I have warm-but-complicated feelings about Leslie Stephens’ debut novel You’re Safe Here. Told in alternating perspectives from three women, each at a different point in the story’s timeline, You’re Safe Here presents a vision of our near future in which a Silicon Valley tech company has woven itself into every aspect of daily life, from the Lenses in people’s eyes to the WellNest therapy devices that have become a fixture in every home. Emmett, the company’s founder, has just announced WellPods, a floating retreat that will give selected applicants an opportunity to escape the distractions of daily life for two months. This is alluring to Maggie, who is eager to escape her crumbling relationship with her fiancée Noa, WellPod’s lead engineer.

Emmett, Maggie, and Noa are our narrators and are all strong, captivating, and realistic characters. Unfortunately, as the novel progresses and their timelines begin to converge, the plot began to struggle under the weight of the book’s ambitious world and its narrators’ complex backstories. I felt deeply invested in the central plot, but found it increasingly difficult to trace as the perspectives began to intersect and overlap.

Still, I think the story told is worth working through the sometimes opaque storytelling, and I would be eager to follow along if Stephens chooses to continue building out the world she’s created. 4*.

Thank you to Scout Press and NetGalley for providing this e-arc.

For me, this was one of those books where the premise was much more compelling than the execution. I was intrigued at the beginning - the world-building was imaginative yet believable, and the stakes were high, with Theranos-esque vibes - but I found myself losing interest around the 20% mark. In my opinion, there were too many perspectives and the POV shifts were more jarring than suspenseful; I struggled to get invested in any one character, timeline, or plotline, and the writing at times felt distractingly clunky. I also thought there were a few twists too many so that, cumulatively, they lost impact. And I'll keep this vague to avoid spoilers, but the ending somehow felt both anticlimactic and implausible. Overall, it just didn't land with me - while the premise and the first few chapters piqued my curiosity, I probably wouldn't have finished had it not been an ARC. Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC. I really enjoyed some elements of the book! Some of the dystopian details were super interesting and believable as well as the technology descriptions. I found myself rooting for certain characters while hoping others failed and I will admit, none of them ended up how I’d hoped. It was a twist and turn book that will have you making a list of characters and trying to unravel how they are all connected. I did not foresee the twist at the end, nor was I super happy with it.

All in all, it was a decent read and certainly an interesting one!

I love the cover of You're Safe Here and was optimistic I'd love this dystopian literary --ish story about a tech wellness company. The Wellness pods in this story sound plausible in the same way Theranos seemed plausible. A safe space with your own personal AI therapist who can also administer drugs and ivs at the ready. That part was interesting to me, but the relationship between artist Maggie and her fiancé workaholic computer programmer Noa was not developed enough for me to care about.
This book was very character driven, but the rapid POV switching had me confused and irritated. I wanted more of Maggie or more of this tech wizard Emmett, but instead I got not enough of either.
The twists were fine, but nothing earth shattering. The end was just meh. Like it just kinda ended with a baby and that was that.

A decent debute novel, but not my favorite

As a former Silicon Valley PR pro, I loved the vibe of the tech/wellness world in You’re Safe Here. I loved the author’s world building with how life would be in the 2050s. Like we all thought it would be like that with the Jetsons but really it’s a dystopian world destroyed by technology, Mother Nature and mankind. Also I’ve followed Leslie’s journey from editor of Cupcakes and Cashmere and feel like she infused a lot of what she enjoys and her personality into her characters, which was nice to see that personal touch.

What took this book down a star for me was the often times hectic timeline shifting and the confusing character backstories. The switching between back story and characters made it hard to follow at times because we went from Emmett learning about the article to Maggie’s background to Noa living her daily life at WellCorp. Then diving into how do they save Maggie from the pods. I don’t want to have this review have spoilers. It seems disjointed to me even though the characters are supposed to be woven together. As a debut author, I see potential in this book.

Thank you to Net Galley and Gallery Books for the advanced reader copy.

I've read so much of Leslie Stephens' work over the years--from Cupcakes and Cashmere to Morning Person and everywhere in between. Needless to say, I was thrilled to read her debut novel, You're Safe Here. The near-future setting was hauntingly close to home, and the premise was entirely original.

I've already recommended You're Safe Here and can't wait for the world to read it this summer!

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the ARC!

This near-future dystopian book focuses on the Wellpod, a type of floating wellness pod that offers relaxation and health benefits. It is a very character-driven novel but I didn’t feel connected to any of the characters so the story fell flat overall. I think it’s a promising concept - and I generally really enjoy science fiction concepts - but the execution didn’t quite come together ultimately.

This novel didn't really do it for me. While the concept was cool - a near-future dystopia in which a woman-led tech company pioneers self-sustaining floating ocean pods - the characters and themes fell flat. The ground the novel re-tread has been done over...and over...and over. I imagine it's tough to write dystopian fiction in a world that feels increasingly dystopian in reality, but I just kept waiting to feel something while reading this and was left pretty neutral about it all.

Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, this book didn't quite work for me. While the premise and themes of this book seemed pretty interesting, the book didn't really do anything new with the themes. All the themes explored seemed to retread well tread ground about tech and motherhood. The book didn't really didn't explore the themes very deeply either, letting it be more tertiary to the thriller aspect.

The thriller aspect of the book mainly hinged on one big reveal, which became very obvious to me less than halfway through the book. I kept waiting for the reveal to happen for most of the book and what that would result in, but the reveal doesn't happen until the end of the book and there was not really anything after. This made most of the reading experience repetitive and pointless. There were some minor reveals that were pretty well executed, but overall the thriller aspect was lacking tension.

These book attempts to deal with some very flawed women and I appreciated that for the most part. I did end up appreciating Noa's character for the most part(though her inability to connect very obvious dots was more than a little frustrating). However, the character motivations/feelings, particularly in case of Maggie, were sometimes quite inconsistent.

One minor thing(it might just be how I am reading them and not entirely objective) is that some of scenes seemed to have a line or two that I felt had slight homophobic implications. Mileage may vary about those though.

Overall, I thought You're Safe Here had a lot of promise, but kind of fell apart on execution.

3.5 stars, rounded up. Good plot, good characters, but I was left wanting more of both. There’s a certain fullness that’s lacking.

Unfortunately I was not the right reader for this book--but in all fairness I think that was due to the way the book description was written/focused.
Found the characters difficult to connect with and unlikeable, but again that may have been related to the genre.

With thanks to NetGalley & Gallery Books for this e-ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery/Scout Press for this ARC. 3.5 stars, rounding up here.

This book, mostly based in the year 2060, gave me Elizabeth Holmes + Upload vibes in what a future Silicon Valley could look like. My favorite part was the technology and how much the world had changed from it. The story flowed easily and painted a vivid picture of what the characters were viewing and experiencing. The future tech was clever and the wellness focus was unique.

I enjoyed the multiple POVs throughout the book but I didn’t feel connected to any of the characters and wasn’t routing for any of them to have a happy ending.

There were several twists, some expected and some a little more surprising. This was a fun read where I’m still reflecting on the ending.

This was a really well done thriller novel, it had a great concept overall and the characters were strongly written. I enjoyed getting to go on this journey with them and it had me guessing from the beginning to end. Leslie Stephens has a great writing style and the characters worked overall.

The description of the book seemed interesting, so I wanted to check the story out. Unfortunately, it is not working for me right now. It is nothing against the story or the author, but I couldn't get into the story/characters. I may try and find a physical copy to add the my library when it is released, though, because I think my readers could like it!

3.25 stars, This is probably my favorite ARC I have read all year. While I quite enjoyed the queer, science fiction, impending doom feelings, I just feel like it was missing something. For having quite the premise, aka a wellness pod floating in the ocean where the person inside is doing yoga, drinking matcha, and attending AI therapy sessions, it was very character-driven. I usually prefer character-driven novels, but it has to be one of the other for me; the plot-to-character ratio was strange. I think it must have been quite difficult to create a world that is a climate disaster/technology/political corruption hellscape, I don't think the author took enough time to flesh that out. Overall, enjoyed the Silicon Valley vibes and exploring how and what advanced technology takes away from the human experience.

Reviewed on Goodreads and Storygraph on 12/13/2023.

Thank you, NetGalley for this ARC.

This was a great book with great twists. Always kept me guessing and def kept me on the edge of my seat.

Great writing by this author and will look forward to more twists in the next novel.

Thanks NEtGalley for letting me read and review.

Heart pounding thriller that left me on the edge of my seat. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one. Definitely one of the best books this year.