“So obviously impressive, so advanced in the reach of its ideas and the gracefulness of its execution, that you want to start proselytizing for it before you’ve even turned the final page. With its dissident intelligence and its comprehensive vision of a devastated social sphere, Mariel Franklin’s Bonding is the work of an author whose importance already feels assured . . . Few anglophone novelists risk this kind of sweeping civilizational vision, let alone pull it off with such aplomb . . . A zeitgeist-saturated salvo, Bonding is the work of a writer steely enough to peer into the abyss of societal catastrophe, and spirited enough to dream of something beyond it.” —Rob Doyle, The Observer

“A smart, disturbing debut . . . Franklin has written one of the most stimulating novels I have read about the struggle for self-fulfillment in the modern-day attention economy . . . A little like an Edith Wharton novel of 19th-century manners crossed with dark, 21st-century satire on consumerism . . . Strange but intoxicating.” —Johanna Thomas-Corr, The Times

“A fast, harsh, smart, and fun satire . . . Pacy but also always analytical. Holding both of those things together feels like an expression of respect for the reader.” —Daisy Hildyard, The Guardian

“Franklin’s agile, thought-provoking tale throbs with ideas, fears and cautions.” —Suzi Feay, Financial Times

“I absolutely loved [Bonding]. Anyone interested in the relationship between tech, our bodies and our minds should bump it to the top of their queue immediately.” —Zadie Smith, author of The Fraud

“With dazzling imagination, Franklin fashions cutting-edge concepts, then uses them to pry open the human heart and interrogate the eternal questions therein. Chilling but warm, eagle-eyed yet sweeping, Bonding is a fascinating, ambitious tale for our modern age.” —Andrew Lipstein, author of Something Rotten

“An addictive and unsparing novel. Mariel Franklin contends with some of our most urgent questions: the selling off of desire, and the dangerous sublimation of intimacy, attention, and the body in the face of tech and pharma. Cuttingly funny and terrifically smart, Bonding sounds a warning about influence, magnetism and what we’ll risk in order to feel––and not feel. A gorgeous, clear-eyed, and terrifying debut, Bonding is a love story for our times.” ––Claudia Dey, author of Daughter

“As relishable as it is terrifying, Bonding is an audacious, hot, deeply uncomfortable and genuinely thrilling deep-dive into the dystopian future in which we now live.” —Saba Sams, author of Send Nudes