Sci-fi

Hum

by Helen Phillips
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4.001 rating6 want to read · 4 read

Description

In a city addled by climate change and populated by intelligent robots called "hums," May loses her job to artificial intelligence. In a desperate bid to resolve her family's debt and secure their future for another few months, she becomes a guinea pig in an experiment that alters her face so it cannot be recognised by surveillance. Seeking some reprieve from her recent hardships and from her family's addiction to their devices, she splurges on passes that allow them three nights' respite inside the Botanical Garden: a rare green refuge where forests, streams, and animals flourish. But her insistence that her son, daughter, and husband leave their devices at home proves far more fraught than she anticipated, and the lush beauty of the Botanical Garden is not the balm she hoped it would be. When her children come under threat, May is forced to put her trust in a hum of uncertain motives as she works to restore the life of her family.

What it’s like

ViolenceStandard
HorrorChilling

Details

First published
August 6, 2024
Pages
272
Reading time
About 5 hours
Format
Novel
Audience
Adult
Publisher
Scribner
Language
English
ISBN
9781668008836
Series
Standalone

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