"Sometimes Joey feels like her whole life is a montage of randomly selected, algorithm-controlled surveillance cam clips, mostly of her looking at screens or sitting glazed-eyed at meetings. As a professional image builder and storyteller, she finds the lack of structure even more offensive than the banality of the material. She's always taken pride in her instinct for cuts and angles and rhythms in the wildly successful stories that she produces--one day, one perfect day, her life will be just as award-worthy."
- Samit Basu, The City Inside
This wonderful novel is a frenetic ball of energy, depicting the world of New Delhi in a plausible near-future where social media, algorithms, and authoritative governments rule the day. Basu's prose, filled with ideas and sprawling vitality, covers a lot of ground very quickly - you're immersed in Joey's world, finding yourself looking for societal insights and warnings. A smart, entertaining read. Abigail Nussbaum's review (under it's original title Chosen Spirits), inspired me to pick it up.
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