Incarnate by Alma Katsu
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
**4.5-stars**
I was sold on Incarnate after seeing it described as a reimagining of The Picture of Dorian Gray, one of my favorite Gothic novels of all time, but for the internet age?
How was Katsu going to spin this? I had to find out.
In this story, we’re following Dorothy Wagner, a VFX designer, who has always wanted to standout and be noticed. Dorothy was bullied terribly when she was younger, but she’s come a long way since then. Old insecurities are hard to totally shake though, and she constantly feels like she needs to prove herself.
After she gets a job with a small upstart company that’s focused on cutting-edge deep fake technology, her abilities to standout start to grow. The owner of the company, Tomas, who has a lot of nervous energy, but boundless knowledge, becomes a bit of mentor for Dorothy.
She learns so much from him that she’s able to master the tech, and in her free time, she creates Isabella. The perfect girl, who takes social media by storm.
Everyone wants to be Isabella, and Dorothy finally feels like she’s reaching her own potential, but as the partnership requests roll in, and the money starts to flow, the inevitable cracks start to show.
I know that rhymes. How perfect. Just like Isabella.
I thought this was incredibly-creative and it’s actually my favorite Alma Katsu to date. They say to write what you know, and she definitely took that advice here. In the mid-2000s, Katsu was one of the US Intelligence community’s 1st Social Media Researchers.
This book is a fantastic exploration of social media’s influence in our lives, and some potential unintended consequences of disruptive technologies.
Framing the story as a The Picture of Dorian Gray retelling was a brilliant choice, IMO. It did drag just a touch for me at the end, but overall, it was a fantastic reading experience.
I loved the body horror bits Katsu included and definitely was impressed with how dark she actually ended up taking this story. Once Dorothy starts spiraling, she really starts spiraling. It was hard to predict how it could possibly end.
I would recommend this to any dark fiction Reader. It’s a great melding of Techno-Thriller and Social Horror, with a dash of fantastical. I really appreciated all the pertinent issues that Katsu explored here. I think this would be a stellar book club pick, as there’s so much to discuss.
Thank you to the publisher, G.P. Putnam’s Sons for providing me with a copy to read and review. I cannot wait to get a hard copy of this one for my collection!