YOU FEEL IT JUST BELOW RIBS PB

Amazing read. I follow the podcast since 5 years ago

“Comfort is dangerous. It is the illusion that nothing will ever change even when things are changing constantly right in front of you.”————————-I’m not sure this book will be for everyone but I thought it was very clever. It’s right on the level with your more unusual dystopian books: Tender is the Flesh, Vox and Devolution. It presents us with an alternate history that begins in the early 1900s. It imagines a 40 year war called The Great Reckoning that obliterates the population and leaves many children orphaned.We follow Miriam who starts off as one of these orphans and through the years she finds herself in a commune and then a prison. In these environments she becomes interested in the psychology of trauma and becomes a preeminent specialist as the new government tries to find a way to rebuild that will avoid future wars. Her theories to help children overcome the trauma of losing parents become standard practice in the new government where people are kept from forming familial bonds and therefore reducing the violence that comes from protecting those bonds. As time goes on, Miriam begins to wonder if her techniques are actually helpful for humanity.I loved the way this story unraveled through Miriam’s manuscript and how scientific the story was. I will say the progression is quite slow and there’s more of a sense of foreboding than a lot of action. It’s definitely not as much of a page turner as the dystopians that I mentioned earlier but it does really make you think and I really enjoyed the originality of the plot.

I was very excited for this book given I've been a fan of Within the Wires for years, but what I wasn't expecting was how many of my non-podcast listening friends would also really enjoy this book! As a work of alternate history, it gives a very thorough accounting of the world such that none of the podcast is necessary to read or enjoy the book, though there are some cute callouts here and there for podcast listeners.In short, it's a fantastic book, and if you like the podcast gives a huge amount of detail to the world. If you don't know the podcast, it does a very good job of grounding you. It's got...a lot going on. Trauma, the effects of war both personally and societally, conspiracies, power, censorship, family, post-partum depression, it's got it all!Really, really enjoyed this, it's got me going back to re-listen to old podcast episodes, and I am now eagerly awaiting the next book!

I LOVED this novel. Loved it.I’m a huge WTW fan, so this novel really made an impression on me. It ties so many things from the podcast together. I went back and listened to season 1, episode #4: Sadness, Lungs. When I first heard this episode, I teared up at the sheer beauty of the writing. It’s just gorgeous. I re-listened to it while reading the novel and had such a beautiful a-ha moment. I love the fact that the Black-Box episodes mention “the facility.” The description of families, parents & children… so spot-on. So scary and true. Janina & Jeffrey are geniuses and I adore everything they do.

Frankly, this book was boring. I'm pretty disappointed. I absolutely love the creators writing in the podcast, and even the prologue of this book, but as far as the main plot and main characters personality, it makes me glad I finally finished this book.Our main characters life (this is a fictional autobiography after all) is boring. Boring childhood, boring adolescence, boring personality. I was really shocked that I found myself reading this more as a chore and ultimately not caring about our main narrator. Even the climax was dull, and the resolution unfulfilling.I appreciate the effort that went into the footnotes. It's nice that it gave historical background on people and events, though the bitchy tone of the publishers commentary got, you guessed it, dull after a while. We get it, you've created a "Brave New World" and can't have it (or yourself) tarnished.As I said before, I love this podcast and it's creators, but this book was very disappointing in comparison. If you like the podcast, this is a historical prequel to the first season of WTW, but don't expect the same drama and feels the pod has to offer. This just isn't that kind of book.However, if you like sci-fi distopian world's with spooky governments in a autobiography style setup, this book is for you. It just might be a little too "realistic" to really get swept up (for my tastes).