I’m going to be real honest here and say that I have no idea what was going on in this book 😂.

There were so many characters, they were all a little quirky, everyone was on a bus tour. There was an announcement years before that everything was actually a simulation, and there were bots running everything?

And all these people on the bus tour were going to see the glitches? There’s a zipper? A tunnel where you go through and time stops outside the tunnel but goes on in the tunnel and everyone sees something differently.

Like, this is one of those books where I feel like maybe I’m not smart enough to get the bigger picture. Or if I read it at another time I’d get it. I was following along at parts and then it lost me, and the end got so chaotic? Like the final 20% was just, what even was happening there was this sheep?! And just SO MANY characters.

The cover of this book is just so pretty. I will say that 😂. I don’t even know. Read the synopsis and decide whether you’d like to dive in. It’s for a 4 star rating on Goodreads so ya know what someone got it just wasn’t me 😂. I’ll still give it a 3 though cause sometimes it was a funny mess 😂.

Thank you @netgalley and @sagapressbooks for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Cool concept and definitely going to be a hit with certain audiences. I'm not that audience but that's my problem. Nothing about this book.

I’ve been thinking that it was time for a Gregory when I heard about his upcoming release. He’s on my shortlist of favorite authors, but the interesting thing about that is how generally reluctant I am to re-read his books. Though he is particularly good at bringing characters to life in emotional ways, they often go through a hard path to the moment of catharsis. For me his works are theoretically re-readable due to quality and complexity, but in real life, I’ve only re read Afterparty and We Are All Completely Fine. Thankfully, he’s been a slow but steady publisher so I can enjoy his style in new stories.

Gregory, you say. Who is he? Oh, you know, one of those wildly undervalued authors–at least commercially–who has had his works nominated for Nebula, Locus, World Fantasy and Shirley Jackson Awards, so clearly people in the know are paying attention. He’s readable, with a tone that feels almost humorous at times, until the character has his heart wrenched out. He writes, in an interesting way, about the now, and I’ve come to think of him as a zeitgeist author. Not in a bad, topical surface way, with works that won’t make much sense in a decade, let alone this year, but in an ‘understand the moment’ kind of way. He’s done that again with When We Were Real. You should probably read it if you like to think about online life and what makes us human.

I hesitate to say much about the story, because I think it’s deliciousness is in the unfolding. Save to say that, of course, the blurb gets it partially wrong. If you know anything about The Canterbury Tales–and I didn’t know much, but Wikipedia helped me along–is that it is a story of a journey, both real and philosophical, told from multiple points of view. Gregory bows to convention enough to tie them together with a head-scratching plot. But much like The Last Policeman, the story is in how the individual is choosing to cope with The Event. Oh, The Event, you say? That we’re living in The Matrix. As I said, a zeitgeist author.

I love the tongue-in-cheek tone, just wry enough to make me smile, and sometimes wince:

About JP, one of our travelers: “A year ago he had a bout with brain cancer, and took early retirement in the same way a boxer takes an unguarded uppercut. Out by TKO.”

About the nurse on the trip: “This one is divorced with no children, a crime punishable, evidently, with a lifetime sentence of unpaid chaperoning.” Ouch. Stop seeing me.

And just to make sure the reader understands their own role: “A person we’ll call THE READER is sitting quietly, turning the pages of their book… they’re here now, and happy to ignore the other passengers, as if everything they need to know is encoded in the sentences on the page.”

Yep. Pretty brilliant. In my own thoughts, I think it got a little bananas at the end, and then he had the nerve to go and make me sad. Still, super-creative–particularly the North American Impossibles, the local attractions that prove the Simulation. Highly recommended, and highly re-readable. But first, I’m going to go re-read We Are All Completely Fine.

Four and a half sheep, rounding up.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy for review.

I loved this book. Had a bit of everything; dystopian world where we’re living in a simulation, strange, but familiar world, awesome cast of characters.

Everyone in the world wakes up to the same message: You are living in a simulation.

A bus load of tourists are on a tour of all the “impossibles” in strange anomalies that pop due to the simulation. My favorite impossible is the Tunnel; people can only enter alone and time completely stops while someone is inside the tunnel.

A lot of characters, but all were really well developed. I loved them all; even the ones that were problematic.

I’d read more books from this universe. One of my favorite reads of the year!

These are the kind of books I enjoy. This book is the definition of escape. Road trip story with lots of eccentric characters. Don't read if you don't have an imagination and enjoy magical realism. Fun book. Will continue to enjoy Darryl Gregory's strange brain. A new favorite!
A 2025 road trip book for the ages. " On The Road for the woke."

A must read! I loved this book. Matrix mixed with The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy and On The Road.
Makes you laugh, makes you cry, makes you think.

Overall, it was a smart and funny story about a group of people on a bus tour to see glitches (North America’s “Impossibles”) after it was announced that we were living in a simulation.

Once I got through the first chapter—where majority of the characters were introduced all at once—it became a fun read. At times, my mind wandered due to the number of characters and storylines, which made it a bit hard to follow.

Thank you to S&S/Saga Press and NetGalley for the advance reader’s copy.

2 stars

This book is not for me. Based on the ratings, there are lots of people that really enjoyed it. I DNF’d at 45%. Since I didn’t finish it, I’m not giving it a star rating on here.

I thought this book was going to be plot heavy based on the synopsis and it’s very character heavy - & there are about 10 characters.

This story is also very vulgar. It felt unnecessary and didn’t add anything to the story.

Read if you enjoy:
🎥 The Matrix movie
🤳 Influencers/Social Media
🤬 Adults behaving badly
🌏 The search for the purpose of life (in a sense)

This one is out now. Thank you to NetGalley & Saga Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I had really enjoyed Gregory’s Spoonbenders (2017) and I was very excited for this one. I don’t even know how to describe it, all I can say is it was a wild trip. There are a lot of characters on this crazy bus ride and I was really impressed with how Gregory handled building them, how they all played into the story and how they managed to drive some of the points Gregory was making. The “glitches” and the concepts were creative. While what reality is, is a core question of the novel, the existentialism is filtered through very humorous writing. Despite it being some 400+ pages, I flew through it, all with a grin on my face. I recommend this to anyone in need of a chaotic and entertaining read.

I figured I'd like this book, a story of a group of strangers going on a road trip across America a few years after they've been told that their world is actually a simulation. I ended up loving this book, a story of cruces of friendships, found family, consequences of impulsiveness, being chronically online, and reckoning with mortality and grief.

The story may seem overwhelming at first, with so many characters and being thrown into a new world. But the characters get fleshed out over time, things come together, and even if the character doesn't have a ton of them-focused time, they still manage to be thought-through. There isn't a part of this book that isn't necessary for the story in my opinion, and I thought that was great. I even had a surprise bawlfest for a hot second near the end. Like I've implied, there is a lot going on, and probably someone for any reader to begin to identify with.

In conclusion, I loved it. Such a good story.

Thanks to S&S Saga Press and Netgalley for the e-ARC.

This was a trip- literally and figuratively. We meet a group of folks who are heading out to visit... well, it's sort of like the Seven Wonders of the World, but more like The Weirdest Junk in the Simulated World. Basically, these are glitches that make no sense, but are proof that the world is no longer "real". And so, there are tour companies making bank taking folks on tours there, because of course there are.

We follow a very motley crew on this bus trip- two nuns and a rabbi (the jokes practically write themselves), two middle-aged male besties, a pregnant teen influencer, a podcaster and his reluctant son, a loner, and a group of randy octogenarians. They all have reasons for being on this trip, which is lead by a tour guide who has never guided, and a bus driver who is just... over it. And then someone else joins the band, and the whole thing goes from strange to bonkers.

This is a really fun journey, getting to know all these passengers. They are all grappling with the whole "world being fake" thing, which is entertaining, and also a lot of very heavy life stuff, which is less fun but also very poignant. There are also a lot of exciting moments on the journey too, lest you think it is too slow. Overall, it was a really fun adventure!

Bottom Line: A quirky, entertaining road trip with some very cool twists and incredible characters!

absurdist and really interesting. well written throughout and generally pretty good! the characters are cool and the attractions are fun. 5 stars. tysm for the arc.

An engineer, a comic book writer, a rabbi, a nun, two wannabe influencers, and four horny octogenarians get on a bus. These modern pilgrims are traveling to see the Impossibles that cropped up after they learned that they're living in a simulation. A tale both hilarious and heartwarming; a can't-miss modern fairy tale.

A lot of characters in this book and at first,
I had to make a card to keep them straight. JP, although the main character (I'm guessing because we curcle back to him at the end), gets lost in the cast. I was very invested to here more about Sister Janet's experience in the tunnel, but it was kind of glossed over. She took care of the forest... ok, for years! Let's talk more about her day to day in the Tunnel. Don't understand where Chet from CET brought Margaret at the end. Deletion? Another lab? Prison?
Lots of loose ends and some technical programing lingo I had to look up.

When We Were Real is an unusual book. It begins as a mashup of The Matrix and the 14th century Canterbury Tales. Seriously. But in ends as a meta look at something completely different. So even if I usually begin my reviews with a plot summary, I won’t do it this time. It is much better to read this wonderful and thought provoking book without any clue what it is about.

I do however want to mention how fully fleshed out the characters were by the end of the book. In the beginning, they were just presented with labels as names: the engineer, the nurse, the influencer, etc. But soon they felt like friends just telling you of their adventures. Like the Canterbury Tales, each chapter tells the story of one of the characters from their point-of -view.

Overall, I loved When We Were Real even more after I had some time after reading to appreciate its premise and mastery of characterization. It is definitely science fiction. But it should also appeal to mystery readers as the characters struggle to figure out the impact of being stuck in a simulation (and what are the simulators’ true goals). The answers will surprise you. 5 stars and a favorite.

Thanks to NetGalley and Saga Press for providing me with an advanced review copy.

A "what if" story... that is done really well!

What if this is all a simulation and we are just coded in to our lives?

But this story is deeper than that. It is a wild ride of unexpected things at every turn. Lots of these twists I did not see coming at all.

I struggled a bit at the beginning trying to keep track of the cast of characters, but the characters in the main focus settled in quickly for me.

The ending though!! Gah!! It makes me hope that there will be a continuation of this fascinating story!

This was my first Daryl Gregory novel but it won't be my last!

I would like to thank Netgalley and S&S/Saga Press for the digital copy of this book! It was published on April 1, 2025.

I was taken along an entertaining cross country ride with a group of people in a stimulation. It was quite stimulating, figuratively and literally. I liked that we got each unique POV, their story and their experiences with the glitches. However at the end of the day, I found that this book is not for me, despite how entertaining it was. There were moments it was too absurd that it would take me literally out of the stimulation, the story. I do recommend this book to anyone who loves absurdist fiction and speculative fiction.

Thank you to the author @SagaPressbooks for the arc and the opportunity to read this book.

Sometimes I forget how much I love sci-fi until I read a sci-fi novel such as this one. Learning that I was living in a simulation would be my worst nightmare so of course I was intrigued by this novel and its premise. The multiple POVs adds layers to a story that is already thought-provoking in and of itself. Really loved this book!

This book is a surprising gem. I must admit to a certain wariness regarding simulation narratives (we're all in a computer, oh no!), as, first, it's a worn trope at this point and, second, it's become amenable to reactionary and regressive ideologies. But this novel manages to revive the trope in good form! In part, it's because it's a genuinely funny novel, with excellent character work. The characters are distinct personalities, but they also represent different aspects of US culture, politics, and society (I especially love the comic book writer, Dulin, the nuns—yes, more than one—and the rabbi). Moreover, the novel doesn't lead up to the reveal that the characters live in a simulation. Instead, it begins with it (or, more precisely, the reveal precedes the novel's story). Instead of some heroic narrative in which the chosen one challenges the machines, we've got everyday people wrestling with the existential anxiety that their lives might be meaningless. It's a novel that's both heady and heartfelt. Well worth a read!

I don't really read blurbs or marketing before choosing what to read anymore, I've found that I get greater enjoyment if I enter a book without any preconceived notions. So the central conceit of When We Were Real (which is explicitly laid out in the jacket copy) came as a complete surprise to me.

Me: Oh, this kinda has Ubik vibes.

Character in the book: [explicitly mentions Ubik]

Me: Welp, there you go.

This was absolutely delightful, and I will probably be reading it again before too much longer.

When We Were Real was so much fun. I loved every bit of it. The characters and their evolution throughout the adventure made this reading experience for me. I loved every creature - human and non-human. Oh, the hollow sheep. I want one. I'm recommending this book to all my scifi loving friends.

Now, I'm probably not the targeted demographic for this book (old-age pensioner here), but it was a hoot. The story takes place 7 years after Earth's inhabitants learn they are all part of a computer simulation. What more is there to say? If you enjoy this genre of science fiction, then pick it up.
I was very impressed that a man wrote such wonderful female characters and even did an excellent job describing a complicated labor and delivery (and I'm a birth doula with over 80 births under my belt. and am very picky about this in my fiction). He writes the male characters well, too.

Thanks to NetGalley for giving me an ebook version of the novel in exchange for a review.