Claire North

My name is Hope Arden, and you won't know who I am. But we've met before-a thousand times. It started when I was sixteen years old. A father forgetting to drive me to school. A mother setting the table for three, not four. A friend who looks at me and sees a stranger. No matter what I do, the words I say, the crimes I commit, you will never remember who I am. That makes my life difficult. It also makes me dangerous. The Sudden Appearance of Hope is the tale of a girl no one remembers, yet her story will stay with you forever.

The Sudden Appearance of Hope

Laura Dobie

The sea below exhaled like a troll, rattling stones as the water was sucked back into the deep, breaking breath where it burst against the cliffs. I could see the beauty in it now, the dark-on-dark-on-dark without end. Far away, a tanker crawled between the island and the mainland, heading north, towards Kirkwall and Lerwick, the Arctic Circle and the oil wells, belching fire across the sea.

I have perpetrated a device that obliterates the minds of all who use it, making them little more than internet memes, walking marketing boards, human placards selling us the sex, the clothes, the cars and the holidays that the markets demand. The 106 Club is a hangout for clones -physically and mentally - the surgeon's scalpel, my treatments. I have no doubt that they are happy. Self-doubt, insecurity, needines, emotional fragility - these are not traits of perfect people. Have you spoken to anyone in the 106? They can respond to any situation with a two-dollar retort from a self-help book at a pinch.

"Perfection is an elitist tool of social division," she explained with the absolute confidence of a second-year humanities student destined to rule the universe. "

It was an incongruous place for Byron to have set up shop, but there, between a nursery school and a motorbike- repair shop, was an unmarked single-storey white building which had once been a dentist's clinic, and which was now the property of Hydroponic Fertilizers Ltd., Water Is Our Future, a shell company whose shell was so fragile a sea anemone could have brushed it away. 

"I used to love creating comparnies," mused Byron as we tramped up the path to the locked and bolted front door. "My proudest achievement was a pumpkin-pie company in Israel. Did so well I often thought I’d retire and do it for real."

“You met me yesterday,” I explained as she rubbed her hands against the still-heavy morning cold. "It's all on tape." 

“My letter said you were unsure if you would stay or go.”

I shrugged. "Your assistants fell asleep. I thought about going, and decided to stay." 

“That's... good. That's very good. Did you tell me yesterday what kind of tea you drink?”

"Am I going to forget that by the time I get indoors?" 

"Yes - unless you're recording this, and remember to play it back." 

"You must get terrible service in restaurants." 

"I like buffets," I replied, detaching myself from my seat and heading for the door. "Also those sushi bars with the conveyer belts."

You didn't get to 1x10 to the power of 6 points in Perfection without some sort of surgery, I had concluded. Even the most beautiful, even the most astoundingly naturally beautiful, had something tweaked, tucked or smoothed. Perfection seemed to be an inhuman quality.

"It isn't... perfect ... to have knowledge," she stammered, the joy stripped away. "Perfect people aren't knowledgeable they aren't... wise. That's what my brother says. Knowledge is for show-offs and people who don't get out of the house enough, we've got Google, Wikipedia. Knowledge is a place where sexy should be. Clever is sexy, the sociopath genius, the smartest man in the room, but that's clever that doesn't need to work, that’s not investing in knowledge, spending time at work, that's just … being brilliant. Being brilliant is sexy, not working hard, Sexy sells. That's what Rafe always says: sexy sells."

“We really want Perfection to be good for people, to help them live better lives. With the right help, anyone can be perfect!”

An original premise, well-executed and compelling: what is life like if no one can remember who you are? How do you engage with the world around you and the people in it? The sinister Perfection is a clever amalgam of various social media platforms that is uncomfortably close to reality: it makes you think about the influence this has over people’s lives, how we measure ourselves and others, and what it means to be perfect, or imperfect.

Ruby Huber

Mixed bag coming right up! If you LOVED that Black Mirror Episode, Nosedive, you might like this book. Its a bit of a deeper exploration of the concept of projecting perfection at the huge expense of your own humanity… I think I would have loved this book if it were a bit shorter, sorry Hope. It dragged! But I did really like the narrator and her inner monologue on the meaning of self and now, when nobody but you can remember that you exist. I also love reading characters who are extremely well read because I wish it were me who was so well read and through such literary excursions I can pretend that I am. I wanted to love this book, and I only liked it, thank you for your time.

Jeremy Cote

Disclaimer: I had an advanced reading copy of this book.

What a great book. It took me a second try to really get into it, but once you do, you become totally sucked into the world of Hope. It's a lovely book, and the writing is so intriguing. Usually, I hate it when authors start modifying proper punctuation, but the way it was done in this book was great.

What I love about this author is that she comes up with such strange and fantastic concepts. I'm not much for stories that blatantly contradict science, but North's stories are just so good that I can overlook it.

***WINNER OF THE WORLD FANTASY AWARD*** ***CLAIRE NORTH SHORTLISTED FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES / PFD YOUNG WRITER OF THE YEAR AWARD*** My name is Hope Arden. I am the girl the world forgets. It started when I was sixteen years old. A father forgetting to drive me to school. A mother setting the table for three, not four. A friend who looks at me and sees a stranger. No matter what I do, the words I say, the crimes I commit - you will never remember who I am. That makes my life tricky. It also makes me dangerous . . . The Sudden Appearance of Hope is the tale of a girl no one remembers, yet her story will stay with you for ever. Praise for Claire North: 'North's talent shines out' Sunday Times 'Little short of a masterpiece' Independent 'Poignant and intensely gripping' Guardian 'Well-paced, brilliant and balanced' New York Times 'Utterly readable, utterly believable and compelling . . . one of the fiction highlights of the decade' Judy Finnigan, Richard and Judy Book Club Also by Claire North: The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August Touch The End of the Day 84K The Gameshouse The Pursuit of William Abbey

bianca

WINNER OF THE WORLD FANTASY AWARD

Stefan Hansen

Camilla Woodhouse

nathan gonzalez

Ben Cardy

Tamara Al-Qaisi-Coleman

Jas Wang

Hannah Derzanovich

Kendra Jones

Hanna

Charlotte Gyselinck

Sarah Agterhuis

Cameron Price-Austin

Adam

Listen. All the world forgets me. First my face, then my voice, then the consequences of my deeds. So listen. Remember me. My name is Hope Ardern, and you won't know who I am. We've met before - a thousand times. I am the girl the world forgets. It started when I was sixteen years old. A slow declining, an isolation, one piece at a time. A father forgetting to drive me to school. A mother setting the table for three, not four. A teacher who forgets to chase my missing homework. A friend who looks straight through me and sees a stranger. No matter what I do, the words I say, the people I hurt, the crimes I commit - you will never remember who I am. That makes my life tricky. It also makes me dangerous . . . This is the tale of a girl no one remembers, and her story will stay with you for ever.

The Sudden Appearance of Hope

Reviews

Highlights