it after release. If you’re looking for something modern and impactful with just enough science fiction to keep it exciting,I strongly recommend this great book.

this has stayed with me longer then i thought it would! interesting class critique set in a near future world where ecological collapse is ever present

Thank you S&S/Marysue Rucci for my free ARC of Hum by Helen Phillips — available now!

» READ IF YOU «
📱 are hopelessly addicted to your phone
🤖 love weird character-driven stories
🧑‍🔬 enjoy (are terrified by?) dystopian settings

» SYNOPSIS «
May's life is crumbling around her, and she attempts to salvage some happiness by selling her face to an AI company. With the money, she treats her family to a lavish Disneyworld-like vacation, but makes a huge blunder and becomes a social pariah because of it. Feeling the pressure, May is unsure who to trust and where to turn, especially when an AI bot shows up offering assistance.

» REVIEW «
This was suuuuch an interesting book, and man did I feel like a total loser with how much time I spend on my phone and connected to tech. So prepare for that 😂. Personally, I loved the ending because it's sort of ambiguous? It fosters amazing discussion with other readers, which is one of my favorite things that literature can do for society. This novel is relatively short but packs a punch, delving into relationships, technology, conservation, motherhood, empathy, and identity all at once. Loved it.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I use assistive readers as an accessibility device because I take medications for disabilities that affect my vision. Since the author or publisher opted not to make assistive readers available on this ARC, I am unable to read it. I apologize for this inconvenience, but devices are necessary for disabled readers and should be made available to us.

I loved this one so much! It was so creepy how close to the present this book felt. It demonstrated out obsession with our screens and questioned truly where the line for technology is.

Readers have widely anticipated Hum after Phillips’ series of acclaimed books including her last novel The Need (2019), a New York Times Notable Book long-listed for the National Book Award. It doesn’t disappoint. Because of May’s extreme and constant insecurity, reading the novel can be an unpleasant experience — like being on an anxiety roller coaster. But because of Phillips’ incisive symbolism and sure-footed plotting, the reader emerges delighted, educated and not a little worried for the future.

In this novel, we are introduced to a family that is living in the not-too-distant future where climate change runs rampant and robots have taken on several important roles in society.

Nature is no longer freely available to enjoy and be soothed by, instead, you have to pay for entry into the Botanical Garden, which is insanely expensive.

While in the Botanical Garden, some unnerving things happen that cause the family to be put under extreme scrutiny, leading to lots of distress.

Overall, it's a really interesting read that although fiction, really forces us to reevaluate our relationship with the technology we possess in real life.

It's well-written, and engaging and I enjoyed it very much!

Thank you to #Netgalley for this ARC of #hum

Thank you to NetGalley and Marysue Rocci books for an advance reader copy.

This is the book we needed for this moment in time. Hum is a fast-paced exploration of the anxieties all parents face raising kids in today’s world. It explores our reliance on technology, a future in which we have ignored climate change, and helicopter parenting taken to the extreme. It is gripping, but also tender in its depiction of the characters. Helen Phillips has given us all something to think about. Highly recommend!

Loved this creepy dystopian novel that tackles technology, connection, consumerism, and privacy through a fast paced sci Fi story.

I really enjoyed this book! This story keeps you very engaged. I highly recommend reading this. It makes you think about the way we approach technology and nature. It also tackles how technology affect our relationships.

This book hits on so many things we're currently dealing with and is so relatable on many fronts. May is a wife and mother and she's just lost her job to AI. Unsure when she'll land her next one, she decides to undergo experimental facial surgery that will alter her appearance just enough to confuse the ever present cameras throughout the city, but will beef up their bank account with nearly a year's worth of cash. 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.

This was an interesting read. The premise and themes surrounding our dependence on technology versus the need for privacy and genuine human interactions worked well. However, the story felt incomplete. There were numerous plot holes, and the narrative lacked a clear direction. A more developed plot and characters could have significantly enhanced the impact of the story.

disclaimer: this review was written without the assistance of AI.

HUM was…wow. it surfaced all of my anxieties that i try to suppress about the world we live in today. perfectly disquieting and unsettling, HUM brought to life many of the themes that keep parents up at night- climate change, overconsumption, artificial intelligence, surveillance, the 24-hour news cycle, and more. and although Phillips did not focus in on character development, she perfectly captured the anxiety and whiplash of constantly living in unprecedented times through the eyes of May, Jem, and their young family.

many thanks to the team at marysue rucci books for the advanced copy.

Very relatable characters in a believable future not that far from now. The dilemmas they face are heart wrenching and a parent’s worst nightmare. I enjoyed the writing and read this in less than a day. The AI Hums are a bit more complicated than they first seem, but too much was left to the imagination about them at the end.

Thanks to NetGalley and S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books for an ARC of this book.

3.5 stars rounded up as I keep thinking about it.

Set in a pretty horrifying very near future, this smart but rather gloomy novel looks at the effects on society, families, and individuals of climate change and the ever increasing presence of artificial intelligence.

May’s job working in AI communication has become obsolete because the hums (as this society refers to the physical embodiments of the network) have grown past human training. In a desperate attempt to get some money, she has her face altered in order to test the ability of surveillance cameras to recognize her. With some of this money, May splurges on a 3-night stay for her family at the Botanical Gardens, a resort that recreates the natural world of the not too distant past. Once there, however, things go terribly awry and May’s family is completely upended.

The zing of this novel comes from all the tiny details the author weaves into this world she has created by barely extrapolating from current news stories: The warm empathy of the hums towards May and her family blends smoothly into targeted advertising; the replacement of social connection with “wooms” and devices; the children with their iPhone-esque “bunnies” permanently strapped to their wrists; the looming unemployment and inequity crisis as hums take on more and more jobs.

May is straddled between two eras. She can still remember actual forests, though the one behind her parents’ house has burned down, but she is now an urban being, as dependent on her phone and woom as everyone else. The joys and burdens of motherhood, however, seem to be timeless, along with the societal expectations and fault finding that comes with it.

With the exception of May’s friend Nova, other human individuals are only referenced obliquely, including the older people who still employ May’s husband instead of a hum to do odd jobs. People are only seen as a mass, on the barren and sweltering streets or in the subway, or online in social media. There is a hint that future hum society could be more gracious and compassionate than the human one but also more authoritarian.

The author does not give us an escape; May and her family are stuck in their world as we soon may be. Recommended but only if you’re not waiting for someone to come and save the day.

Thanks to Simon Element and Netgalley for the digital review copy.

As AI takes over our jobs and tracks our lives, Hum asks the question: Is technology really our friend?

Hum by Helen Phillips presents a unique and thought-provoking premise, immersing readers in a disquieting near-future where intelligent and benevolent robots, known as "hums", are integrated into daily life. In this speculative world, hums track every moment of our existence, trailing us with the promise of anticipating our needs, but at what cost? If Orwell had imagined a future with AI, Hum might have been the result—equal parts fascinating and terrifying.

The story follows May, a woman navigating a city ravaged by climate change and dominated by smart technology. After losing her job to AI, May, burdened by debt, undergoes an experiment that alters her face, making it unrecognizable to the ever-present cameras. In a desperate attempt to escape, she takes her family to one of the last green spaces, only to discover that leaving their devices behind brings unexpected stress. When her children's lives are threatened, May is forced to place her trust in a hum with questionable motives.

Phillips excels in worldbuilding, crafting an immersive environment filled with dread, anxiety, and chaos. The book explores the emotional and physical toll of constant surveillance and touches on significant themes like marriage, motherhood, selfhood, global warming, and technological advancement. However, despite its well-written prose and intriguing concept, Hum feels somewhat meandering, as if it’s juggling two different storylines that never fully converge.

In a world where technology promises convenience, Hum shows us the emotional price we pay for it. While the premise is undeniably compelling, and the writing style is solid, the plot itself lacks the depth and resolution I was hoping for. It’s a quick read, but it left me wanting more substance to match the initial intrigue.

Overall, Hum is not a bad read, especially for fans of speculative fiction, but it didn’t quite live up to my expectations.

Thank you to Simon Element for providing me with an Advance Readers Copy for review.

This dystopian novel was right up my alley with AI in the spotlight and forests being in amusement parks that only the rich can access. While I say dystopian, the scary part is that this looks like the future we are headed toward which makes it that much more scary. Phillips brough t so many important questions to light about AI and technology! I am absolutely impressed with this book and look forward to reading more from this author in the future!

"It was common knowledge that hums were designed to obey human requests.. To do no harm to humans."

Hmm . . . I seem to remember a bespectacled gentleman with mutton chops mentioning something about that way back in the fifties.
As I recall, things didn't turn out very well.

Here we have a mother willing to trade in her own identity for a chance to give her family an unforgettable vacation.

And, yeah, things don't turn out too well for them either.

I really liked this one. The author deftly mixes blissful domestic scenes of everyday life with the anxiety and tension caused by financial insecurity, and the daily horrors reported by the newscasters. Everyone is connected to a device 24/7. Climate change has made life unlivable for many, yet plastics are still prevalent. This is speculative fiction, though much of it feels ripped from today's headlines.

Is it any wonder our heroine wants to escape for a few days to a blissful recreation of the past?

Packed with raw emotion this is a highly disturbing and perplexing read. I'll be thinking about this one for a long time to come . . . possibly even the rest of my life.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster/Simon Element/Marysue Rucci Books for gifting me a digital ARC of this fascinating book by Helen Phillips. All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 4.5 stars!

May has a job "teaching" AI to be more intelligent. But when her goal is accomplished and AI is smarter than humans, she loses her job. As the breadwinner of her family, consisting of husband, Jem, and children, Lu and Sy, she undertakes a procedure for to earn money that requires surgery to change her face so that it can't be recognized by surveillance cameras. After getting caught up on bills, May decides to splurge on a 3-day trip to the Botanical Garden, a refuge where forests, streams, and animals flourish - but only for those who can afford it. Wanting an immersive experience, she insists that everyone leave their phones and devices at home. But when there is an issue, May has to trust a hum to help her.

I tore through this book. It's thought-provoking on a near-future basis as well as our current culture. With AI being so prevalent now, it's not a big stretch to think that Hums could be part of our future. With climate changes and resultant devastation to our forests from wildfires, losing access to nature is certainly feasible. We are already living in a more virtual world than a real one, proven by our addiction to our devices. The best family experiences already go only to those who can afford them (think skipping lines at DisneyWorld). This book looks at motherhood in the midst of all that, and how one incident can change everything we hold to be true. The writing was wonderful and I'll be thinking about May for a while.