PositiveAsymptoteAnyuru doesn’t shy away from complicated issues—instead, he utilizes a complex story structure to take us right to the core of them ... Throughout the book, I often find myself confused as to which narrator is speaking; sometimes it takes a few sentences into a new chapter before I realize that the perspective has switched. Considering Anyuru’s close attention to detail in every other aspect of the narration, I’m inclined to think that this hint of a merging between the two characters is intentional ... Anyuru applies a poet’s sense for the weight of each word as he builds the story ... There are succinct, sometimes terse sentences where each word matters, along with swift jumps between focuses, thoughts, perspectives, or timelines ... the confusion is unsettling in multiple ways. It’s one thing to read a dystopia, but another to see how well it fits with our own present ... This is an intricately woven story, written with a wonderfully poetic sense of language ... These are scary times, and Anyuru helps us think about that.
