This book had me thinking long after I finished it, and I think that has much to do with the impact that AI is having on our world today. As an educator, I have been thinking all year about the impacts of AI on students, their educational life, and their future. What Kind of Paradise is focused on the impact of the internet on society and the "evils" that some people thought it would bring with it.

Of course, it is also about so much more. The plot is very engaging, and I was drawn in quickly to see what this woman was so afraid of in her past. And then it jumps in time back to Jane as a young girl growing up - completely off the grid - with her father, who is crazily insisting that the world is out to get them. And at first, I had no idea why he felt this way or who he had been in the past, but slowly we begin to realize that he was/is a tech genius. As we learn more about why he brought his daughter to live completely alone in the woods, we also begin to see her develop as a modern woman and form relationships with people other than her father. The whole time I was rooting for her - with Desi, who you knew was going to trick her, with Lionel, whom she meets in a chat room, and finally with her mom. But I won't say more about that as you need to read the book to see how it unfolds. I highly recommend this book, and thank NetGalley and Random House for the e-arc.

What Kind of Paradise is a page turner unlike anything I've ever read before. The story was one I couldn't put down and I stayed up all night reading. I've never read a story like this, and I really enjoyed the getting to know the inner workings of the main character and learning while she learned. It's left me thinking about a LOT and I highly recommend this for anyone looking for a summer read they won't be able to put down.

A father living isolated in the Montana wilderness, I thought this was going to end closer to These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant. Then we twisted and dived and ended up somewhere closer to Karin Slaughter's Pieces of Her. I had no idea where this book was headed for the longest time and for all the twists and turns it makes the message is still "life is what you make of it".

I love how complicated the characters were. If felt that Brown really knew exactly what was happening with each character.

The 90's setting. As a child of the 90's it's hard to believe this is dated and nostalgic now. Sometimes it does seem that life was simpler when we didn't have the internet keeping us constantly connected. And yet, I wouldn't have a copy of this book without it!

Jane and her father live a reclusive life in the wilds of Montana until she begins to suspect all that her has raised her to believe is not as it seems. Helping him publish a Luddite’s Manifesto to the web in the late 1990’s and taking part in his first act of revolution, Jane breaks free and discovers much about herself in Silicon Valley. Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for an advanced copy for an honest review.

Slow start but it picks up. Unique story but not in a way of a father and daughter living out in an isolated cabin in Montana, away from civilization, in fear of government and waiting for the world to end. When the daughter is drawn into hers father’s paranoia, something awful befalls them, where they end up on the run. He from the law, and she towards a new life in California having discovered her life with her dad has been a lie where he omitted some pretty important information. How sad it was that in her naïveté and innocence of the real world because of how her upbringing shaped her, she struggled. But thank goodness that she found a friend to help her, although the future she was seeking which she thought was lost truly was lost to her. A great read until the end. But it does make you think why no one stepped in to help her in the ten years she lived in isolation. Many thanks to #netgalley #janellebrown #randomhouse for the opportunity to red nd review this book.

Thank you NetGalley, Random House and Janelle Brown for the opportunity to read and review an advanced copy of What Kind of Paradise.
This is an interesting commentary on the beginnings of Silicon Valley’s explosion to the expansion of the computer world. The action centers on Jane and her father who live off the grid in Montana. Her father, reminding me of the Unabomber, became disillusioned with the intense competition in San Francisco. He wants to protect his daughter but his methods don’t pan out. This is a family drama involving more than Jane and her dad. The whole community has a part in this giant money maker.
The characters are well developed -good and bad traits included. I was immersed in the story from start to finish. There are a lot of pieces to this story and I enjoyed seeing how they all fit together.

I love when a book holds your interest from beginning to end with no slow spots. This was utterly original and fascinating. Many thanks to the publisher and netgalley for this copy for read and review

I loved this novel and thought it was beautifully written. It explores the theme of the dangers of AI and technology, intertwined with isolation and family. This is not a fast-paced thriller but rather a well-crafted story that draws you in and makes you question what the future will look like. With the recent rise of AI, the questions raised in this book become all the more compelling.

Would recommend this book to anyone who loves thrillers and fiction that liked how the crawdads sing

Thank you Random House for my gifted copy!

“‘Every living thing on this planet, including human beings, are products of nature, squirrel,’ he said. ‘Humans may believe that we are in charge, but we shouldn't be, because we can't be trusted with that power.’”

I was in fifth grade when my teacher taught us about Y2K and the 2012 Mayan Prediction. It is truly a marvel that it took so long for me to be diagnosed with anxiety. Those two events shadowed the trajectory of my life, until on December 21, 2012 when the world didn’t end and I had to reevaluate everything I thought I knew and had nightmares about.

I remember crying the last day before winter break, 1999. I’d celebrate my 11th birthday, and then a few short days later, the entire technological system would collapse and we’d descend into chaos and anarchy. So I spent that New Year’s Eve watching the clock with one eye and printing Spice Girl pics on our printer - because why not? The world was ending and my parents couldn’t yell at me about wasting precious ink.

All that rambling is to say that holy shit this book made me nostalgic. It’s a weird thing to realize: you’re now old enough to have experienced the rise of the World Wide Web, social media, pirating digital content, and the tech boom. Things being taught in history books were our lived reality. Weird. Bizarre. Unsettling.

What Kind of Paradise held me in its grasp, feeding my anxious nostalgia, making me feel eleven and scared again. And I loved it. This book was so beautifully written, it was hard not to empathize with someone who had their finger on the pulse of the eventual downfall of society, with unlimited and unrestricted access to the internet. Some people screamed that the internet would be the end of mankind. And some called them conspiracy theorists. I, myself, refuse to use AI in any way I can get away with. We are on the precipice of something just as big as the boom of the internet, and there are people that embrace it, and people that fear it in equal measure. I feel that this book has its finger firmly on that particular pulse.

what kind of paradise by janelle brown was a slow burn for me. it took a little while to get into the flow of the story, and i found the writing style to be a bit too sophisticated at times. but i was drawn in by the plot, which is layered, mysterious, and genuinely thought-provoking. the central character, jane, really came to life as the story progressed. i loved watching her transformation and self discovery. the exploration of love felt authentic, and the depiction of friendship had real depth.
in the end, while the writing might not have been the easiest for me to connect with at first, i’m glad i stuck with it because i really enjoyed this read. 4/5 stars!

thank you random house & netgalley for early access in exchange for my honest review!

Contemplative, profound, and authentic. I was very drawn in to this sad but not hopeless story. Special thanks to netgalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Great story! A father and daughter living off the grid in Montana. Thing’s start going awry when the daughter becomes a teen and starts questioning the circumstances that led to her and her father living the way they do. A large part takes place in the 90’s in San Francisco during the tech boom.
By no means a page turner but a well done slow burn
story. The writing was well done and the pacing was perfect.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for a honest review. 4⭐️

Janelle Brown's What Kind of Paradise offers a compelling narrative that delves into themes of isolation, identity, and the impact of technology on society. Set in the mid-1990s, the story follows Jane, a teenager raised off the grid in Montana by her father, Saul. Their secluded life, filled with philosophical readings and a disdain for modern conveniences, is disrupted when Saul introduces a laptop into their world. He has demanded that Jane learn how to code so she can upload his manifesto. This event sets Jane on a path of discovery, leading her to question her upbringing and seek answers in San Francisco, a city undergoing its own transformation during the tech boom.

Brown's portrayal of Jane's sheltered life and her subsequent awakening is both poignant and thought-provoking. The novel effectively captures the tension between the allure of technological advancement and the desire for a simpler existence. Jane's journey is marked by her struggle to reconcile her father's ideals with the realities of the world she uncovers.

While the narrative is engaging, some aspects of the story could have been more fully developed. The pacing, particularly towards the end, feels rushed, leaving certain plot points and character arcs insufficiently explored. Additionally, the framing device used to bookend the story may not add significant value to the overall narrative.

Despite these shortcomings, What Kind of Paradise succeeds in prompting readers to reflect on the complexities of freedom, the influence of technology, and the search for personal truth. It's a novel that offers a unique perspective on the coming-of-age genre, making it a worthwhile read for those interested in stories that challenge conventional notions of progress and self-discovery. Three and a half stars rounded up.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for providing me with a copy of this book. It will be published on June 3, 2025.

💭 ⓂⓎ ⓉⒽⓄⓊⒼⒽⓉⓈ
Despite this book being classified as historical fiction,( how the 90s are already considered historical fiction???) It was so freaking binge worthy. It had such a nostalgic feel, especially since I grew up in Silicon Valley in the 90s, right in the middle of the dotcom era. I found the story both intriguing and heartbreaking. It’s a complex slow burn mystery with tons of character development. I really enjoyed Jane’s search for her identity, along with the thought provoking commentary on technology and its pros and cons. With AI being such a huge part of our world now, this book feels incredibly relevant. It’s also very loosely inspired by the Unabomber, which added another layer of fascination and nostalgia for me. The blend of genres was so well done and I loved the little touch of romance woven in too.

📚 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎:
📈Coming of age
🎭Family drama
🔎Mystery
💻The 90s Tech world
💡Thought provoking
🤐Family secrets
📖Binge worthy

⚠️ 𝙏𝙧𝙞𝙜𝙜𝙚𝙧 𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨:confinement, death, murder.

💻𝕄𝕐 ℝ𝔸𝕋𝕀ℕ𝔾💻
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

💕Q U O T E: “𝐼 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝓀, 𝒹𝑒𝓈𝓅𝒾𝓉𝑒 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒸𝑜𝓂𝓅𝓁𝒾𝒸𝒶𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓈𝒽𝒾𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓁𝒾𝒻𝑒 𝓅𝒾𝓁𝑒𝓈 𝑜𝓃 𝓉𝑜𝓅. 𝒲𝒽𝒶𝓉'𝓈 𝒾𝓂𝓅𝑜𝓇𝓉𝒶𝓃𝓉 𝒾𝓈 𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒸𝒶𝓃 𝒹𝒾𝑔 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓌𝒶𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝓇𝑜𝓊𝑔𝒽 𝒶𝓁𝓁 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒸𝓇𝒶𝓅 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒻𝒾𝓃𝒹 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝓌𝒶𝓎 𝓉𝑜 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒷𝑒𝓈𝓉 𝓅𝒶𝓇𝓉 𝑜𝒻 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇𝓈𝑒𝓁𝒻.”

🙏 Thank you NetGalley, Random House, and Janelle Brown, for this ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts. 💕

I loved this new book by Janelle Brown just as I loved her other 2 books. Twisty and compelling, I stayed up late reading this one because I couldn’t put it down. Thanks for the ARC!

What Kind of Paradise was a surprise five star read for me. I went into it blind, and when I finished I checked out the blurb to make sure I didn’t give any spoilers in my review, and I was pretty surprised to see how many plot points were in there. I’m really glad I didn’t read that first because this book truly had me on the edge of my seat guessing what was next. I recommend you just dive right in if you are interested in a 1990s coming of age story in the setting of both rural reclusive Montana and dot-com era San Francisco. The author’s writing style is pretty flawless in my opinion, so If you already read the blurb, reading it will still be a great experience. And don’t worry, there’s definitely a lot more that unfolds.

Consider me Janelle Brown’s newest fan. If a movie adaptation is not yet in the works, it should be.

Many thanks to Penguin Random House for the ARC!

When we first meet Jane Williams, the narrator of What Kind of Paradise, it's present day, and she receives a knock on the door of her house in the woodlands of Marin, one that she's been dreading. Sure enough, it's a reporter from The San Francisco Chronicle. After years of hiding in anonymity, Jane has at last been found. "All these years later, I still wasn't sure I fully understood what had happened," Jane narrates. But she realizes it might be time for her to confront her past and try to make sense of it all.

From there, we flashback to November 1996. Jane is seventeen and living with her father, Saul, in a remote cabin the Montana wilderness. It's been just the two of them living this way for the past thirteen years, ever since Jane's mother, Jennifer, was killed in a car accident. "As a child, I had no understanding that our lives were not normal—it was simply the way things were." But at seventeen, Jane has started to question the isolation and long for a greater connection with the outside world. She's allowed small bits of contact. Once a month, she and her father travel to a bookstore in nearby Bozeman to deliver his hand-produced pamphlet "Libertaire"—twenty-four pages of essays railing against the government establishment. There she gets to briefly interact with the one person she knows her own age, the daughter of the shop owner, Heidi.

At the same time, she has almost no frame of reference for what "normal" should look like. Her solitary existence with her father—a Harvard grad who homeschools Jane on anti-establishment philosophers and survival skills—is all she knows, and despite the isolation, she is mostly happy. Things start to change more dramatically when she stumbles upon an old picture of her and her mother in her father's desk while he's away. On the back it's captioned "Esme and Theresa. February '83." It's clearly Jane and her mother Jennifer, so why are the names different? Jane calls Heidi with the news, and Heidi prompts Jane to consider the potential implications. "I mean, Jane, if he lied to you about that, then you have you ask yourself if he's lied to you about other things too."

What if Ted Kaczynski—the Unabomber—had a daughter? Author Janelle Brown roughly puts that premise to the test. The connection between Brown's Saul Williams and the real-life Kaczynski is loose but clear, and he is perhaps the most interesting character in the book. He's equally brilliant and deranged, a father who clearly loves his daughter and wants what is best for her, but his version of the best is clearly flawed. Jane's recounting of her childhood is regularly filled with the conflicted emotions and the challenge of separating her understanding now versus how she felt in the moment. "I grew up fully aware that my father was a brilliant man, whose expertise I should never ever ever question. Did I believe he was a good man? That's another question entirely. He wasn't without goodness." That nuance and multi-dimensionality elevates the story significantly.

We know from the prologue that things are going to head in a bad (or worse) direction. "Behind my lids I saw the same familiar ghosts flicker past, my life's movie on perpetual rerun. Blood spatters across a shiny red dress. The cold heft of a gun in my palm. A tower of flames, bright against the night sky." But by the time we get to the event referenced by the memory, we have a multi-layered portrait of a father-daughter relationship, one in which you dislike Saul the father regularly, and just as you're about to tip over to despising him, he does something sweet or generous for his daughter. It's really well done.

To say more would likely spoil too much of the story, and so I'll leave it without commenting on any additional plot details. The novel evolves in some interesting and mostly-believable ways, and it's thoughtfully constructed such that the reader is pulled in multiple directions. One can't help but root for Jane, of course; but I think many will also feel some small sliver of sympathy for Saul, who at his core believes he's doing what is best for his daughter and all of humanity, even if his mental demons have taken him off the rails. It's another strong effort from a consistently entertaining author.

Wow. This book is so interesting and different that I hardly know how to describe it without giving too much away.

Jane is a 17-year-old living off the grid with her father in rural Montana. She’s been told that her mother died in a car crash when she was four. Her father homeschools her, isolates her, and has taught her that technology is the root of all evil and will eventually be the downfall of society. She largely loves and believes her father until something happens one day that causes her to leave her home and her father behind and move to San Francisco, the place that in many ways is the root of all this technological evil she’s heard so much about.

And events transpire! I won’t say any more. But this book, in tone, feels like literary fiction but is full of twist and turns that’ll have you reading until you finish the whole book in one sitting.

This is a timely read as we as a society grapple with the growing impact of AI in the world. It’s not a light read, but it’s very readable. Also at times a fun 90s throw back. I definitely recommend this book to readers interested in these themes!

2.5 stars-Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book, releasing this Tuesday June 3rd!

This novel follows Jane, being raised by her father off the grid in rural Montana. After a series of bad events, Jane flees to San Francisco, where she arrives at the start of the dot com boom happening in the mid-1990s. This novel was an interesting look at the rise of the tech industry and the beginnings of conversations about what effects the internet and technology would have on our lives-would they lead to a utopian future or to the destruction of all that makes us human? This was an interesting theme and I don't remember having read something that tackles these questions during this time period, so definite points for originality there. Unfortunately, while the book was a quick read and I generally liked the writing, I didn't really connect with Jane or most of the other characters-while I think given her background her naivete and the mistakes she makes weren't necessarily out of character, I found them frustrating and felt like I was just along for the ride as I read, instead of really rooting for her or being deeply invested in her story and its outcome. Overall I didn't feel much of a connection with anything in here.

Wow, this is certainly Janelle Brown's most gripping novel to date. As usual, she sets our characters in high risk and bizarre situations that have you thinking “what would I do….” Jane is pretty realistic teen FMC. I enjoyed the research that went into both the philosophical and technological elements. It did feel too heavy handed in these areas, just enough to show the madness that consumed Saul, and eventually Jane. Thank you very much for this ARC, I will be recommending it!