Pre-emptively noting that I have not read anything else from Egan, this was a selection for a book club I am in. The book is marketed as a standalone work despite being a sequel to Welcome to the Goon Squad (What a name lmao) and generally does succeed in that way. There are some overlapping characters from the first novel, but I didn't think it failed in any way narratively reading without the knowledge of the first.

That being said, I finished this wishing I had spent my time reading the Pulitzer-winning book instead of this.

There are some interesting or compelling moments in this book; basically, it is a meditation on authenticity in the social media/tech world. However, a very Gen-X author attempt at capturing technological impact societally definitely feels a bit ham-fisted and somewhat out of touch. Nobody is Talking About This wasn't a complete success in my opinion either but captured internet brain and attempted that new sincerity thing a bit better. The books are very different, and I don't think that is exactly what Egan is going for but thought it was worth bringing up. Welcome to the Goon Squad is more of a meditation on time and "culture" and I could expect its executed it a bit better.

The best moments are these shallow characters grasping for authenticity, such as a character that screams in public for "real" human reaction, or a guy that sells weed with leaves and seeds because it captures a nostalgic experience.

The structure of the book follows in the form of the first of these semi-related short stories that begin to weave together and interlink with a fairly incestuous cast of characters who all conveniently happen to be a niece, a childhood friend, or something else in relation to the current chapter's protagonist or of a character from I honestly did enjoy piecing it all together and how these people connected. These chapters vary in style and form, with some of them feeling pretty gimmicky and a bit annoying, especially this tonally bizarre secret agent chapter written in second person. It feels less purposeful and more of an attempt to one-up the so wacky and cool PowerPoint chapter in the first novel. Even writing that sentence now makes me feel like I'm having an Aneurysm. The book is pretty grounded up to this point.