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[quote=Anonymous]Finished The Immortal King Rao, by Vauhini Vara. 3.5/5 stars. It started off really promising, with a super interesting premise: a young boy (King Rao) from the Dalit caste in India works his way out of poverty to become the world's most powerful tech tycoon, eventually bringing about a dystopia where everything is controlled by social credit and algorithms, and his daughter has to reckon with his legacy. The novel is structured in 3 alternating perspectives: 1) King Rao as a boy in India, 2) King's daughter Athena in the present-day, and 3) King as an adult, along with his wife, building the computer system that would one day control the world.

While beautifully written, I ultimately was left feeling unsatisfied, like there were a lot of loose ends that never tied up. The novel touches on a lot of themes: caste system and social mobility in India, role of women in tech, the dark side of technology and social media, climate change, complex family relations, and others. But none of these are explored in depth; it almost feels like they're glossed over due to the novel's shifting perspectives. Out of the 3 perspectives I mentioned above, #3 (King as an adult) could've been left out entirely, as those sections didn't really add anything to the narrative. If the novel had focused on #1 and #2, it would've worked better and the above themes could've been explored in greater depth.

Also finished Tana French's The Hunter. I'm a huge French fan - LOVED the Dublin Murder Squad novels and Broken Harbor - but (sorry unpopular opinion coming in...) I didn't care for this one. It was entirely too long without some kind of action driving the plot forward.

Started on Braiding Sweetgrass, a book that's come highly recommended by a lot of people including my mom. [/quote]

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