Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

roosmarijn's Reviews > Speak

Speak by Louisa Hall
Rate this book
Clear rating

by
125528269
Reading dystopias until I turn into a depressed genius project, book five

An odd one to review. It was só strange. Dystopias sometimes make me feel like I'm suffocating. Really scary dystopias aren't 1984-like or end-of-the-world-humanity-fucked-up. The nightmarish ones are much more like this: they force you to look at something until you realise that what's happening is actually much closer to reality than to a far of dystopian end of the world.

Gaby: So you're not really a person, you're a collection of voices.
MARY3: Yes. But couldn't you say that's always the case?


Artificial intelligence and the boundaries we need in our terminology of what makes us human. It gives me the icks.

These are my voices. (...) They are in me now, in every word that I speak, as long as I am still speaking.


The book is build up by multiple narratives: the lost letters of Alan Turing to the mother of his dead friend (heartbreaking and clearly inspired by the letter he wrote her in real life which is even more heartbreaking), the diary of a girl travelling to the colonies in America, the memoir of a man in prison who has lost everything, the letters of correspondance between a man and woman in a failed marriage, the conversation between Gaby and MARY3 used as evidence in a court case. Everything and everyone interwoven into something I'm unable to define and rate.

I didn't not enjoy it. It just made me really really sad.

More reviews in this project:
Book one: The Handmaids Tale
Book two: Fahrenheit 451
Book three: Brave New World
Book four: 1984
Book five: Speak
5 likes ·  âˆ� flag

Sign into Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ to see if any of your friends have read Speak.
Sign In »

Reading Progress

February 28, 2023 – Started Reading
February 28, 2023 – Shelved
February 28, 2023 –
page 57
16.96% "robots and alan turing and the definitions of humanity???? PLS I LOVE IT"
March 1, 2023 –
page 167
49.7% "this is unlike anything i’ve read before"
March 2, 2023 – Finished Reading

No comments have been added yet.