Name: Reward System
Rating: 3.785714285714286 (7 reviews)
ISBN: 9780374602420

Jem Calder

Stories

Reward System

almost a combination of a fast and slow burn? having several perspectives creates a little bit of confusion near the beginning, but i love conflicting views in a book.

iman

jem calder does the impossible of writing about the internet in a way that feels natural and not cringe. the pandemic, less so, but that may be more a function of recency than skill. imo calder's writing works so well because because his characters' internal dialogues are so honest.

alice

Julia has landed a fresh start—at a “pan-European” restaurant. “Imagine that,” says her mother. “I’m imagining.” Nick is flirting with sobriety and nobody else. Did you know adults his age are now more likely to live with their parents than with a romantic partner? Life should have started to take shape by now—but instead we’re trying on new versions of ourselves, swiping left and right, searching for a convincing answer to that question: “What do you do?” Jem Calder’s Reward System is a set of ultra-contemporary and electrifyingly fresh fictions about work, relationships, and the strange loop of technology and the self. They are about a generation on the cusp: the story of two people enmeshed in Zooms and lockdowns, loneliness and love, devices and desires. Hyperaware but also deeply confused about who they are, Julia and Nick reveal the way we live now in a startling new light.

Reward System Stories

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