4.5 stars, I really enjoyed this! I couldn't help but root for the main character. Themes were thought-provoking and writing was very strong. The story kept moving along, and I truly felt like I was in the main character's head. I will be recommending!

This book is lightly based on the unabomber from the late 80s/early 90s. It's about a father who is willing to do everything to protect his daughter from what he sees as the government taking individual autonomy away. He is way ahead of his time and moves himself and his young daughter to the wilds of Montana to live off the land and write his manifesto to share with the world. Jane, his daughter is incredibly intelligent and is starting to wonder if what her father is preaching is correct or if maybe there's a whole other world of thought out there. Thru a series of events, Jane finds herself on her own, making her way to California, with zero street smarts and total confusion for how the world works. This is a story about love and protecting what you love and going to the ends of the world for what you believe in.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for the ARC! What Kind of Paradise dives into the influence that technology has on our daily lives and the way we think. Jane lives in a secluded cabin in the woods with her father. For years that have lived off the land and had minimal contact with the outside world. As Jane turns 17, she starts to question some of her father's actions and wonders if she is being told the whole truth about her childhood and her mother. What Kind of Paradise was thought provoking and had a perfect twist to keep you on the edge of your seat.

This book was amazing. It wasn’t what I was expected at all and I really enjoyed it. Highly recommend.

This book is wild. A father and daughter are living off the grid. The father, who thrives in conspiracy theories, wants to protect his daughter. Jane starts questioning her life as she becomes a teenager. She starts doubting things her father has told her about the world, his past, about her mother and how she died. There’s so much happening, I was hooked on this story and couldn’t wait to see it all come together.
This is going on my list of favorite thrillers. If you like books that will keep you on the edge of your seat and lots of action, you won’t be disappointed with this amazing read.

This was such an interesting mystery novel. We meet Jane as a teenager living off the grid with her father, just as the internet age is taking off. As far as Jane knows, her mother passed away when she was just a young girl and her father moved her to Montana to live off the land an hour away from Bozeman but not all is as she is being told and she decides to figure out the truth.

I liked the journey that Jane goes on through this novel and the exploration of how technology is helping the world/hindering the world. There were some very poignant thoughts given in the novel about what it means to be human and what we gain and lose as we succumb to technology.

Definitely go into this reading it as a mystery not a thriller or you may have some disappointment.

What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown captivates its readers starting off strong following Jane, A 17 year old girl who has known nothing but the woods she has grown up in with her erotic and isolated father. Everything begins to change when Jane decides to push past her father’s anti-technological views and come up with her own agenda, revealing secrets her father has tried to keep hidden.

This book is about identity, nature vs. nurture, and how one has the ability to choose who they are. This book primarily following the perspective of Jane shows how complex someone’s inner workings can be when forced with adversities. Jane has a unique and intricate voice like nothing else I have ever read. Every character it’s viewed through a neutral lens highlighting how we are all just humans trying to figure out our purpose. This book was nothing short of groundbreaking and I will for sure remember Janelle Brown’s novel, What Kind of Paradise, going forward.

Lastly here is a couple of my favorite quotes:

“WE ARE UNDONE by the specificity of our dreams. Reality can never live up to the shining edifices we forge inside our fantasies: Life, in all its confusing complexity, is destined to be a disappointment in comparison. The lottery winner discovers that the riches don’t equal happiness; the longed-for baby is colicky and sour; losing fifty pounds still doesn’t bring you love; winning the election doesn’t trigger societal change. Life is a constant emotional calibration, then: the tiny adjustments we make every day as we come up against our discontents. We ride this seesaw, between hope and disenchantment, seeking some sort of equilibrium.”

“The irony, of course, is that kids believe that knowledge unlocks happiness. More than anything, they crave access to all the things that they aren’t supposed to know yet; as if being privy to the secrets of the world will open up some magical door to adulthood.”

What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown is the age old paradigm between old vs new, right vs wrong. Jane is raised in the woods in Montana in a cabin off grid by her father. She learns how to take care of herself in nature and is homeschooled by her father on philosophy and logic. She is sheltered from other people and opposing views, until the day her father brings home a computer and a modem. A whole world is opened up to her, but only when she feels her father can not catch her as she knows he will disapprove.

After following her father into an untenable situation she leaves and moves to San Francisco. Here she finds out about life and learns some truths about her background. The whole world is opening up to her with Jane not knowing cultural norms and knowledge.

What a fascinating book! The push and pull between technology and luddite principals! To live out in nature off the land and the grid or live surrounded by technology and using technology in every part of your life. This is the age old dilemma of good vs evil, black vs white, up vs down. Two opposing factions with the other believing that they are the truest of them all. Republicans vs democrates. Evangelicals vs agnostics.

I liked the character of Jane, despite the struggles she faces, she is strong. I am still surprised/shaken by the dichotomy of her life. What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown is a good read.

Jane's whole world consists of her dad and their isolated cabin in Montana. She has no relationships outside her dad and the few people in town she sees once a month. Her dad fears the outside world and suddenly Jane is thrust into the real world with no preparation. She quickly realizes that the world is very different from how her dad portrayed it to her.

This book is filled with so many twists I never saw coming. I love the relevance of this book in today's world of AI technology compared to the 90's tech boom. I found myself reflecting a lot of our current society's reliance on technology and the benefits/costs of that.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC of What Kind of Paradise.

Jane Williams had lived in Montana, off the grid, for as long as she could remember. Her father was a survivalist and was totally against any sort of technological advancements. They lived mostly off the land, and rarely went into Bozeman for supplies. Jane’s father was not forthcoming about their earlier life, and Jane grew up believing her mother had died. As Jane got older, her father started disappearing for several days at a time, leaving Jane alone in the cabin to wait for his return.

When her father brought home a computer and modem, Jane was shocked, since he had preached against the evils of technology. At his request, Jane taught herself HTML and set up a webpage to publish her father’s manifesto in an effort to locate like-minded people. He becomes more irrational, disappearing more often, and finally Jane offers to help him with his next project, having no idea what she was getting into.

Wow. I was immediately drawn into Jane’s world, a very different one than I’m used to. I loved her courage and determination throughout, even when the odds were overwhelmingly against her. The characters are well developed and realistic, and I enjoyed the story’s progression.

I read this quickly and appreciated the writing but many elements of the plot felt familiar and overly generic (ie, "all tech bros are evil; nerds, unite!" tropes). I appreciated Brown's unusually cold portrayal of Esme's mother but this also felt a bit contrived and forced. Esme oscillates very quickly between a superhero 18-year old who reads philosophy, avoids homelessness with ease and handles explosives, to a naïve teenager without a moral center who suddenly turns state's witness? I suppose that's the point but the swings left me finding her unlikeable. All in all, might recommend as a summer read but not my favorite.

I went into What Kind of Paradise thinking it sounded interesting - but I did not expect to love it as much as I did. If I'd had the time, I would've finished it in a single sitting.

The story follows Jane, raised off the grid in a remote Montana cabin by her secretive father. Her world is all woodstove heat and nineteenth-century philosophy - until she learns a devastating truth and runs to San Francisco, the only place she might find answers. Set in the mid-1990s, as the internet was beginning to infiltrate everyone's homes, the book delves into a fascinating tug-of-war between tech optimism and doomsday paranoia.

Janelle Brown completely nails the era - especially for those of us who remember the early web as both exciting and slightly terrifying. It's my first time reading her work, but definitely not the last. If you're into stories that blend mystery, memory, and a little bit of internet-era nostalgia, this one's worth your time.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for an advanced reader's copy; all opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I had heard so many great things leading up to this book that I think I went in with such high hopes. I really struggled to get through the first section of the book. Although the story picks up later on and I enjoyed the remaining 2/3, the slow start makes it tough to recommend.

This story had me questioning everything: the characters, their motives, and even the truth itself. It’s atmospheric, slow-burning in the best way, and packed with emotional tension. Brown seamlessly blends a gripping mystery with sharp social commentary, and the result is both haunting and thought-provoking. If you love thrillers with depth and flawed, unforgettable women at the center, don’t skip this one.

I loved this book so much and cannot stop thinking of it. I’ve read all of this author’s books but this one was unlike the others. It had me holding my breath multiple times. It had me crying multiple times. And it had me laughing. This will be on my top ten list for 2025.

“But consider this: I was barely eighteen and just experiencing the real world for the first time. I was like a baby fawn, taking my first wobbly steps into the world. I still couldn’t see past my own feet. Decide for yourself whether that’s a valid excuse.”

This gripping story is based on the mathematics prodigy Ted Kaczynski. Its plot mirrors Kaczynski’s reclusive, primitive lifestyle in a small Montana cabin, his war on technology, and the domestic terrorism that arose from his misguided belief that eliminating the titans would stop the forward march of industry.

Though only a fledgling science at the time, Saul Williams was one of a handful with minds bright enough to imagine “future-forward stuff” like neural networks and AI algorithms. At the Peninsula Research Institute, they modeled doomsday scenarios, instances where computers controlled vital aspects of modern life—the power grid, economy, warfare—and it all went wrong. The scenarios were not far fetched, Saul knew, and his need to distance himself from this future world drove him to escape it with his daughter Jane. She spent her childhood in isolation, homeschooled on Marx and Nietzsche, trained to flee the feds, not sure exactly what they stood for.

Jane idolized her father, which made it difficult for her to seek personal freedom once she had a taste for what was out there. She convinces him to allow her to go along on one of his mysterious trips, hoping to slip away and seek a different future. She had no idea what she was getting into and will find herself on the run with no experience in the basics of life outside of the isolated Montana bubble.

Brown’s industry expertise comes to bear in creating a realistic world, the history of computing, and the cast of characters who played a leading role. Nail biting and moving at the same time, this is a book that resonates.

“That’s how the computers will end up in charge someday, because we’ve forgotten that we need to be afraid of them.”

Many thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Random House and NetGalley for providing this e-galley. #WhatKindofParadise #NetGalley

This was such a thought provoking and compelling story. The storyline felt like something that truly could happen and it was such an interesting look at the rise of technology and how it can impact us. There was also such an element of family dynamics and how that impacts our lives as well, and how we are shaped by what happens to us. I really enjoyed this story and felt like I was experiencing the emotions right alongside the main character. The last section pulled me a bit out of the story - it almost felt a bit like the author’s personal thoughts versus the main characters but other than that this is a book that I would definitely recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Janelle Brown is an auto-buy for me these days. She writes books that are so rich in character development. This is a story about a girl raised in rural Montana by her father in isolation. She eventually learns that her father had hidden things about her past and that she’s missing things in the world and decides to leave. In the prices she accidentally becomes complicit in her fathers crime.
This book is about her character development through this trauma. Dont expect a thriller. Expect characters so rich you feel empathy for all of them, even the very pathologic ones—what the author does so well.
I got an ARC of this book from the publisher; thx to the publisher and to Janelle Brown. I dos take longer to read this book than i had hoped—however the reason was that it felt so real to me that the drama with my own parental relationships slowed me down. I think this really speaks to her rich writing. Don’t sleep on this one.

3.5 stars rounded down - I don't think this one was for me but still thought it was an interesting read, primarily surrounding family, trauma and mental illness. something about the pacing lost my interest, or maybe it wasn't the right time for me to read it. either way, I think many people will like this one more than I did.

4.5 stars rounded up. I started this out thinking it was reminiscent of “educated” but about 100 pages in it takes a sharp left turn and does not look back. I think the story was inventive, observant, and extremely engaging-i had to know what happened next! I care so much about Jane! But i do feel the last 50 pages were a bit rushed in an effort to stay under the preferred page count and that the book would have seemed more complete with a deeper dive into the ramifications and emotional experience of Saul’s betrayal.