I love against-the-clock mysteries, with a doomsday approaching and a brilliant feat pulled off the save humanity, or the world, and this was kind of it. It was definitely interesting with a suspenseful mystery, but the sheer amount of POVS and detached narration holds the story at arm's length, as if it doesn't want you to get too close with any of the characters. This book explores many themes and thought-provoking questions, like what it means to be human, artificial intelligence, and greed and ingenuity; however some of them are not explored far enough to be satisfying. There is also the matter of the narration, by Abi, an AI who can read into the minds of the islanders, which leads to the switching off between an omnipresent third person narrator and Abi's first person POV. Abi definitely messed around with how able you, the reader, would come to conclusions about the murder and the characters, which was genius (albeit extremely irritating).
A problem I have with this book is that many of the sci-fi elements are not explored enough to feel needed. They are there to make this a sci-fi, and that's it. All these gadgets and advances with so much potential just barely mentioned.
Overall, though, this was a fun read. I enjoyed exploring the themes and the murders through the eyes of Abi and the islanders, and I found that rather than being distracting, the elements of so many different genres helped to create a more coherent story.
A problem I have with this book is that many of the sci-fi elements are not explored enough to feel needed. They are there to make this a sci-fi, and that's it. All these gadgets and advances with so much potential just barely mentioned.
Overall, though, this was a fun read. I enjoyed exploring the themes and the murders through the eyes of Abi and the islanders, and I found that rather than being distracting, the elements of so many different genres helped to create a more coherent story.