Member Reviews

What an interesting near future book this is! A great concept and completely viable which makes it compelling and a little disconcerting.
Hums are everywhere watching, helping, recording and advertising while phones are still in everyone’s hands and the children wear ‘bunnies’ to allow them to communicate and be tracked. Deliveries and taxis are all driverless and efficient.
The story is still very human and drew me in from beginning to end. I found rooting for May and Gem while also finding them quite frustrating.
A quick satisfying read about AI and what it may become.

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Hum by Helen Phillips follows May, a mother who lives in world rocked by climate change and consumerism. In a desperate attempt to help her family financially, May undergoes a procedure to change her face. With a little extra money in hand, May takes her family on a vacation that doesn’t go according to plan.

I loved this book. It felt very much like an episode of Black Mirror with the way May and her family dealt with technology in this world. The idea of the Hums (the artifical intelligence) was equal parts interesting and terrifying. I loved all the different small tech items that were in this book. Like the bunnies and the wooms.

I loved how this book felt so sci-fi and futuristic but also like it could really happen. Like this could be a plausible future which adds to the horror of it. The theme of motherhood is heavy in this book much like the last book I read by this author, The Need. I can see that not working for some people or being a little too much but I thought it was perfect. The way the children characters were constantly talking and talking over each other felt so true to how kids actually are.

This book is pretty short and very fast paced so it’s hard to really talk about it without spoiling it but I would highly recommend this to anyone who is a fan of Black Mirror or science fiction books that deal with climate change. I know I’m going to be thinking about this book for a long time.

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I was totally engrossed while reading and was particularly fascinated by the depiction of a not unlikely future where we are addicted to devices, yet still craving our lost natural world. In addition to being a commentary on where we may be headed as a civilization, it is also a view of how our most intimate familial relationships are impacted by this "brave new world". That said, I found the ending unsatisfying in its vagueness. On reflection, it was an interesting read, but not one worth revisiting.

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If this is what happens in an AI run future, I don't want it. I am definitely drawn into these types of books and equally appalled while reading. This book felt so real I could see this becoming actual reality in the not so distant future. If you are a fan of dystopian/speculative fiction and AI taking a more prominent role in our every day lives, this book will be a great read for you. It's a pretty quick read and left me feeling a bit apprehensive of what the future may hold but I suppose that is the point. I will say I wouldn't mind a woom of my own though! :)

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon Element | S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books for access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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I read “Hum” by Helen Phillips in less than 4 hours.
I guess it’s be categorized as sci-fi in that it deals with a terrifying future of abysmal climate change, out of control AI, and a mother, May, attempting to navigate this world while caring for her two children.
Definitely a page turner and thought provoking

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An interesting take about AI and family that reminded me of Klara and the Sun and other literary takes on technological dystopia and climate change. Not my favorite in terms of writing style—both the sentences and chapters felt clipped—but the shallowness here might be more thematic than I'm giving it credit for.

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Hum is a dystopian family story with themes of distrust of AI, Climate change, viral negativity and cancel culture. This is a different take on the concerns that AI will take over the world or replace all the jobs. Those have been done very well by Sci Fi stories, but this one varies. A lot of what we call AI today is just plagiarism software, although much of it is convenient. In the universe in which Hum is set, AI is very driven to consumerism and much more obvious in how it wants us to consume and buy things. Air quality is awful and the temperature is 149. It isn't possible to be outside without help.

May undergoes face surgery for money in order to provide her family with a nice vacation. In an effort to connect more, she disconnects her phone and her partner Jem's phone, and their children's wrist devices. From our standpoint, this seems reasonable and a nice thing to do. This definitely blows up and causes a negative viral reaction. Going viral for a negative reason is impossible for regular people even today, and sometimes celebrities.

All good Sci Fi is a commentary on society, and is important to understand the concerns of what is happening today.
thanks to NetGalley and Marysue Rucci Books and Simon element for the ARC.

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In a world where AI is getting more and more prominent, this was a very interesting and at the same time a bit frightening book. It made me think about the way we interact with and take care of the world and the people around us. At its core it’s a story about family and motherhood and the things we do to keep our children safe and happy.

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Thanks to NetGalley and Simon Element for the ARC!

Helen Phillips’s "Hum" is a crackling interrogation of the cost of convenience.

Recently, the internet has been feeling claustrophobic—when I check the weather, I have to watch an ad for allergy medications. Every time I look at instagram, it’s almost 70% targeted content. If I try to read the news, it’s either locked behind a paywall or sponsored by companies who benefit from controlling it. If I want to opt out, I can pay to have my own time back in an “ad-free experience.”

It seems like the entirety of the human experience is problematized so that a solution can be sold.

This is also the world "Hum" takes place in.

It would be easy to dismiss the book as an anti-AI, woe-is-me, “cellphones are destroying us” take on life, but it’s not that. It’s not even a dystopia in the way the marketing copy suggests. This is a story about how everything that makes life easier actually distances us from it—a world where predictive text begins to flatten and anonymize something as simple as a text between spouses. Phillips is unconcerned with the usual tropes of AI usurping our humanity; she’s more interested in how companies market the idea of humanity itself. Like our own world, the novel’s surveillance state isn’t managed by a shadowy government—it’s handled by corporations who know and exploit our buying habits.

The plot is simple, centering primarily on a brief family vacation in the Botanical Garden, an AirBnB-like resort that offers an escape from the polluted, noise-filled air of the city. It’s a smart way to depict the artifice of “authenticity," and it’s an effective backdrop for Phillips to critique iPad kids and instagram parents. That sounds simplistic, but it works because the author is so careful in how she depicts the family’s relationships to each other. They are victimized and intentionally isolated by predatory technology. At one point, the protagonist realizes that the four family members are not sharing twenty-four hours in a day; they are dividing ninety-six hours because each person is so detached.


This is a breezy book with big questions (there’s a fairly robust compendium of research at the end), and Phillips invites us to wrestle with the discomfort of a paywall between the world and the self. In other words, "Hum" asks us to think about the reality we already inhabit and encourages us to, well, touch grass while we still can.

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Helen Phillips is one of my favorite authors. Her stories always unnerve me and set me on edge, and for different reasons each time. I never know what to expect when I start one of her books, but I know it’ll twist my stomach into knots somehow.

Hum did not disappoint. The world building was great and terrifying. The technology and the acceptance of the lack of privacy wasn’t as far fetched as I wish it was. I was tense from the very beginning to the very end. (The way the main character kept doing the wrong thing and every time I thought “well, that’s probably what I would do too” only added to my stress!)

Hum is a warning cry. This isn’t just a story, this is our future.

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Deeply unsettling, particularly depressing, a little boring. It’s how the working class survives in a technologically advanced world where everything is available but not how it should be and the cost of advancement is the environment, self and family. It is a timely read though.

*Thank you H. Phillips and S&S/ Marysue Rucci Books for the, Hum ARC.

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This would be a very satisfying read for fans of Margaret Atwood. The story was scariest because it feels like we're not too far away from this future.

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3.75 ⭐️ I’m sucker for the speculative, and a long time fan of Helen Philips (I teach her story “The Knowers” in every writing class). Felt close to May and her family right away, and happy to follow them on their bumpy journeys. Captivated by the hums and even a little charmed. As fast as AI is moving right now some of the ideas about technology felt a little stale, but the tenderness and perfect strangeness made up for it.

Thank you to @marysueruccibooks and @simonandschuster for the arc!

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I can already tell that “Hum” is going to be one of those books that stays with me for a long time. Our protagonist, May, lives in a dystopian future hardened by climate change and consumerism. Due to desperation from financial struggles, May undergoes an experimental procedure for pay to slightly alter her face to avoid face recognition detection. As a reward to herself for the hard times, May purchases a mini-vacation for her family at the lush Botanical Gardens for a reprieve from the apocalyptic world. The vacation, however, does not go as planned, and May finds herself in a social media firestorm due to a series of unfortunate events.


I don’t know what to say about this book. Unfortunately, the dystopian future has so many commonalities with our current world. It will leave you horrified but also pensively thinking about how we can avoid a “Hum” future. I recommend preordering this book. I am, as I want a hardback version on my shelf. This is a book that I’m going to come back to in the future. Also, you should never skip the author’s notes, but ESPECIALLY don’t skip the author’s note at the end of this one.

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"HUM" by Helen Phillips deserves its FIVE star review in every possible way. The novel is dystopian fiction at its absolute best and since tearing through it in a few days I've found myself in (NON-SPOILER) conversations with a number of people about just how well-written (richly imagined and disturbing) it truly was. First of all, in this current AI-enhanced, bizarro world in which we are living, the concepts within this book do NOT feel like a stretch. I knew very little about the plot details when I started reading it (already love the author) and have no interest in going into details in this review as a result. I think it's better to have as little knowledge in advance as possible based on my experience.

I followed everything the author outlined to catch the reader up to developments in technology and where the book's world begins with regard to the environment and the state of the planet (and, more specifically, the city in which the Webb-Clarks resided). I found no evidence of over-explanation by the author (which happens in many dystopian, future-set novels) and the title of the book is made clear within its first paragraphs and pages. I deeply enjoyed the characters: protagonist, May and her husband, Jem, and two children Lu and Sy..

Phillips briefly and effectively, paints a portrait of this family - the world around them, who May and Jem were prior to having children and how they are at the time the book takes place. Most of all, the author vividly describes our current dependence on technology -- where things have gone awry (and where the tech/AI path may be heading). From her endnotes, she had been researching these topics for a number of years and it shows (but not at all in a distracting or dry way). Facts are interwoven into the story effortlessly.

It's believable, it's fascinating, it's addictive, and it's terrifying. LOVE THIS NOVEL SO MUCH!!!!!! Thank you to #NetGalley, Simon & Schuster, and especially to the author for allowing me into this dark and fearfully-recognizable world a bit early! #HUM is on shelves 8/6/2024. PREORDER and prepare.

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HUM taps into a not-too-distant future, poking at artificial intelligence's darkest corners—facial recognition, job obsoletion, and screens that quite literally divide a sit-down lunch with a friend. At its core, however, is the timeless and seemingly forever measure of motherhood, one that is impossible to reach no matter the era or technology involved. Amid abysmal air quality, near-daily protests, forests burning, and a constant want for technological connection, Phillips' HUM reveals what's underneath—the most persistent and intrinsically human explorations of marriage, parenthood, and, above anything, self.

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Hum is a gorgeous, harrowing, thought-provoking novel about family and motherhood that will stay with me for a long time. I loved May, Lu, Sy, and Jem; Phillips’s portrait of this family made a setting in the not-too-distant future feel incredibly immediate and urgently relevant.

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Enjoyed this very much and think it will make a splash when published this fall. There were certain sections 2/3 through they seemed to lag a bit but imagine with this be popular even with younger readers interested in reckoning with AI and current technology trends.

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I learned about this book from the Summer Reading Guide on the What Should I Read Next? podcast. It won't be published until August 6. I was able to read it early by getting an advance reader copy from Netgalley in exchange for this honest review.

The story is about a mother in a near future where AI robots called "hums" and public surveillance are everywhere. The first part of the book is a depressing litany of the living poor in a high tech world succumbing to climate change and slowly losing jobs to automation. After being let go, the mom gets paid to have a procedure to make her face unrecognizable to facial recognition. She uses the windfall to pay back rent and for a vacation at the Botanical Gardens with her husband and two children. While there, a crisis with her children is the event that sets off the main conflict of the novel.

This tale is well-told and realistically evokes the everyday struggles of the working poor trying to raise a family in a world that seems to keep them down at every turn. Additionally, it explores the struggle of parents to raise their kids to be well-rounded adults with all the distractions that technology affords. Unfortunately, I found the balance of the story to be off a bit too much for me. The bleakness heavily outweighs the message. It reminds me of an episode of Black Mirror on Netflix. It gives me that same vague horror of something that could really happen but never should without the same storytelling punch that series delivers.

My rating 3.5/5

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The future feels like it comes fast, and it frequently comes with things worsening: the climate, politics, the internet. Helen Phillips's new novel takes all the bad things, imagines them being a little worse, and then stuffs them all between a slender cover.

May was a little too good at programming and training AI, and now she's made herself obsolete. Her partner, Jem, is taking as many gigs as he can, but money is tight for May and Jem and their children, and only getting tighter. Desperate to earn money, May agrees to undergo an experimental procedure that will render her face invisible to facial recognition programs. With the sudden influx of funds and a desire to escape from a world choked with pollution, global warming, and erratic people, May drops a chunk of her new funds on a three-night stay at the Botanical Gardens, an oasis of clean air, fresh water, and thriving flora and fauna.

In her quest for the family to make the most of this expensive peace and quiet, May mandates a no-devices policy: no phones for her and Jem, and no wrist devices for the children. Despite her children whining and missing the convenience of having maps and messages at their fingertips, this quality family time is everything May had hoped. The illusion of harmony abruptly ends when May's children wander away, and their missing devices—as well as May's unidentifiable face—make what should be a quick reunion into a viral story. The repercussions of the family's getaway last far longer than their vacation, and are centered squarely on May.
Phillips has drawn a dire near future, and one based firmly in distressing headlines from the present (as provided in a sizeable section of works consulted in the back). People constantly tethered to their devices. Air too polluted to safely go outside. Widespread financial struggles and housing shortages. Ubiquitous and targeted advertising. There's a lot that's familiar with the world May inhabits. It's debatable whether that imagined future is realistic or dystopic, but either way it's a depressing and claustrophobic place. This is no doubt by design, as the environment makes it easier for us to understand why May's anxiety is constantly through the roof, though it makes this a book I might not take on a relaxing vacation.

Despite Phillips' various themes of unchecked AI, climate change, and device reliance, the real crux of Hum is in cancel culture and how having cameras everywhere we turn—in our phones, at intersections, in stores—means anyone could have a bad moment captured and shared without context to millions of strangers. It does, however, take a while for the book to lead up to May's nightmare realized. Until that point, the other themes are far more prevalent, and their stepping aside as supporting cast is unexpected. By the end of this short, tense, and busy novel, we come full circle, the repetition and futility to escape it as much a part of the message as anything else.

(This review will also post at https://ringreads.com/2024/08/06/hum-a-grim-take-on-tomorrow/ at 3:05 p.m. MDT on 6 August 2024

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