A couple of weeks ago I was on a massive science fiction high, I was watching Silo on TV, reading about some Warhammer stuff coming out (not a big fan but seeing if it’s something worth getting into) and so reading ReInception felt the perfect fit for me and I would say it very much scratched my itch!
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Please note that I was kindly sent a copy of ReInception by Serena in return for an honest review.
ReInception is set over 100 years in the future when the world has been massively hit my climate change and has had to adapt by building vertically into the sky to allow humanity to carry on existing. Along the way technology has continued to advance and one in particular, ReInception has become a widely-used technology but has its nay-sayers.
The process of ReInception allows any adult to have any bad habits wired out of their brain via brain-altering technology. It doesn’t sound like something that’s overly feasible but did we also think we’d be ticking ‘yes’ to allow ads to be targeted directly at us on the internet 15 years ago? Who knows. The controversy around ReInception is that some people are being given it without their knowledge, some people believe you should remain natural and human and some people think it’s just wrong. Enter our heroine of the story, Leandra.
ReInception plot – 4.25/5
ReInception came along at the absolutely perfect time. I was really in the mood to read a cyberpunk sort of story where the world has gone to sh*t a bit because of climate change and because of how humanity just keeps expanding and expanding. ReInception is set in New York, one hundred years in the future and has a vast number of levels with, as you’d expect, the richer living higher up in the sky.
The story essentially covers Leandro’s attempts, after a couple of huge life-changing events, to find out what’s really going on with ReInception and find out what the public should know. Along the way she meets interest, she meets some bad guys, she has friends turn against her and she goes from having an easy, comfortable life in “the system” to rebelling against it.
There’s a lot to like in the story and its pace had me constantly wanting to pick up the book again to see what’s coming next. It’s not the longest book but I think it was a great length for the amount of story it had going on.
The reason I’ve not rated it higher is that I think there was potential for things to get a bit bigger and grander in scale with a lot of what was going on. There are moments when it touches on bigger things (I’m talking getting involved with the government etc) but this may be something Straus is leaving for a sequel as this book definitely feels like there’s more to come.
ReInception characters – 4/5
One thing Straus has done in ReInception is considered the fact that we’re over a hundred years in the future and that we’re dealing with people in their late teens/early twenties and so there’s a lot of new language that will be used by their age group. Therefore, there are some words in here that I had to double-check she hadn’t mistyped – but she hadn’t that’s just how terminology has changed in hundred years.
Leandra herself is an interesting character who looks at a lot of life with optimism despite the clearly negative world around her. Her and the love interest have just enough chemsitry for it to seem believable which was an important thing for me. I can’t deal with those relationships where there’s absolutely no reason for them to like each other but then they end up falling in love.
Some of the support characters including the villain add just enough of an energy to the story that they don’t feel completely wasted too which is often hard to do.
ReInception final rating – 4.25/5
ReInception really surprised me with how in-depth and unique it was. You can tell Straus put a lot of effort into building the world in this book and deciding on how she wanted the story to go. The plot isn’t obvious at any point and continuously drops little surprises to keep you wanting to find out more. I really hope there’s a sequel to ReInception as I’m keen to see where else this world goes and what’s next for Leandra.
Pick up a copy of ReInception from Amazon.
