This book was a fantastic read! This is a story about a girl, Jane, raised in close to solitude by her recluse father. It's the early 90s and technology is booming and internet access is spreading to most homes across the country. Jane's father has told her many things over the years -that he's a brilliant Harvard grad, that her mother died in a car crash, and that technology is going to ruin the world. As Jane comes of age, she's starting to question how much of what her father has told her, she can believe.

This is such a compelling story of nature vs. nurture. A girl is raised in a cabin in the woods in the middle of nowhere, yet still manages to have a certain amount of street smarts (though maybe not bus smarts). Despite her father's attempt at indoctrination, she manages to see through the lies and come to her own truth. I loved both her spirt and how she interacts with the friends she meets along the way.

What Kind of Paradise will be the book of the summer. Taut pacing, interesting and rich characters, and an important examination of our current culture. There are few people that can't find something to love out of this book.

This book gave me glimpses of what I loved in the memoir Educated and the standalone books by William Kent Krueger. I loved this coming of age in the technology boom story. I loved the perspective of the main character in her retelling of her story. This was both tragic and entertaining. Very well done.

Family secrets and complicated relationships. I really enjoyed this thriller. It is very engaging and I needed to know more about Esme’s journey with every page.

What Kind of Paradise was my first read by Janelle Brown, and it absolutely delivered. This is a slow-burn, character-driven literary mystery that blends coming-of-age, family drama, and a subtle critique of our tech-obsessed world. It’s smart, eerie, and quietly gripping.

The story centers on 17-year-old Jane, who lives off the grid in a remote Montana cabin with her father. She’s been raised to fear technology and rely only on him. Her world is limited—books, survival skills, old-school philosophy, and black-and-white episodes of The X-Files—but she starts to question everything as her father grows more secretive and distant.

When Jane discovers her father may not be who he claims to be, she escapes to San Francisco, hoping to piece together the truth about her past and her mother’s death. What follows is both a suspenseful mystery and a powerful exploration of identity, trust, and the consequences of the choices our parents make.

Brown’s writing is clean and immersive—it pulls you in without needing to be flashy. The themes are bold and timely: the isolating effects of technology, the blurred line between paranoia and foresight, and how we navigate truth in a world full of digital noise. It’s also a bit of a ’90s throwback, which adds a nostalgic flavor to the plot.

While it took a little time to unfold, I didn’t mind the pace. The slow layering of secrets, the philosophical undertones, and Jane’s gradual transformation made the journey worth it. I only docked a star because I wanted just a bit more depth in a few spots—but overall, this is a thoughtful and absorbing read. Highly recommend if you enjoy literary thrillers with heart and brains.

A big thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Random House | Random House for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

WHAT KIND OF PARADISE
BY: JANELLE BROWN

I have read and enjoyed Author, Janelle Brown before and really enjoyed it, so when I saw this I was looking forward to reading it. "WHAT KIND OF PARADISE," this latest novel was one that took me back in time to the 1990's before I got married and had my children, which are in their twenties now. I thought that Jane was an interesting character because for a young girl her age she was very bright who was so isolated living off the grid with her father in a shack in Montana. Jane was inquisitive and curious enough to start to question the narrative her father had brought her up believing regarding her mother dying in a car accident. He starts leaving her alone for days at a time with no idea when he is going to be back more frequently than she's comfortable with. She happens by chance when she is left alone during one of his absences, she discovers something inside her father's bedroom that contradicts their life story he's always told her about her mother that now has Jane doubting he told her the truth, which she starts Jane on her quest to look for more information about her mother. She starts looking forward to her father's absences so she can have the time to look for more information to help her find out what the real story is that transpired. Her father might be onto her because the next time he leaves he locks his bedroom door. Why would the only parent that has raised her mislead her? Is he hiding more than just the information regarding her mother? Jane continues to look in his room when he disappears again. her She only had one friend who they drifted apart partly because it was the daughter of the bookstore owner that lost interest in Jane when her friend was excited about extending her formal, more traditional education than Jane's home schooled education.
But this is an extremely bright person which I was impressed that Jane is able to read a book about HTML computer coding, and was able to teach herself how to build a website to host her father's manifesto in order for his ideology to reach a larger audience. She's surprised when her father returns home from one of his mysterious trips and he has a 1990's model computer, which then he presents her with the book of HTML computer programming, and she designs the website by herself that also gives her an opportunities she never imagined she would have. She meets a young man online in a chat room, and he gives her ideas of how she can further investigate what happened to her mother.

I don't want to give too much more away since I think that the reader who picks this novel, "WHAT KIND OF PARADISE," will enjoy this more by knowing less. It is another compelling novel written by Janelle Brown that is uniquely written with a clever premise. What happens raises a lot of questions that would make this a perfect choice for Book Club discussion. I look forward to reading whatever Janelle Brown writes in the future.

Publication Date: June 3, 2025! AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE NOW.

Thank you to Net Galley, Janelle Brown, and Random House Publishing Group--Random House for generously providing me with my ARC, in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own, as always.

#WhatKindofParadise #JanelleBrown #RandomHousePublishingGroupRandomHouse #NetGalley

From off-the-grid Montana to the tech world of San Francisco, this book takes you all over the place. How does a young girl who has been raised in isolation learn to live in the "real" world and how does she learn to see her father's true self? Throw in an uncaring and aloof mother who she meets for the first time as a teenager and you have all the ingredients for an unusual read. So, if you're up for something different, give this one a try.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. It's an impactful journey.

FIVE HUNDRED STARS!!! This book is what so many other books strive to be. Hear that, Where the Crawdads Sing? This story is all the feels in the best ways! Every single page is worth reading. No dull, draggy parts. I am still not ready to say goodbye to Jane!! Jane grows up with her dad, mostly off the grid, in the woods of Montana. She has very little experience with the outside world. As she enters her teens, she gets more and more curious and begins asking some questions about where she came from, is her mom really dead, stuff like that. Her dad does something terrible and she becomes an unwitting accessory. What follows is a super-suspenseful thriller/coming of age story that I could not put down and want to pick back up and read again! I have been a huge Janelle Brown fan for a while, Pretty Things is one of my favorite books, but she knocks it out of the park with this one! As I said, I absolutely loved Jane! Each time she did or thought something that made me think there was just no way, all was explained and made perfect sense. I rooted SO hard for her. Her father is written so well, that you can still feel for him and the futility of what he thinks he is accomplishing even as he does horrible acts. This story takes place in the early nineties as we are just beginning to experience the impact of the internet and that boundless technology. I was in my early 20's during that time and loved reliving that newness here. Many questions are brought up that I am finding myself asking now in my real life, such as how much AI is too much and how far is it going to go? This may be my favorite book of 2025, and it is only February. Do not let this book languish in your TBR pile!! READ IT!!

Thank you to #NetGalley, Janelle Brown and Random House Publishing Group for this much-loved ARC. All opinions are my own.

I will post my review to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Instagram and other retail and social media sites upon publication day of June 10, 2025.

Thank you Netgalley and Random House for this arc.

I don’t usually read arcs from Netgalley, I limit myself to listening to alcs but when I got an email from Random House offering me this arc I couldn’t resist. What Kind of Paradise is an exploration of identity, technology, and the complexities of family bonds.

Set in the mid-1990s, the story follows Jane, a teenage girl raised in isolation by her father in a remote Montana cabin. Her upbringing, steeped in 19th-century philosophy and devoid of modern conveniences, is disrupted when she uncovers unsettling truths about her past and her father’s intentions. This revelation propels her to flee to San Francisco, a city on the cusp of the internet revolution, where she seeks answers about her mother’s death and her own identity.

We all know how technology has impacted our lives, we live with our cellphones glued to our hands, and I remember very well - a woman born in the early 80s - when I first used a computer and how amazed that technology was for that era. I felt a wide range of emotions reading this novel: amazement, anger, sadness. I felt heartbroken at times. This story delves into ethical and societal questions, and explores relationships between parents and their children.

What Kind of Paradise is twisty and sharp. Brown tackles digital utopianism and cultish mindsets, but also digs into what happens when those systems are built on secrets and control. The suspense keeps you turning pages and when you realizes it, you devoured the whole book. Highly recommend this novel.

Ok this book is a tough one for me to rate, if I’m being honest. It actually kept my attention all the way through. It was written in a really unique way, and I was enjoying it. But I think the pacing at times is where I struggled, as well as the ending. It was fast paced for a few chapters and then drug for a few chapters.

But the ending? I wanted to get to the end and feel shocked in some way. I wasn’t. And maybe that’s what the author was going for. Because I just kept waiting for more, and it didn’t get there for me. This book is genred as a historical fiction though, so that is important to remember going in.

If you enjoy documentaries on crimes, then I do think this would be a really good choice for you. It was written in a really unique, story telling way.

Thank you to Random house publisher, Netgalley and Janelle Brown for allowing me to read this book. Wow! This book was so captivating it cost me sleep. I woke up early to read it and stayed up late. I couldn't flip the pages past enough to see what happened. I am recommending this book to everyone I know. The characters and story line were memorable, the only minor negative could be maybe to much technology. I can see this book being made into a movie. Thank you for writing a book that I loved.

I went into this book pretty blind. I had heard about it from a podcast I love, and was curious about its Montana setting. I was very excited when I discovered it takes place in the mid-90s (I’m currently obsessed with that decade and reliving my youth), but I hadn’t even read the synopsis when I started.

This book is about a teenage girl who lives in isolation with her father in the deep woods of Montana. The only people she interacts with are her father and, on rare occasions, a friend from the nearby town. The only world she knows is the woods and her father’s teachings, who insists he’s giving her a Harvard education for the price of nothing. She spends her days helping him care for the land and their cabin, reading philosophy and other antiquated texts, and wondering what her mother was like. All she knows is that she was a kindergarten teacher who died in an awful car wreck. As Jane gets older, she starts to have more questions that expand as her father starts doing odder things. She begs to go with him on his trips away, and in doing so, puts herself in the middle of a tragic event. From there, her world starts to unravel and the question becomes whether she will put it all together again, this time alone.

This story turned out to be more than I thought it would. It was unique and kept me invested. There are themes of nurture vs. nature, found family, coming-of-age, and finding oneself. But the most prominent theme to me was technology and what it does to society. I found myself rooting for the main character, for her to find herself, realize the truth, and set out on her own.

One of my favorite lines was “Life is a constant emotional calibration” … because isn’t it just??

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy. I had seen a lot of positive reviews on this book, so was excited to read it, but I was underwhelmed. I didn’t like any of the characters, except maybe Lionel, and the pacing was so uneven. I do think the author captured the vibe of the 90s dot-com boom, but that’s my only highlight.

I received and ARC of the ebook from the publisher on NetGalley. Overall, this was a well written story. There were a few periods that felt a little slow and the storyline took a bit to pick up again. It does hook you from the beginning and takes you on the path with the FMC through her discovery of the truth of her life. Overall a good read.

Enjoyed the e-ARC so much that I chose it as my BOTM for June.

Jane and her father live on the fringe of society, only leaving their small Montana cabin to deliver her father’s anti-technology zine to the local bookstore. When he brings home a computer so his manifesto can be published online, Jane starts to question everything he’s taught her.

Developed characters in an engaging plot. Excellent pacing that moves the plot along. Main character does have a minor romantic arc that doesn’t distract from the rest of the story.

I especially enjoyed seeing Jane learn the modern world in “real time” and the self awareness she builds as she begins interacting with more people.

Janelle Brown is an excellent writer, she pulls you in from the very beginning.
The story itself had a very interesting plot.
I was immediately captivated by the plot and premise of this book, and it held my attention until the very end.
The book was also very well-written, making it an easy and enjoyable read.
The characters were believable and very well written.
Believable characters and expertly woven details make this a terrific novel.

I love when the stars align perfectly and the exact right book lands in my hands at the exact right time for my reading mood. With the world a mess and feeling pummeled by the constant cycle of bad news at my fingertips, What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown was both a wild escape from - and a think piece for - our current realities. It introduces us to a teenage girl, Jane, growing up in the late 1990s off the grid—in a cabin in Montana—with her increasingly paranoid father who has been educating(/indoctrinating) her in his movement against the march of technology since her mother’s long-ago death in California. It’s a coming-of-age story, as Jane starts to piece together more and more hard truths about her existence and a string of events upends the world as she knows it. It’s a suspense story exploring people’s evolving moral compasses and the mental gymnastics of determining—while suffering the consequences of one’s mistakes—how to make things “right.” It’s a story of love, loyalties, and families lost and found (and lost again). Not knowing how this book (out in June!) will be marketed, it’s hard to talk about it without giving away its twists and turns. But I thoroughly enjoyed coming into it without knowing exactly what I was getting into—even while knowing in my gut parts of what would come next (after all, this is loosely based in part by something very much in recent memory). I think this is going to be a big hit this summer! It was a mesmerizing win for me. Reading experience comparison: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. Thanks to @netgalley for the digital copy I started with before getting my greedy hands on this ARC.

This is my first book by this author, and it was a winner. Jane and her dad live in a cabin in the woods of Montana. She knows nothing about her past except that they used to live in San Francisco and her mom died in a car accident, but as Jane comes of age, she starts to question everything her father has ever told her. She then learns that her dad is a criminal, prompting her to escape and head to San Francisco to investigate her past.

Janelle Brown writes beautifully, and I don't mean in a flowery prose sort of way; her writing sucks you in and keeps you turning pages to find out what happens next. This was such a compelling read and very thought-provoking. There are plenty of genres to describe this one, and it didn't bother me at all. This is a character-driven literary mystery, a coming-of-age tale, and a smidgen of romance all in one. It asks the question, "Has the internet and technology improved our lives or has it ruined us?"

The author magnificently builds suspense and slowly peels away the layers of family secrets like an onion. This isn't just a mystery or thriller in the usual sense; it's really about how our parents' choices impact our lives far into the future and whether we can ever escape them. The premise is utterly unique and executed well. I have to admit that it is a slow burn as we learn about everything from the past, but in a really good way, I thoroughly enjoyed it. And it was a great throwback to the '90s.

3.5 stars. This one was not at all what I expected, and I think it has a different vibe from what Brown usually writes. I expected a thriller, but this is definitely more of a family drama, and once I settled into that idea, I became more invested in the story. Jane is raised off the grid in the Montana woods by her dad after her mom dies in a car accident. I can't discuss too much more of the plot without giving away huge spoilers, but I like how Brown depicted the isolation of Jane's life, and how she changed throughout the book. There were parts of the plot that frustrated me as a reader, and I tried to come back to the character development to better understand the plot choices Brown made. This one isn't my favorite by Brown, but I will still check her out in the future.