I love lots of things about this book. I think my rating which is probably lower that it deserves reflects how much I loved I Hotel which represents her later work. I particularly loved the character of Buzzworm and the perspective he offered. The main magical device just didn't resonate with me. It lacked narrative force. Some events near the end and at the end didn't work for me. Though a 3 isn't stellar, I still recommend the book. There is so much it offers to think about and I love the work scholars have done with it. For me, it was a must read so I could get deeper into the writing about it.

If I read this when it was published, it would have been 5 stars! Because it speaks to such a current moment with the internet, it feels dated now. Of course, that's also an incredible thing to record how people felt about the net and the thinking that its new weird burgeoning connectedness initiated, both the utopic and apocalyptic. I also wonder if we read many things differently now that we are in the midst of climate disruption post-COVID.