Its been over a month since I finished this book and I still don't feel like I have the right words to describe how hauntingly real and beautiful it is. The not-quite-hidden clues allow you to reassess your opinion of character motives and the deeper meaning of their conversations. The narrator is John, an a8 year old American coding genius who has come to Tokyo to sell his quantum code apps to Sony for a lot of money. So I learned Spanish (I actually have a degree in Spanish philology), went to study in Madrid, Spain when I was 20. There he meets the owner, a retired Sumo wrestler and a lovely young Japanese woman, (oh, and also an adorable dog with a funny round head getting a haircut).

I seriously could not put this book down and when the change in pace and location occurs there was no prying this book from my hands! Except for seventeen-year-old John, a tech prodigy from a damaged family, who hides a deeply personal secret. This book is full of rich worldbuilding focused on a future maybe not that far away from our current state. In a world of surveillance, fake news, and simulations of world leaders, how do you tell fact from fake? Even though technology has advanced to the point that robots, self-driving cars, and AI-controlled infrastructure are integral to everyday life, the world of Beautiful Shining People is far from unrecognisable.

Apologies for the delay, but today I’m finally sharing my review for the mesmerising and unforgettable Beautiful Shining People. She finds out that she wasn't given these because, as an android originally designed purely to care for people, it was not envisaged that she would need them.

If you’d like to pick up a copy of Beautiful Shining People you can do so here in the US, and here in the UK.As much as I loved John and Neotnia the character I adored was Guido as there was so much to his past that influenced his present. Beautiful Shining People is both an intriguing thriller and a meditation and is in places unforgettable and affecting.

But it deserves so much more as this novel has blown my mind and already is my top read of this year! The world, brilliantly drawn so that it seamlessly stitched together the present with an evolving future, with its men who would play God is anathema to my own hopes for the future, alongside a group of people that represent the limits of those boundaries but made me burst the very human emotional banks of empathy and compassion. But the thing is all this already exists presently but Michael has just taken it a couple of levels further and it is due to this that you readily accept this new world and don't even blink an eye when something odd happens! This book explores these themes, about how the actions of one person can change the course of history.A former sumo wrestler, a man of few words, but one whose presence and judgement is very readily felt, his concern and protective attitude towards Neotnia was quite charming in his own funny way. This first third of the book is therefore rather pleasant and heartwarming, and it’s fun to get to know the characters (and watch them get to know one another) and Grothaus’ imaginative future versions of Tokyo and the world at large. The characters John (the computer whizz) and Neotnia (the waitress) were two extremely loveable characters. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.

Each shift in tension and pace was smooth and seamless, holding me hostage in the author’s web of words.comes into its own was a little overworked and drawn out but hey, how often do you find a toaster with a starring part! He decides on a whim to pop into a café that offers ear cleaning for only 4900 yen and he decides it might ease his jet lag.