I really enjoyed the premise (and the execution!) of Loneliness & Company. In it, we meet Lee, who is used to being at the top of everything. She works hard, because she's been told her whole life that it's the key to everything. So when she finds herself getting a job not at one of the prestigious companies she'd hoped (and assumed) for, but some unknown entity, to say she's chagrined would be an understatement. But since she is always committed to hard work and getting the job done, she grudgingly accepts her position and jumps in. What is the job, you ask? Gathering data to develop an AI to help lonely folks. Only... no one has heard of "loneliness". It simply is not a concept people in this society know. Sure, it requires a bit of suspension of disbelief, but it is quite worth doing.

But... it is something they experience, even if they don't have a word for the feeling. And it is very interesting to watch Lee, who has never really considered her need for people and community, to discover that maybe life is better with friends. There is a bit of a mystery undertone too, and I think I might have expected a bit more from it? In fairness, I thought that Loneliness & Company had all kinds of dark, seedy secrets that it just.... didn't. I was too suspicious of the book, if that is a thing that is possible. I don't have any idea if the book wanted me to think this or if I made it all up, so go ahead and place the blame on me here.

What I did absolutely adore was Lee figuring out who she was, what she wanted from life, and that there is a whole big world out there that doesn't just involve working oneself to death. And the adventures she goes on during her journey were wonderfully entertaining! I thought the book's messages were strong, I really enjoyed the characters and story, and ended up being quite satisfied, even though it did not quite go in the direction I expected.

Bottom Line: Doesn't matter what we call a feeling, it can eat away at us regardless. This society is about to figure that out the hard way.

A wonderfully written debut novel.Abook about loneliness told in a speculative fiction genre a book of loneliness of being human .Will be recommending.#netgalley.#Bloomsbury

“It’s an interesting theory, really. If you don’t name something, can you identify it? If you never learn an emotion, can you feel it?”

I initially chose this debut book because it sounded unique in its speculative AI premise. While it does fall into that category, I’d be tempted to classify it as a modern literary fiction coming-of-age story. Either way, I was pleasantly surprised at how much depth and relatability I found in its pages!

Throughout the book, the author explores what it means to be alive in a tech-driven world. We dive into the importance of connection, the causes of loneliness, and several big “what ifs” when it comes to AI and social-emotional well-being.

I think that some readers may question how detached and almost clinical the protagonist sounds through much of the book, but I feel that this voice was perfect for who the character was. While the plots were completely different, this book gave me Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind (another 5 star book for me) vibes. Both books have protagonists who aren’t always the most easy to get along with, who make decisions you probably wouldn’t make, and yet you hope for the best as they fumble through experiences they don’t feel comfortable with for the sake of their company’s goals. Both books also have characters who battle loneliness and anxiety, speculative worlds where corporations profit off people and the people end up suffering, and social commentary on the state of society and technology.

The book is very quotable, and I found myself highlighting many sections where characters reflect on their experiences and what they mean in the scope of human existence and connection.

“I was here. The same phrase I keep seeing. I think about the word “here.” It’s another one of those slippery concepts. Iridescent, shape-shifting, like loneliness.”

This is definitely a book I’ll be pondering for some time, and I’m so glad I read it! Thanks to Netgalley and Bloomsbury for the advanced copy!

With AI being a popular topic, there are a lot of stories being written around the topic and I’m here for it. While AI is a part of this, it’s actually a tender exploration of what friendship and community means and how loneliness is perceived.

Lee’s life takes an unexpected turn after she’s assigned to a secret government project to train AI on how to be a friend and combat loneliness—an emotion erased from society’s lexicon decades ago. Lee is incredibly driven, so she starts seeking out bold experiences to help the model, even as she starts to experience loneliness herself.

I enjoyed this exploration of human nature and the concept of loneliness. Lee was a very Type A character that had a very clear focus on her career. Being in her head as she worked on building a community and friendships against her instincts, followed by her feeling alienated from herself and people surrounding her was really interesting. Dyroff outlined her path to recognizing loneliness in a really unique way. Similar to Ishiguro’s novels a lot of the concepts aren’t always fully explained but the reader gets enough of an idea eventually. This one is a character driven low burn but I really loved the payoff in the end as Dyroff pulled it all together.

Thank you Bloomsbury Publishing for the ARC.

like many things, this had a lot of great ideas and fell flat on the execution. it never really works for me when the first 200+ pages of a book are exposition and then the climax hits with 40 pages to go, and this was left feeling sloppy and rushed. this book felt like it had the concept it wanted, and the ending it knew it wanted to get to, and then it just kind of rambled in between.

reading the epilogue and finding our protagonist armed with friendships with barely mentioned characters, a terminated relationship that had showed no signs of being stopped, and a totally different career path with none of the development it would have taken to get there felt frustrating. also i just don't know why this book felt like it needed a love triangle, or why the roommate had to be constantly eating and made fun of for that, or (and maybe it's just me), the why behind the sci-fi thing where you just capitalize common phrases to indicate they have taken on some sort of dystopian brand is so funny.

this was really promising, and i really enjoyed moments of it, but its last page and its middle pages threw me off.

Lee is a focused academic with high aspirations, described by her classmates as highly intelligent, she is also encouraged by her professors to push herself to be the best. So when she’s recruited into a secret government project to solve the problem of ‘loneliness’ by training a new AI tool about friendship, Lee takes a chance. But how far is she willing to go to teach the algorithm?

I really enjoyed this book. The premise hooked me immediately and kept me turning the pages. In her quest for success, Lee appears more isolated than she realizes. Her brains and ambition distance her from experiencing life the way she is supposed to when training the new AI tool, Vicky—a digital friend—to combat loneliness, an emotion removed from the Emotional Index. Lee hasn’t experienced loneliness (that she’s aware of) and approaches her duties to teach Vicky everything she knows about the ‘human experience’. In doing so, Lee is revitalized, but things quickly escalate beyond her control and it becomes unclear if she’s making her own choices or if the algorithm is ultimately driving her.

Lee is likable, and her transformation causes her to make completely different choices at the end of the book that felt more satisfying for her character arc. I enjoyed the mystery between Lee’s actions and the algorithm. The fact that in doing her job she was also being pushed to experience more and live her life as she should, instead of working constantly. It taught her how to strike a balance between work and her social life, something she had never made time for in the past. I loved the ending, and felt satisfied with Lee’ and the’s choices. The need for humans to strive for perfection is a theme expressed clearly in this book. The pace was steady throughout and I never felt like the story dragged at all. Overall, it was a very enjoyable read.

4/5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
For readers who enjoy speculative fiction, stories about friendship and love, what it means to be human.

A strange, heart-rending story, a satisfying read. Poignant and I always dig something speculative. Will recommend! Thanks to the publisher for the e-galley.

What a pleasant surprise!

I absolutely loved "Loneliness & Company by Charlee Dyroff. This is a debut novel, and wow, I felt so many conflicting emotions while reading this. This is a very deep and impactful novel about a young woman named Lee whose life is turned upside down after starting a new job in New York City. Lee works for a new company that is doing a top-secret assignment for the government called The Loneliness Project. This book is set in the near future, and in the distant past, the word "loneliness" has been eradicated from existence by the government. I really enjoyed Lee as a protagonist. She is eccentric, weird, and socially awkward. Lee learns a lot of important life lessons throughout the course of this novel. The sex scene (very steamy) and the cookie scene (very funny) are two reasons enough to read this book. This book is a slow burn but once we hit the 50% mark, this book really takes off. I think this book will be overlooked by a lot of readers, but I'm so glad I read this little gem because it left quite an impression on me. DO. NOT. SLEEP. ON. THIS. NOVEL. It is beautifully written and quirky to the bone.

Thank you, Netgalley and Bloomsbury for the digital ARC.

I was quite intrigued by this novel's vision of the near-future and the ways technology might change our connection to one another and our experience of being human -- and I really enjoyed how the book ended. At times I found the main character off-putting, I think because I couldn't figure out if certain traits and experiences were unique to her or common to people in her society. There were also a few plot points felt a little forced. However, I'm glad I read it, and I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in sci-fi about humans' relationship with AI and with each other.

Thanks to NetGalley and to the publisher for the opportunity to read a digital ARC in advance of publication.

A book that is equal parts analytical sci-fi and philosophical musings on what it means to be a human. It took me a bit to get into the rhythm of the story, but I found that I really enjoyed its message on humanity and loneliness. By the end of the book it won me over.

At times it was a tad confusing, with sometime overly analytical prose and switching from first to third person POVs, making the story a bit hard to follow. Overall, I enjoyed it.

This is a smart book, an interesting book but it was hard for me to read as the style was more technical/detached than i like. It worked for the story but not for the kind of reader I am. It is worth the read though despite this 3.5

This is an interesting concept for speculative fiction, surrounding a project to eradicate loneliness, a feeling that is supposed to have already disappeared. It took me a bit to get into the book and the plot, but once I did, I really liked how smart the social commentary was.

This is definitely a slow burn. A poignant look at the idea of loneliness, though I often think about how the technology presented in near future worlds make people feel less tangibly human.

This book didn’t grab me at all. I didn’t like the main characters. I wasn’t interested in the story. I slogged through a third of it before giving up. I think other people who are more into sci-fi than I am might like it.