This was an unusual story that grabbed my interest right away. I was surprised and then hooked on the mysterious circumstances of the protagonists' situation as an isolated daughter living with her father in the Montana woods since she was just a toddler.

As Jane grows older and starts wondering and trying to figure things out, realizing that the truth was far different from what her father had told her, we keep her company on her journey into the 'real' world as she grows into her own person but with something missing - knowing what really happened to her mother who she had thought was dead. The mystery and suspense propelled me forward.

The whole technology thing was interesting, particularly from a historical perspective, but it does get a little weird. I enjoyed the read quite a lot and want to thank NetGalley, Random House, and the author for allowing me to read an early eARC before the book is published. Look for it on June 3, 2025.

This is a very different book than I usually read. I father daughter living off the grid with the father's very obscured views of the world. This read as more of a drama than a suspense. At times the pacing is a little slow, but overall a great story.
I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was one of my most highly anticipated reads for this summer and it lived up to expectations. While it started off slowly, the middle and end more than made up for the slow beginning.

Jane lived a secluded life in a Montana cabin with her father. He's her whole world. She barely ever leaves their cabin - her father is even homeschooling her - and she doesn't have much interaction with the outside world. Her father doesn't share much about their past and all she knows in that her mother died in a car accident. But as Jane gets older and reaches her teenage years, she wants to see the world beyond their cabin. She accompanies her father on one of his many trips and soon becomes an accomplice to a horrible crime. From there, Jane must make the difficult choice to either follow her father's wishes or learn more about her childhood and her mother. This leads her to San Francisco at the height of technology advancement.

This book was an interesting take on the technology revolution and brought me back to learning about computers and trying the internet for the first time. This was juxtaposed with Jane's story and learning to navigate the real world for the first time. She lived such a sheltered life, so strangers and public transportation were new experiences for her. I enjoyed seeing the world through her eyes, even though it was difficult at times. If you like a mix of historical fiction blended with a slow burn suspense, then this book might be for you.

Thank you to Random House for the opportunity to read and review.

What Kind of Paradise is a well-crafted suspense thriller and cautionary tale in one. The suspense comes as Jane, who has lived in a remote cabin in Montana for most of her life with her father, finds out her life is a lie at the same time she finds out she may be implicated in crimes he has committed. The cautionary tale plays out as a debate between people like Jane's father, who believes that computer technology will lead to all sorts of horrible societal problems, and people who are working at the cutting edge of that technology in the San Francisco Bay Area, and who believe in its worth to change society for the better.

The high stakes drama keeps the reader on the edge of their seat. Jane escapes from her father, but is constantly terrified that she will be discovered, either by him or the FBI. Knowing her father has lied to her about her upbringing, she also goes on a quest to find her mother who may or may not be alive, and to try and warn people who might be in line to be her father's next victims.

I read this book in two sittings, as the pages just seemed to turn themselves. It was a real treat to read a thriller that had as much intellectual substance as suspense. I am looking forward to reading more books by this author.. Many thanks to Random House and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

WOW. This book blew me away. A father and daughter living off the grid in a remote part of Montana. The father indoctrinates the daughter to his wild beliefs about government and technology. But as the daughter ages, he starts to lose his grip. Then he comes up with a plan to act on his beliefs and drags his daughter into it. Things go horribly wrong and secrets come to light. The daughter must choose between the only life she's ever known and the freedom she craves.

Jane was never supposed to question anything. All of her life came pre-packaged by her dad, Saul. A philosopher, survivalist, editor of a self-published manifesto zine called "Libertaire," and the man who raised her deep in the Montana wilderness with a bunker mentality and a god complex. According to him, the world is crumbling. "The Feds" are always watching. Technology is a disease. And college? That’s for indoctrinated sheep. She didn’t need a classroom. She had Saul. A “Harvard education,” he promised, without the debt or the lies.

What she didn’t have: freedom. Friends. Basic social knowledge. Hell, she didn’t even get full access to their tiny cabin. Saul’s office was locked. Jane only got glimpses when Saul left on his multi-day “errands” delivering "Libertaire" across the state. And what she found looked less like the story she’d been told and more like a mystery she was never meant to solve. A picture of her father, young and clean-shaven. A photograph of a woman holding a toddler who looked suspiciously like Jane. Her mother was supposed to be dead. Except... what if she wasn’t?

It’s the mid-1990s. Jane’s seventeen. She’s smart. And she’s starting to see the holes in the ideology she was raised to memorize.

Saul says they don’t need a TV. But he has one. Locked away. He claims it’s for “research,” to track the lies the world is spinning so he can use it to write his articles. Jane isn’t supposed to watch. But she learns to pick locks. And one night, while he’s gone, she discovers "The X-Files." It’s grainy and strange and full of coded messages about truth and lies and monsters who look a lot like authority figures. In other words, it speaks fluent Saul. But it doesn’t reinforce him. It makes her question him.

Then, against his own teachings, he brings home "Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML in a Week" and a computer. She doesn’t even really know what the internet is, but within five days, she’s built a website. It becomes the online headquarters of Saul’s manifesto. She’s gone from student to assistant. From daughter to data processor. And when she asks to join him on one of his “errands,” it’s with one goal in mind: to run away from him.

But she doesn’t know the plan has changed. She’s not just there. She’s part of it. A distraction while Saul carries out an attack that makes them fugitives overnight. Jane follows the escape protocol like she’s been trained to. Until she doesn’t.

Because her name’s not Jane. And she’s not seventeen. Everything about her life, from her past to her birth certificate, is a lie.

So she runs. Alone. Armed with nothing but a duffel full of questionable cash, a cracked understanding of the world, and a growing suspicion that her mother might be alive. Her destination: San Francisco. The city her father once called the beginning of the end, where dot-com dreams go to die and the digital age was born. If Saul thinks it’s evil, it might be where the truth lives.

The second half of "What Kind of Paradise" is a gritty, slow-burning metamorphosis. Jane doesn’t blossom. She claws her way out. She learns how to navigate a world she was taught to fear. How to interact with people who don’t speak in manifestos. How to survive without being told who she is. She finds a job. A tiny space to live. A person who makes her feel safe enough to let her guard down. She also learns that life doesn’t get easier just because you’ve left the cabin.

This isn’t a thriller, exactly. It’s a reckoning. Jane isn’t escaping the cabin. She’s untangling herself from a man whose belief system burned everything down. Saul didn’t raise her to survive the apocalypse. He was the apocalypse. And this is the story of what happens when the dust settles and the daughter is the one left behind to make sense of the fallout.

Janelle Brown doesn’t write easy heroes or cartoon villains. Saul isn’t some foaming technophobe. He’s brilliant. He’s terrifying. Jane is smart, but her power is different. She doesn’t burn. She builds. And it hurts. And it’s slow. But you root for her like your life depends on it.

There’s no big twist that makes it all click into place. No satisfying “gotcha.” What you get is something raw and devastating: a girl taking control of a story that was never hers to begin with and rewriting it in real time. Deeply intelligent, emotionally feral, and quietly original. It doesn’t shout. It lingers. And for that, it earns a scorching 4.5 stars.

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for the ARC and the spiral into mid-'90s moral chaos. I came for the manifesto and paranoia, stayed for the start of the dot-com bubble, and left questioning what we owe to the people who raise us — and what we risk by walking away.

This was more of a drama/mystery and less of a thriller due to the pacing, but I was deeply invested in the story.. I enjoyed the characters and the nineties throwback. The middle seemed to drag a bit but I was hooked in the beginning and found the ending to be satisfying. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced digital copy.

What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown focuses on Jane and sheds light on how technology and mental problems reallllllyyyy don’t mix. There’s a very fine line between being mentally ill and being incredibly intelligent in this and Brown had me wavering for a time trying to figure out which was the case here. I was unable to stop reading and felt myself tense up anytime Jane’s dad was on the page. I loved the end and when I finished this, I immediately added it to my list of faves for the year.

Somewhere between a 2.5-3 stars. Unfortunately this read just wasn’t for me. I think it should be clear this is not necessarily a thriller but more of a “coming of age” and general fiction/domestic drama. I was initially pulled in based on the description of this book but unfortunately the first half was just so slooow and I couldn’t pick it up! I really think the plot here is strong and such an interesting story but it was dragged out and could have drawn me in more otherwise. The MC Jane felt somewhat repetitive in her mistakes which drove me crazy. Lastly, the author is so well versed in her large vocabulary but it was really hard for me to follow and the flow was a bit overwhelming.

This book was completely different than anything I have ever read before. A father daughter duo living in rural Montana. The father convinced of the evil of the world. Daughter coming of age and knows there is more to discover in the world than the 4 walls of their cabin. The author takes you on a journey.

4 stars

Wow! What an interesting concept and wild ride. I was very impressed by the way this novel unfolded and was very invested in Jane’s journey.

Thank you to @RandomHouse and #NetGalley for the DRC of #WhatKindofParadise. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

Teenager Jane lives with her father in the woods of Montana. After a decade of isolation, Jane is questioning what her father has told her about their past and what he's taught her about the world. When her father commits a crime, Jane finds herself scared, alone and disillusioned. She flees to San Francisco, hoping to find answers. As a fish out of water in 90's era Silicon Valley, Jane begins to piece together her past.

If you're expecting a thriller, I think you'll be disappointed. The pacing is uneven and while there are some suspenseful parts, it's really more family drama. I've enjoyed several of Brown's other novels, and while this wasn't my favorite, I will continue to seek out her writing.

It started off slow with a backstory for how the characters got where they are today. Towards the middle I started enjoying it more and it picked up the pace. I loved the main character, how she grew as she got away from her father. There were many times I felt sad for her. The story takes place in a remote wooded area of Montana, and the west coast in California. The author did a great job describing the atmosphere!

3.5 stars

Very quickly, this book plays out as “What would it be like to be raised by the Unabomber in the 1990’s?” Jane, all alone with her brilliant Harvard educated anti-government survivalist father in rural Montana, has been isolated in a small cabin since the age of 4, when her mother supposedly died. Dad is an anti-tech manifesto writing demon and editor/essayist of a zine (remember those?) called Libertaire, but he does have a TV and weeks old newspapers, so Jane has a glimpse of the outside world, including occasional trips to Bozeman or Livingston. Also, when her lone parent disappears for days, she sneakily watches “X-Files.” Her personal world explodes as she turns 17, not when feds raid their cabin (it’s a sick drill perpetrated by her father), but when dad buys a computer and brings home a book called “Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML in a Week.” It only takes Jane 5 days.

This is a coming of age story of an intelligent homeschooled teenager at the rise of the early internet. She becomes her father’s web transcriptionist — adding his “The Luddite Manifesto” to a webpage, but also realizing his pleasure was usually tied to someone else’s displeasure. Then it happens: time to leave Montana.

This is a unique sort of historical fiction that will be experienced differently by readers who are digital natives vs. digital immigrants who remember being wowed by expensive hand held calculators and throwing out their slide rules. It’s a great way to re-live pop culture at the turn of the millennium and the dot com days of Silicon Valley. The Macarena. Blue’s Clues. Paul Frank. Frappuccino. Smashing Pumpkins. The author thoroughly depicts a young society that is excited about new tech and its possibilities (she was an editor at Wired Magazine in the 90s) and a girl who was indoctrinated to reject the same tech. And Janelle Brown does it so well. 5 stars for an intelligent and engrossing portrayal of a mesmerizing main character.

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): NO Only Jane’s blue eyes are really mentioned.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO The isolation and weather difficulties of living in rural Montana is succinctly described, leading Jane to experience even more loneliness.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy!

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed What Kind of Paradise and felt it was very well-written. I liked the main character and was rooting for her, and there was clarity on why she made certain decisions. There’s a coming-of-age aspect along with challenging family dynamics. I would recommend this book to friends and family, and I would read another book from this author.

This is my first time reading from this author. She is a good storyteller. This novel follows a young woman who lives off the grid with her father. She is very naive and unprepared for the real world and all of its challenges. This is a slow burn. Don’t expect much excitement and intensity. This book is interesting but I was hoping for more urgency and depth, A solid read from an author that I would read from in the future.

I really enjoyed the beginning of What Kind of Paradise — especially the early chapters with Jane and her dad in the wilderness. That dynamic pulled me in right away, and I thought it was such a strong and atmospheric start.

As the story progressed, the themes around identity, belonging, and self-discovery were definitely interesting, but I found myself feeling less drawn to pick it up as I got further in. Still, I’m glad I had the chance to read it. Janelle Brown has a real talent for creating complex characters and settings that feel vivid and real.

Thanks again for the opportunity!

I loved this author's previous novel, PRETTY THINGS, so I was excited to read this one.

I was so pleasantly surprised by this novel, I really enjoyed...or perhaps loved it! I've read plenty of books with an undertone of a "cult" or crazy dude who is prepping for the end of the world, sheltering someone and keeping them ignorant, etc. but this one felt different. I think it was the time period of the 90s and early 2000s that set it apart. The whole concept of the evils of the internet makes this a FANTASTIC book club pick. There is so much to unpack and discuss. I also felt that the characterization was well developed and the writing overall was really solid.

Bravo! I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up being a Read with Jenna pick for June?!

From start to finish: riveting.

The narration from Esme’s perspective was so rich. I could feel her as she struggled with the morality of her parents (for, at times, opposing and similar reasons), reckoning to align what she thought was true with a harsh reality that’s unfolding before her.

In spite of it all (and maybe this says more about me and my own upbringing than the novel), I felt strain on Esme and Adam’s relationship and how Esme still wanted to protect her dad.

And it was clear what drove Adam to do what he did. While I am not a Unabomber sympathizer, the Unabomber’s Manifesto has fascinated me since I first read it, and this was a wonderful exploration of that story.

I will certainly be reading more of Janelle Brown’s work. Thank you to Janelle Brown, Random House, and NetGalley for the ARC!

Book: What Kind Of Paradise
Author: Janelle Brown
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group - Random House
Pub Date: June 3, 2025

I LOVED this book! For awhile I thought this was slow because I was getting anxious to what was going to happen and what happened wasn’t what I was expecting at all. You are anticipating something with Jane’s dad but it wasn’t where my mind was going at all. This is a coming-of-age story for Jane as she tries to navigate a whole new world after living off the grid. She develops a relationship with a man named Lionel which was super sweet. (And you know how I feel about romance.) The characters and the story are very well developed and I just really liked Jane’s character. I thought the ending was perfect. So just remember if you think it’s slow just know the story is building and leading you where you need to go so stick with it. Wonderful job Janelle Brown!

Thank you Random House Publishing Group-Random House and NetGalley for this sneak peak! Publication date is June 3, 2025.