WE HEAR VOICES

 5 stars out of 5

Back in my younger days, I ripped through sci-fi books with a passion - I think it was largely because technology, and all the possibilities it brings, has always been a fascination (probably because my formative years were spent using a crank telephone on a party line and getting news and music from a floor-model radio, so Sony's Walkman was enough to blow my mind). But my tastes these days lean more toward mysteries and thrillers, so when I was offered a pre-release copy of this book, I was a bit hesitant.

I needn't have been. It was, literally, hard to put down. And while I won't describe it as anywhere near terrifying or horrifying, it was totally engaging - and eerily familiar because it takes place amid a pandemic, climate change devastation and people hopeful of a new beginning on a different far-away planet. Elsewhere, a mega-developer has created a highly regimented, communal living/working utopia with Big Brother overtones and a doctor is secretly trying to rehabilitate children who recovered from illness and suddenly began hearing "voices" in their heads.

The pandemic has taken the lives of thousands of earthlings, and many, many more have contracted and recovered from the J5X virus. One of those is Rachel's young son Billy, and although her life is far from perfect, she's grateful that his life was spared. She's even willing to overlook his newfound imaginary friend Delfy, who appeared in Billy's head shortly after his recovery. But her acceptance doesn't last long; soon, Delfy seems to have taken control - telling Billy to say and do ever more frightening things. Billy realizes what's going on, but he claims he's powerless to stop Delfy or ignore her commands.

Meanwhile, Rachel has two daughters - Nina, who is in school and hoping to be on one of the rockets that will take people to start a new world - and Beth, who, amid all the chaos, is almost the perfect baby. Rachel and her partner Al have been barely able to make ends meet since she stopped working to care for Beth, but both are resolute in their refusal to sign up for the communal work/housing program. But then Delfy starts commanding Billy to do decidedly unchild-like things.

As readers will suspect early on, these seemingly separate things - the space program, the work-life community and the doctor's hideaway - may be intertwined, and finding out how and why is what keeps the book a mind-grabber. The ending, while not a total surprise, wraps things up yet leaves future possibilities up to the reader's imagination. All told, very enjoyable and thought-provoking.

We Hear Voices by Evie Green (Berkley, December 2020); 384 pp.