True Life in Uncanny Valley / Deb Caletti / Book Review

TRUE LIFE IN UNCANNY VALLEY

Eleanor is a huge fan of Hugo Harrison, the brilliant tech genius at the forefront of AI research. And Eleanor isn't just any fan. This connection is personal. Because, well, he's her father. Her father who she's never met. Her father, who her mother had an affair with years ago before cutting off contact completely.

Eleanor's mother would rather that connection remain severed. It's always been just the three of them, Eleanor, her mother, and her sister. They're a tight-knit unit. They don't need Hugo Harrison.

Except Eleanor has never felt like she fits into her family. She isn't not who her mom and sister would like her to be. She doesn't share their hobbies, their interests, their aspirations. So when she finds out that Hugo and his new wife are in need of a live-in nanny to look after their son, she jumps at the opportunity. This is her chance to get to know a whole new family--her father, her half-brother--and finally find where she fits in. But agreeing to work for the Harrisons launches Eleanor into a world of tech, money, and ego beyond what she could have imagined. And she wasn't exactly upfront and honest about who she is and why she wants in.

THOUGHTS

Sometimes you pick up a YA book and think Wow, this author hasn't spoken with the youths in a bit. Unfortunately, that was the case here. While this book contains an interesting bit of social commentary on AI and tech "innovations," I think this commentary is more suited to an older generation that has been beguiled by this new tech. The younger crowd is a bit more skeptical, irreverent, and (frankly) informed. Was it a bad read? No. But I don't know that it will strike any chords with the intended audience.

PROS

Balancing Act	This book does a very good job of balancing the real beauty of an insanely wealthy life--the pools, the yachts, the personal chefs--with a more insta-curated lifestyle (a lifestyle made to be photographed, not lived). I liked this peek-behind-the-veil of celebrity life, even a life as "public" as an influencer's might appear.
Young Love	If there was one aspect of this book that did scream "teenage," it's Eleanor's exploration of her sexuality. Which is entirely age-appropriate. It's not like teenagers aren't curious or exploring and experimenting, and that's exactly what Eleanor's romance in this book is: experimental and new. Not every parent or reader will like this, but I don't think this content goes too far. It's like a John Green book: controversial but important.
Supporting Cast	There are a lot of characters happening in the background of this book, but Deb Caletti doesn't neglect any of them. I loved each of these side characters. Eleanor's friends Arden Lee and Clementine are great, well-rounded and very tangible. It's nice to have those best friends as her support system while she navigates this new world (and the lies she has told to access it). And I love her little brother Arlo, who could easily have been a plot device but is instead a whole, bumbling toddler character. And her relationship with Aurora, Arlo's mother, is nicely developed as well.

CONS

There is no world in which I buy a teenage artist (or aspiring artist, as we might have it) being this uninformed about generative AI. Eleanor just doesn't know anything about generative AI, even though she supposedly knows all about Hugo Harrison and does in fact use generative AI. The art community is very vocal when it comes to copyright infringement in AI, and there's just no way a teenage artist, one who spends time in online spaces, wouldn't be informed and (most likely) up in arms about this new technology and it's artistic plagiarism.	AI Angst... Or Not
There are some plot reasons nobody runs Eleanor's background check. But even with the reasons, it felt... weird that there was no background check run on Eleanor. She's working with a child. A rich man's child. And nobody's running a background check? I know she's our POV character, so we know she has no ill intentions, but I just can't imagine anyone hiring a stranger to work with their young child 24/7 without doing some pretty thorough vetting, especially not those living such a high-profile life.	Background Check?
The background characters are well-developed here, as I said, which means that it is easy to love those who Eleanor loves... and hard to like those who are failing her. Even when she justifies it (poorly, in my opinion). Eleanor and her mom are often at odds, which is pretty standard for a teenager-parent relationship. But at the same time, Eleanor has the right to ask questions, to be curious about who she is and where she came from, and her mom's absolute inability to entertain her daughter's questions was really hard to read. Her mom is irresponsible. She doesn't keep great tabs on her youngest daughter (read: she has an obvious favorite). Eleanor gets excluded and belittled in her own family, and it is more than just differences in taste or regular teenage angst. Some of this was the point, to be sure. That's what spurs Eleanor to grab this job with her half-brother. But I don't know that this tension at home was supposed to read so brutally toxic. I think it wasn't, given Eleanor's consistent rationalizing of this treatment of herself at home (and the utter lack of resolution when it comes to this particular issue in her life). So, it was hard to read. Realistic, maybe, but hard.	Irresponsible, Irredeemable

Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
7/10

Fans of Emma Lord's When You Get the Chance will like this soul-searching quest for a birth parent. Those who loved Deb Caletti's The Epic Story of Every Living Thing will like this complicated look at life, family, heritage, and learning to live on your own terms.

Details Publisher: Labyrinth Road Date: March 18, 2025 Series: N/A Add to Goodreads Buy it HERE

Note: I was provided with an ARC by the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here are my own.