Lauren Beukes

In the near future, four people--an art-school drop out, AIDS baby, RPG-obsessed blogger and a tech-activist--live in world where their online identity is as important as their physical one--and getting disconnected is a punishment worse than death. Original.

Moxyland

A frighteningly persuasive, high-tech fable, this novel follows the lives of four narrators living in an alternative futuristic Cape Town, South Africa. Kendra, an art-school dropout, brands herself for a nanotech marketing program; Lerato, an ambitious AIDS baby, plots to defect from her corporate employers; Tendeka, a hot-headed activist, is becoming increasingly rabid; and Toby, a roguish blogger, discovers that the video games he plays for cash are much more than they seem. On a collision course that will rewire their lives, this story crackles with bold and infectious ideas, connecting a ruthless corporate-apartheid government with video games, biotech attack dogs, slippery online identities, a township soccer school, shocking cell phones, addictive branding, and genetically modified art. Taking hedonistic trends in society to their ultimate conclusions, this tale paints anything but a forecasted utopia, satirically undermining the reified idea of progress as society's white knight.

Kelsey Lynn

I received this in exchange for an honest review via NetGalley

EDIT: I realize now that my review may be unfair, I went into this book influenced by reviews that compared it to and refered to it as dystopian. It is in a way technically dystopian. But when something is compared to 1984, I'm thinking heavy dystopia. This is more cyberpunk grudge kind, which is fine. But I was expecting something stronger, more opressive. The author never promised me this, the book's description didn't either. What this book is, is a character study of people trying to exist in this semi future world, whether they disagree with it, are apathetic or not challenged by it, or even accept it. This isn't some standard wake up and rebel, this is just people with little control trying to regain control, whatever that means to them. So, that being said, my rant below still stands as my immediate response but I think this book deserves a reread in the future with a clear and uninfluenced mind. 
I really wish GoodReads would allow partial stars, cause honestly I'd probably give this a 2.5. I made a major mistake, I saw so many reviews just glowing with praises, so many 'scratched my 1984 itch' 'best dystopian since 1984' and coming off a reading high from finishing an amazing dystopian (we, which influenced 1984) I was... too excited for this book.
 This for me didn't even remotely touch the 1984 itch, it wasn't even close. The closest it got was a few plot devices, which unfortunately became instantly predictable through character dialogue and people comparing it to 1984. This was a book of interesting ideas, little plan or direction and questionable execution. I kept giving it the excuse of 'I'm only #% of the way through," but once I was at 80% I realized.. oh, I just don't really like this book.

 Moxyland follows a group of people living in a 'future' Cape Town (2018, but this was written 8 years ago). We follow (almost too many characters for me to feel anything for any of them) Kendra, stereotypical artist being a photographer cause she likes its flaws bleh, I can say this I'm an artist haha. Who is arguably the most likeable character, when the author isn't turning her into a weak willed cry baby randomly. She's a sponserbaby, injected with nano to make her beautiful and perfect and also have a glowing logo on her advertising a popular soft drink. She seems the most real, but also adds the least to the story. Toby, an all too real streamcast baby, living off his rich mum and vlogging. He's been cut off however and trying hard to actually make a vlog that people want to watch and earn money through games. He has a sort of self induced surveillance as he records and casts most everything. He has the strongest character development, going from a total garbage person to slightly lesser garbage person. Then we follow Lerato, aids baby, grew up in an orphanage which apparently in this world is the best thing to happen to someone because it gave her free education and a one way ticket into a cushy corporate job. However she comes off as unchallenged and just bored, hacking and sabatoging her company. Then finally Tendeka, rebel without a cause trying to start a revolution and blindly following another revolutionist, but I don't think he even know what against. And that is the problem with this book. To create a powerful, lasting story, especially dystopian, you have to give us something to want the characters to be free of. You have to give us a truly questionable society. She didn't, this world isn't future enough, it's not surveilanced enough, the worst thing is that everything, your money, id, access is all linked to your phone so a disconnect by the police is worse than jail time. That just feels like a statement about our world being to techy, I can work with that, but it's not tight enough it's not pushed far enough. The second bad thing is this 'ruling' corporate class, but that's barely explored, so the corporate class live a cushy life style... okay, but it's obvious that it's not excluding people, I mean an orphan has a cushy job, so it's not like they're forcing people to be stuck where they are. People are allowed to leave the country, the police are jerks but not crazy ones. It just wasn't a broken enough society for me to really care. 

 This led me to kinda hate the characters. Not only did they all have the same bad attitude and read like the same character with different names but I didn't understand what they were fighting for, they didn't seem to understand what they were fighting for. I felt like the old man at the end who called them idiots and talked about how they were in the wrong. Cause honestly it felt like they had personal opinions they were forcing on others and I would call them terrorists. 

 This has become a full rant, sorry. On top of this is that there was no clear story, Honestly the closest is if you only read Tendeka and Lerato's parts, Toby and Kendra are just kind of there, as if she came up with their concept and just stuck them in, they did little to advance the plot except as another vehicle to deliver the world building (which was weak so...) also they had the endings that I didn't remotely understand. 

 But here's where it gets weird for me, I didn't hate reading it, it was quick and interesting it just left me feeling unfufilled and wishing to see this concept redone. 

also, personal issue, dear all editors, don't let authors reference real specific things, like tweeting, reddit, youtube. Instantly dates it, instantly makes it not timeless, as soon as those things aren't a thing anymore readers will skip over it and not get everything they could from it. Just keep it simple, generic, or make something up. /endrant

All in all, worth the read, but frustrating in that it just doesn't push itself far enough.

Moxyland

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