Sublimation

What a unique genre bending reading experience! Thanks to Net Galley and Tor Publishing group for approving me to read an ARC of Sublimation. I throughly enjoyed the unique POVs, as it kept me engaged and intrigued throughout the whole story. This book posed a lot of questions about when your wishes and desires can pull you in different directions. The characters are quite literally split into two selves and go to live different lives, asking themselves who has it better? Grappling with “what ifs?” and regrets and reliefs. A truly unique reading experience!

3.5 starsWhat a unique premise & so well written for a debut! The narration is the way to go here with some special effects later in the story when things get more intense. The comparisons to Severence are apt. What would the world be like if key moments in your life result in creating different instances of yourself. You’d keep living your life but a different version of yourself would be split off, experiencing a different life. We see this play out with two main characters (or is that four?) as they explore their options in the backdrop of cultural expectations, borders and immigration, family & culture. And what would it be like if you could make the decision later to reintegrate, especially with evil tech corporation vibes added in. Definitely recommend!*Thanks to Macmillan Audio & NetGalley for the free copy

I feel that the best description of any book like this is the Sliding Doors concept. I know that the idea has been around before the movie, but we are still going Sliding Door vibes for this book with a big exception. Instead of creating a new timeline or a split timeline, you create a new version of yourself. One that has all the memories of you until that point, but will continue forward while you stay where you are. These splits are instances and are created specifically at borders, though the story will go in and say that borders can be viewed differently, but basically, most often these instances occur at airports, train stations, etc. When part of you has a desire to move to one country, but the other has a desire to stay, you split. It doesn’t hurt; you may not even realize it at first, but it happens. Here we follow two sets of instances: Soyoung and Rose, and YJ and Yujin. Soyoung and Yujin remained in Korea while Rose and YJ ended up in New York. They were great friends as kids, and Soyoung and Yujin would become best friends as adults. It will end up that these four will need each other to solve the mystery of YJ’s new job and the mitosis project. Which seems shady. We dive deep into this speculative world of corporate/government control of people, citizenship, and science while also looking at humanity and narrowing down what it means to be a person, an instance, or to join those instances back together. Though we do have four varying POVs at one point, all of the views will eventually converge to a big climax.In between all of the POVs, we have retellings of popular stories/folklore, with the addition of instances and their impacts. Mainly, we have Odysseus and the Odyssey, and then Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, even parallelling that the Devil was an instance of God, which is interesting. What I loved the most about the audio is toward the end, where you have this literal overlapping, the convergence of thought and ideas. That is not something that you would get with the print. The overall story is great; it’s an interesting and different concept. The characters are engrossing, their ethics and morality are tested, and the concept of individuality is tested. The pacing isn’t always great, but the story is well worth the read.

Sublimation is, quite literally, unlike anything I’ve read before. It captured my attention from the very first sentence, written in second-person POV. In my experience, second-person narratives done well are among the most immersive reads I’ve encountered, and Sublimation lives up to that promise.It takes about 25% of the book for things to get going, but once they do, you won’t be able to put the book down. Author Isabel Kim’s strengths include creating characters so lifelike they practically walk off the page, a world that feels eerily familiar, and dynamite pacing. Perhaps most importantly, you can see the characters wrestling with their choices, and their subsequent actions—while often jaw-dropping—feel earned.I loved this book and am eager to read more by this author. My single quibble is that I don’t think the final chapter was necessary. Ending with the penultimate chapter would have made for a stronger landing, one more in line with the many questions the novel raises throughout its fast-paced, laser-focused plot.4.5 stars.

What if you could split yourself in two? What if you couldn't control it? And what if it wasn't all it was cracked up to be?I never really got into AppleTv's Severance so I wasn't sure if I would connect with the debut novel Sublimation, but the concept of splitting oneself in two in order to live two different lives was simply too compelling to pass on. But this book is so much more than being about sending a copy of yourself to work while the other does something else. In Sublimation, splitting--here called "instancing"--occurs without the individual's ability to control it, most often at a time when they're being pulled in two different directions such as moving to another country or not. The two instances live completely different lives until they choose to reintegrate--that is, unless they use a blocking bracelet to prevent reintegration--merging their memories together. The ability to instance is a foregone fact in this world: instancing has always happened, and even immigration laws and pop culture are deeply rooted in people instancing. It's clear Isabel Kim gave careful consideration to every possible effect of instancing on everyday life, and the world-building in Sublimation is nothing short of incredible. Even fetuses occasionally instance and the narrators reflect on this, though fortunately such an event is not part of the plot.I'm not sure if the author, like Soyoung Rose, was born in Korea and immigrated to NYC or not, but she skillfully integrates her culture into the story, depending the characters Soyoung, Rose, Yu-Jin, and YJ. The story itself deeply captures the experience of immigrants from any culture torn between their home and the promise of a new one. While I was reading this book, my wife and daughters traveled to her home country for a couple of weeks. They described to me how hard it was both to be away and to have to leave their family there--literally torn between two worlds. How much easier would it be if one could just be in both places at the same time?But for Soyoung Rose, it's not so easy. She didn't have the choice to leave, as her mother had made that choice for her when Rose was Soyoung was only a child. And when events force her to return to Seoul, and she meets her instance, it becomes even more complicated. The characters truly drive this story, with each instance clear and distinct, both in their thoughts and actions.The narration, done by Michelle Lee and Major Curda, is flawless, with a unique technique of overlapping voices to reflect the confusion and complexity of reintegration and instancing. The author also interjects "historical" commentary, from legends and folk tales to interpretations of The Odyssey (in which Odysseus instanced) and even of Adam and Eve (whom she declares were instances of God). In the audiobook, some of the very short comments get a little confusing because it takes a moment to realize they are not dialogue or present tense narration. I will say it took me a few chapters to adjust to the second-person narration, but the author in a way explains this later in the book, and other tenses are used as well for specific reasons.I originally wasn't sure how this story could be drawn out into a full-length novel, but Isabel Kim met the challenge. While there are many references to Korean culture and expressions, there is very little actual Korean used so a non-Korean speaker will not get lost. Big thank you to the author, MacMillan Audio, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book and provide an unbiased review.