Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the e-book ARC of “What Kind of Paradise”! I don’t want to give away what the main plot of this story was but it definitely wasn’t what I was expecting from the summary blurb and the title/cover. The first 30% of the book was slow but took off for me after. This is a family drama with a little bit of mystery. The plot was so different than anything I’ve ever read. It takes place mostly in the late 90s and focuses a lot on the rise of technology and the different perspectives that created. That’s all I’ll say!

In this book, 17-year-old Jane has been living in isolation with her father since she was four years old. Her mother had been killed in a car accident and they moved to a cabin in the woods in Montana. Jane's fahter insists they have to fear the feds and even has an escape tunel under their cabin. A harvard graduate, he homeschools Jane and publishes a zine. One day, Jane finds something that makes her question everything she knows, and when her father brings a computer home to publish his manifesto, she gains additional knowlege about the outside world. Jane convinces her father to take her on his next trip, which upends her life. This book is primarily about Janes journey, but it deals with the evolution and uses of technology, which is interesting food for thought in this age of AI.

I received this ARC from net galley, and I quite enjoyed it. This is the story of Jane/Esme, a child raised by two parents in the computer tech industry at its inception. Her father, a genius, albeit a troubled one, chooses to fake their deaths when she is a child, assume new identities, and move them to the woods of Montana to escape from what he views as the evils of computers, technology, and their growing roles within the world and daily human life. I don’t want to give too much away here, but this story felt plausible, and I’m sure that most parts of it have actually happened in the modern world. I enjoyed the characters, and surprisingly found all of the main ones to have relatable aspects. Just as much as this novel is commentary on technological advances, so is it the story of a young woman unraveling her past, coming to terms with her present, and deciding what her future will be for herself. Enjoyable, relatively quick read!

I really hope this ends up being my favorite book of the year!

We are introduced to our narrator, Jane, who has only known the Montana wilderness, raised by her father in an isolated cabin in the woods. Her father explains to her the dangers of the real world, and she believes all of them. Until she stumbles upon the truth of her past and ultimately the key to future, she thought she would never have.

I have almost nothing but good things to say about this novel. It's suspenseful, sad, isolating, but also full of hope, love and what it means to grow up, especially from a sheltered upbringing. Jane was such an easy character to love and cheer on. I felt like over the course of the novel, I was becoming her family and helping her discover herself along the way. The other secondary characters were also woven so well, that I felt I knew them just as long as Jane had.

I fell in love with this novel from the very first chapters. My only issue was the predictability of the plot. I felt like I knew what was going to happen long before it did. This didn't make it a bad novel by any means, but sometimes those unexpected twists really elevate the writing.

I would recommend this over and over to all of my friends and family. One of my favorite novels is the Great Alone by Kristin Hannah. I got the same vibes from this, but with a modern take/twist.

10/10. I honestly would reread it once it's published!

I want to thank NetGalley, the author, and the publishers for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars - I have read & enjoyed the author's work before, and “What Kind of Paradise” appealed to me with it’s 90’s rural Montana to Bay Area settings and the start of our tech world. This is not really a standard thriller, it's more of a suspenseful family drama, and it was slow in places, but also very immersive & atmospheric reading and I really felt for young Jane growing up so isolated with her nut-case father, Saul. The nostalgic vibes also got me here - enjoyed that part a lot - this is quite a different read. Overall, really enjoyed it & recommend. My thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for the “widget” for my advance reader’s copy - greatly appreciate the invitation to experience this one!

I'm obsessed with this book! I went in blind and so glad I did. This was my first Janelle Brown book and I can't wait to read more. This book gives "The Great Alone" meets the book of the 90s technology boom in California. I loved the mix of her growing up with the vibes of the 90s. Jane grows up with her father alone in a cabin in Montana. This is the story of how she ended up there, and how she develops into an adult, having to make some imperative, life altering decisions. Its a coming of age story mixed with some mystery and action. I couldn't put it down!!

Overall it was a good solid story with intense twists but it just seems to drag in the middle and lost me part way through.

I absolutely loved her book “watch me disappear” and have bought and recommend it countless times. I was extremely excited for her new book. The premise interested me as I do like books with people removed from society, etc. I really liked the main character and the plot up until the San Fran part. I felt it started to drag in the middle there and seemed a bit unbelievable. I was hoping for that twist at the end like in her other book, but it just got a little too long winded with the father character. Also some of the computer jargon was a bit boring, hate to say. I did however enjoy learning what it looked like in the beginning stages of the internet. That kept my interest.

What Kind of Paradise is a literary thriller split into two distinct parts - the first one had me waiting for the other show to drop and the second part had me wanting to never put the book down, wondering how the story would resolve itself. This book goes so much deeper than the average thriller, exploring themes of technology and AI on society. Highly recommend and can easily see this being one of the best books of 2025.

A young girl is being raised in the woods alone by her father after her mother's death. Her father home schools her and rarely lets her go into town. Then her father starts writing a manifesto. Set in the 80s/early 90s. I loved it.

I'm not sure how to really rate this book. The beginning pulled me in right away but once Jane/Esme "ran away" things got muddier for me. Too many things fell into place to easily, especially when she had been living as a recluse the majority of her life. How would one really react if dropped into an unfamiliar environment and learning that everything you knew about your life was a lie? The ending also left me wanting more. I wanted to see how she actually made her way through the years following her father's arrest. So...I'm mixed on this one!

Wow! Imagine everything you were told and believe about your family is fabricated; your name, your history, the fact that your mother is alive, but but that your father faked yours and his own death! What a journey to discover your true identity and to find your mother, despite your fathers far flung beliefs.

I feel like this book wasn’t bad it just wasn’t the right time for me to read! I will be trying it again at a later date!

A very quick and compelling read, with enough suspense and intrigue to make it a page turner. Jane has no memory of her mother, and has reached the age of 17 being raised by her father in a remote Montana cabin, living off the land as much as possible. He teaches her with a great-books approach as their contact with the wider world is extremely limited. When he decides to move from a self-published zine to a website so he reaches more people with his "manifesto", he brings the internet into their home, opening a whole new world to Jane. Soon, she is determined to find a mother she believed was dead, and to escape what increasingly feels like confinement not home. Her complicity in her father's actions starts to unravel a life she is attempting to build in the "real world," and her story unfolds in unexpected ways.

I asked to read by “What Kind of Paradise” by Janelle Brown as I enjoyed all of her work. This book was no exception.

Can you imagine being raised without any ties to technology or current culture? “What Kind of Paradise” addresses this possibility in an intriguing way. Jane is being raised in the mid-nineties by her father. She is homeschooled and only sees one peer during her occasional visits into town with her father. While her father is super smart, he scorns the way society is headed and has a lot to say about that.

Yet, when Jane has a chance to leave her seclusion, she ends up in San Francisco at the emergence of the Internet and the dot.com world. Part coming of age story and part thriller, I loved Brown’s perspective of the nineties and her portrayal, especially of San Francisco. I did feel at times that Janelle Brown was a bit obvious with the statement she was trying to make, but her position still did not subtract from what I considered to be an enjoyable story.

Thanks to the author, Net Galley and the publisher for a chance to read this captivating book.

A really captivating, page turner. I was immersed in Jane’s story and learning her truths. Highly recommend. Thank you NetGalley!

Really a great, well-rounded coming of age story with complex questions about love and ethics ... but honestly I mostly enjoyed this book for its delightful reconjuring of the "digital revolution" of the mid-90s in San Francisco. I worked at one of the companies the author modeled many scenes after and it was hilarious to "revisit" people, places, and ideas of yesteryear. Thanks to #Netgalley for the early read!

The writing style was fine, but I didn't care for the father, and the setting just didn't seem like the most appropriate for the storyline. It didn't hold my attention. Overall, nothing will really stick with me now that I have finished the book.

Why oh why did I let this fantastic book languish on my TBR list for so long??? The book grabbed me from the very first pages and didn’t let up. Rarely do I finish a book in only a couple of days but this story about “Jane” and her Luddite father kept me reading late into the night and I’m okay with the lost sleep.

I knew very little about this book before starting it and I’m glad I went in kind of blind. It’s not really a thriller although it’s labeled as one and I think that is a disservice to this brilliant book. It seemed more of a literary fiction and perhaps somewhat of a coming of age story.

I’ve read several of the author’s books and this one is my favorite. Highly recommend to all who enjoy a beautifully written book filled with thought provoking questions

***Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this upcoming book***
What if your father was the Unabomber? That is the concept of this very entertaining and fast paced novel. This is the first book of Janelle Brown's that I have read and would gladly read the rest of her works.