Face

By: Joma West

Narrated by: Patricia Santomasso, André Santana

In Joma West's Face, Margaret Atwood meets Kazuo Ishiguro in this sci-fi domestic drama that reimagines race and class in a genetically engineered society fed by performative fame.

How much is your Face worth?

Schuyler and Madeleine Burroughs have the perfect Face—rich and powerful enough to assure their dominance in society.

But in SchAddie’s household, cracks are beginning to appear. Schuyler is bored and taking risks. Maddie is becoming brittle, her happiness ever more fleeting. And their menial is fighting the most bizarre compulsions.

In Face, skin color is an aesthetic choice designed by professionals, consent is a pre-checked box on the path to social acceptance, and your online profile isn’t just the most important thing—it’s the only thing.

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books.

©2022 Joma West (P)2022 Macmillan Audio

Unfulfilling

The premise of this book is promising and I was so excited to read it. It begins with allusions to rich character backstories set against an inventive backdrop, as far as dystopian fiction goes. But the novel was a total letdown to me. The author provides so little additional insight into characters’ motivations as the plot progresses that by the time I finished, I was wildly frustrated. What could have been a useful narrative device - repeating scenes from various perspectives - just felt repetitive and dull. Characters’ motivations remained so opaque as to disengage me, rather than provoke thought. Symbolism as social commentary (appearance currency, power, intimacy, etc.) felt both blunt and erratically deployed. The synopsis likens this book to Ishiguro and Atwood, which I found generous at best. Having recently read Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun, I’m certain I can tolerate ambiguity and lack of resolution in a novel; Ishiguro’s elegant dialogue/prose are compelling enough to draw the reader in without spelling everything out in an obvious way. But this novel was just… clumsy. Personally I’m disappointed, but hope other readers find it more enjoyable.

Nuanced from Multiple Points of View

I'm glad I was in the right mood to enjoy this audiobook. If you want nonstop action, this is not the book for you. If you appreciate nuance and seeing events from multiple perspectives, you will appreciate this story. The narrator did a great job making it suspenseful and capturing the nuances of each character.