Beukes...is on authorial fire here, not merely because of the heart-stopping plot ... it’s the plethora of engaging characters that adds real substance and immersive texture to this multilayered thriller ... Into her bigger-picture narrative, Beukes has elegantly woven observations on late-stage capitalism as well as the horrors of systemic poverty, domestic abuse, racism, and war.
Trippy ... There are a few weak points. The book broaches but never satisfyingly explores the ethics of body jumping, and the same could be said of some of the novel’s emotional beats ... But none of that detracts from the pleasure of reading the book. That’s because you can tell Beukes is having an absolute blast putting words on the page.
A mind-bending, multiverse-tripping sci-fi thriller ... Beukes's space-time-continuum distortion of a novel is like that rare blockbuster film that delivers on both special effects and thought-provoking moral dilemmas ... High-concept entertainment at its finest, with a heavy dose of wistfulness keeping the fantastical elements grounded.
A mystery and a family drama wrapped in the trappings of science fiction, with Beukes spending most of the book examining the difficult and complicated relationships between her characters. Beukes impressively paints each individual with a highly realistic level of detail and a clear-eyed perspective on their faults ... Beukes drops clues about the dreamworm and the mysterious forces trying to claim it for their own throughout, and while readers will be able to piece some or all of these mysteries together, the twists are still surprising and the payoffs still satisfying.
The worldbuilding here is skillful, as is the pacing—Beukes avoids dropping anvil-like plot points or world details, trusting the reader to unpack clues and read between the lines ... Effective as metaphor but mostly ass-kicking, mind-bending entertainment.
