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A review by mishlist
Every Version of You by Grace Chan
5.0
At the same time, Chan is slowly weaving together the terrifying background of climate change's effects on the Earth for us to see. The story and its questions widens in scope as things change - examining Tao- Yi's reflections on her heritage, her relationship with her mum and Navin, how her job fits into a broader society and this future. It begins to examine our dreams and fears of our place in the world and really - what it means to live a good life. In the the narrative, the cocoon of normality - or what the reader gets used to as normality - is being steadily stripped away , as the mega- corporation running the world, Neuronetica- Somners, perfects the technique of uploading people's consciousness to Gaia. And slowly, suddenly, our main character, Tao-Yi, is left very nearly alone, one of 5,000 people left in Australia as people choose a different world, to leave their bodies behind on a burning planet. There's so much to say about Every Version of You and I don't really have the language to spell it all out, or the ability to summarise all the wandering questions it raises, but this was one of the best books I have read in a while that captures in so many many ways the things that I am scared of.
It's much more than a post-apocalyptic novel, but I haven't stopped thinking about those last few post-apocalyptic chapters when Tao-Yi, carrying her mother's ashes, is trying to leave Australia and finds there are no flights - when she's desperately run out of water and is trying to get to one of the last ships still docking in Queensland - it's haunting. Her refusal to Upload and internal debate, filled with memories, feelings, uncertainties - are some of the best parts of the book. The only question I had was how Gaia gets maintained if everyone on Earth is gone - maybe I missed an explanation.