Book Review: Katie M. Flynn's The Companions

Thank You to Gallery/Scout Press for providing me with a copy of Katie M. Flynn’s novel, The Companions, in exchange for an honest review.

In the near-future the world has suffered a deadly pandemic that has resulted in years of quarantine. Scientist have developed a way to transfer human souls into robots, allowing humans a way to become immortal, but the catch is they are property of the Metis Corporation. The Metis Corporation leases the robots, referred to as “Companions” to other humans. Sometimes those who take on the lease are the family members of the companion and sometimes, when a family member is unwilling or cannot afford the lease, the companions are sent out to be workers. The companions not only provide companionship to the lonely who are quarantined, but they can perform tasks without fear of catching the virus.

Lilac has been leased by a family to provide companionship to their young daughter. Although Lilac only has vague memories of her human life, she begins to recall certain events and with some internet sleuthing, she learns that she had been murdered as a teenager. It is now decades later and she wants to find her murderer to seek revenge, before that person dies.

The Companions offers an intriguing premise and brings up plenty of ethical issues. Would you be willing to lease your soul to a corporation in exchange for a longer life? What obligations does that company have to provide for your care? What happens when you out live those you knew in real life? Is a robot with a semi-human soul still human? The idea for The Companions caught my attention immediately. It reminded me of the series Black Mirror.

Unfortunately, the actual plot failed to hold my interest. It had strong moments, but I never felt connected to the characters. There are many characters and plots, so many that they become muddled. The plots do intersect, but I wasn’t satisfied. I think it would have worked better as a series of short stories based in the post-pandemic story world, each dealing with the various implications of having companions.

The Companions will benefit from buzz due to its eerie timing. It was published the first week in March, right as much of the world was about to be locked down due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Obviously, there is no way that Flynn could have realized this when she wrote The Companions, but many of her ideas about how a lock down would feel and heaviness of it all, are spot on. Our current world situation added to my discomfort and sense of unease, that I likely would not have felt if I had read The Companions at any other time.

Social Distancing in Littleton: Week Six

It’s week six of social distancing and the weeks are bleeding into one another. We still have a regular weekday work routine and we look forward to the weekends, but those are mostly a blur of relaxing at home. As far as we are aware, we still don’t know anyone who has contracted the virus.

This Monday, Colorado shifted from “stay at home” orders to “safer at home” and certain areas of our city were supposed to try opening up, however, I’ve not noticed any changes. Governor Polis announced that Colorado was joining a pact with the western states and this made me feel optimistic. I’m worried about the states that are pushing to reopen. I’m shocked that Georgia thinks that including places like bowling alleys and movie theaters in their initial reopening phase is a good idea. Seriously?

We saw news footage of an airplane that was full and several people were not wearing masks. I’m not sure why masks are not enforced. Jet Blue did announce that they will enforce wearing masks on flights. I wish other places would do this, specifically grocery stores. It’s not a big deal and everyone should get on board with it.

And about the grocery stores. There is news about the supply chain breaking due to the meat processing plant closures that has me worried. I’m not worried about missing meat. I can eat vegetarian, no big deal. I mainly have this anxiety about people hoarding food again and empty shelves. During our last trip to the store, things were mostly back to normal. I hope this news doesn’t cause another round of panic shopping. The sense of panic increases my anxiety. Mostly, my anxiety is under control. I don’t need to go back to weird anxiety dreams.

We are still among a handful of neighbors wearing masks on our walks. Luckily, we don’t encounter many people during our evening exercise. It feels pretty safe and we are cautious. We took our face covers down for a quick moment to catch a picture of us in front of the community club house that is being constructed. I’m not sure if we are going to be able to enjoy the pool this summer, but it is exciting to think that we will have one in our neighborhood! With our bandanas down, we look like we’ve gone from “bank robbers” to “ready to enjoy bbq at the hoe-down.” So versatile!

A few dramatic weather shots from this week. It rained, we had a small amount of slushy snow, and we also experienced the hottest day of the year. Actually, the hottest day since we moved to Colorado - about 80 degrees! I miss California, so it was heavenly.

The kitchen experiments continued with making shepherd’s pie using a Colman’s seasoning mix from England. The meat leaked through to the mash topping. It isn’t pretty, but it was tasty. Dan even said that it tasted authentic. That’s high praise.

Dan purchased the biggest tub of Branston Pickle from the British Food Depot. We have quite the collection British food items in our cupboard. We might need to open a shop. The “erase-a-hole” is to show perspective. We have holes from home renovation projects. Being stuck at home is leading to a variety of projects.

Using left over chocolate cake, strawberry syrup, and ice cream, Dan made sundaes. Also, I call them “sprinkles” and Dan called them “hundreds and thousands.”

We left the house twice this week. We headed to Tipsy’s Liquor World (best name ever) to stock up on bourbon, gin and beer. We own several cocktail recipe books that have never been used, so we opened one up and made a “New Yorker”. It was tasty, sort of…really strong and not quite as elegant as the photo in the book. We need more practice! Challenge accepted!

Our second outing was to satisfy a craving for Panda Express. I know. I don’t even really like Panda Express, but I was craving their food specifically, not just Chinese food. We created a mobile order and went to pick it up. We decided that I would go in to collect it. I was impressed with the measures they took to maintain safety. They had one entrance for mobile orders and another for walk-ins. The whole restaurant was blocked off and a new register area was created, so that no one except staff was near the kitchen or buffet islands. The employees stayed more than six feet away, had masks, and dropped food off on a pick-up table. Although a few other customers were in the store, they kept their distance and all but one, wore masks. I felt safe. I also picked up dessert at LaMar’s Donuts, located in the same center as Panda Express. LaMars Donuts had similar safety procedures.

One situation where I did not feel safe occurred in our own home and I feel stupid for allowing it to happen. Prior to the restrictions, we had scheduled a contractor to fit a radon fan in our basement. We agreed to keep the appointment and he showed up with another employee, neither wore masks. We wore our masks, kept distant, and I wiped down all of the surfaces when they left, but I should have insisted that they wear masks. It’s a foolish risk, especially in our home. I do feel happy to have the radon fan, as that was a worry. Now we can move forward with using our basement for more than storage.

We watched season two of Ricky Gervais’ After Life. I cried every single episode. Buckets. It is both desperately sad and incredibly hopeful. Lovely and compassionate. Hilarious and irreverent. If you can handle the tears, it is the perfect show right now.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, we rented Hustlers. It was entertaining and even more so, since it is based on true events. A crazy story. The biggest take-away is we both could not believe how stunning Jennifer Lopez looks. She’s gorgeous, more gorgeous than her much younger co-stars.

We also watched a heavy, depressing documentary about the environment called Planet of the Humans. It brings up important issues, but it is a lot to handle right now. It didn’t leave me feeling hopeful. it drained me. That said, I love the news about the environment beginning to heal while we are stuck at home. I’m sure that us humans will screw it up again when we get the chance, but maybe not completely. Maybe this will change us for the better too. I hope so.

The best entertainment this week came from Tom. We put a video of a mouse running around the tv screen and he went into action.

Tom was also the star of a card that my friend Julie sent to me. She discovered a company called Punk Post, who create customized, hand drawn cards. This card was sent in honor of Tom, who has not taken to litter box training. I have to watch him and give him the stink-eye to get him to use his box. He’s an obstinate kitten.

We had zoom cocktails with a different friend named Julie and her husband Ryan. Julie and Ryan just joined us in moving from California to Colorado and since we cannot celebrate in person, they gave us a tour of their beautiful new home! Joyful things are happening!

Ending with happy on more cat pictures from this week. Tom claimed a toy box and I caught the two cuddling again.

Book Review: Ada Calhoun's Why We Can't Sleep: Women's New Midlife Crisis

Thank you to Grove Atlantic for providing me with a copy of Ada Calhoun’s Why We Can’t Sleep: Women’s New Midlife Crisis, in exchange for an honest review.

In Why We Can’t Sleep: Women’s New Midlife Crisis, Ada Calhoun explores the unique challenges facing Generation X women, who are now middle-age.

Spanning from the early 60’s to the early 80’s (there is some disagreement on the dates), Calhoun explains that many women born during this time had a challenging childhood. We ( I am a Gen-X woman) were raised by mother’s who fought for equality and told us that we could do anything. This created an immense pressure to “have it all,” even when “having it all” is an impossible goal and reaching for the brass ring has made us deeply dissatisfied. The caustic divorces that we experienced with our parents, created a drive to maintain the semblance of a perfect life for our children, to hide any cracks in the co-parenting relationship. Growing up latch-key kids and experiencing a free-roaming childhood, has turned Gen-xers into overprotective, helicopter parents. We are drowning as we fail to keep up with our self-imposed expectations.

Calhoun argues that previous generations did not put such a big emphasis on perfection. Our mothers didn’t have social media to constantly compare themselves to their friends and celebrities. They didn’t post pictures of their gluten-free cupcakes or their latest beach vacation. They didn’t feel a constant pressure to keep looking youthful. Societal pressure to go vegan or to believe in a certain movement didn’t plague them every time they looked at their phone, because cell phones didn’t exist. Social media didn’t exist.

Interestingly, Calhoun explains that the pressure to compare and to be perfect seems to be felt more strongly with Gen X. Younger generations don’t seem as worried about what people think. Perhaps it is because Gen Xer’s were older when social media became common place. I was born at the end of Gen X and Facebook wasn’t popular until I was in my 30’s. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to have my teen years and 20’s recorded on social media. Calhoun notes that younger generations seem to post on social media with less worry of how it will be perceived, where as Gen X is more careful regarding what they post. We are a generation that has quickly adapted to technology, yet we have not had it in our lives the same way that the generations after us have experienced.

Why We Can’t Sleep made me feel stressed. I can attest to the feelings of perfectionism and failure. I’ve entered my 40’s happy with my life. I don’t have children ( two wonderful step-children, but they are only with us for holidays), so perhaps that lessens the intensity of needing to prove something or create a certain life. I think it gives me freedom. Still, I had a mom who drove home the idea that “anything is possible,” which, as I reflect, doesn't feel true. I entered the work force and experienced inequality. My mom gave me a clear message that men should not be fully trusted, yet she also pushed a traditional marriage. I was told to be both independent and dependent. It was confusing.

Additionally, Calhoun pointed out something that I didn’t realize I was resentful over, until I read it. She mentions that there is now a backlash for the freedom that we experienced in childhood. I was a latchkey child starting in third grade and although there were adult neighbors, I was basically left home summers/holidays/after school, from the age of eight. That would be unheard of now, but my mom was a working, single-mom and we had no choice. Besides that, I don’t really remember my mom being engaged with me. When we were home together, I was told to play outside or in my room. Maybe it’s because my mom had me later in life, but she continued the, “children should be seen and not heard” motto from her generation. There were times that my mom did things with me, like take me to museums or to the movies, but on a whole, I was on my own. Calhoun says that this was common for Gen X childhoods and this has prompted many Gen X parents to become uber engaged with their children. I see this in my friends with their parenting styles. I realize that my mom had to work and things were hard, but I do feel that I was disconnected with her as a child and did not become close to her until I became an adult.

Calhoun tackles perimenopause and the options that women have to ease this transition. She states that this is an important life change that is simply not discussed. I agree, I’ve never discussed this with anyone, including my doctors. I’m 42 and I haven’t noticed much of a change yet, but I appreciate that Calhoun speaks to this topic.

With everything going on in the world with corona virus, I’m not sure that it was good timing to read Why We Can’t Sleep. I made me feel more anxiety. That said, I think Calhoun has written an important book that is worth a read. I will definitely recommend it to friends of my generation.