The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North

[Werthead]

The Sudden Appearance of Hope

 

No-one can remember Hope Arden. A minute after taking their eyes off her, she vanishes from people's memories. Photographs can be taken, text messages read, but the very fact of her existence simply cannot be retained by the human brain. Unable to get a job (her bosses forget about her the second she leaves the premises) or hold down any kind of meaningful human relationship, Hope turns to crime to survive. What was supposed to be just one more diamond job in Dubai goes south thanks to a disturbing new lifestyle app. A woman dies and Hope suddenly discovers a cause, something to fight and die for, but a battle even her extraordinary advantage may not be able to help her win.

 

The Sudden Appearance of Hope is the fourth of five works by Catherine Webb published under the name of Claire North. These five works are thematically linked by each character in these works having some kind of special ability, usually providing great advantages but also tragic disadvantages, and a situation they have to deal with. It's thought-provoking, interesting stuff, written with a literary bent thanks to her superior ear for language and a great eye for character.

 

Webb may be better known to SFF fans under her other pen-name, Kate Griffin, under which she wrote the splendid Matthew Swift urban fantasy series, as well as the YA material she publishes under her own name. She's now chalked up seventeen novels under her three pen names, giving her works a sense of confidence that comes from experience. But she's also a restless author, constantly moving between ideas and embracing new concepts (hence why the Matthew Swift series wrapped up after just four books rather than being strung out for twenty). The Claire North books - given a bolster by The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August being chosen for a TV book club in the UK and taking off as a result - seem to be her way of fully engaging with an adult readership and also experimenting in ideas and literary styles between books.

 

The Sudden Appearance of Hope is an aptly-named book: for me it came out of nowhere and staked a serious claim to being one of the best genre novels of recent years. The premise is simple: no-one can remember Hope Arden. If she spends more than a minute out of their line of sight, they simply forget she existed. She can be caught on video or audio, but a minute after the viewer or listener switches the device off they forget her again. It makes forging any kind of relationship, from a friendship to a romance or a professional collaboration. difficult. The only way Hope can really survive is by forging a secret online identity as _why, which she uses on the darknet to fence stolen goods and arrange commissioned crimes or pick up falsified documents.

 

What could simply be a gimmicky special ability is instead folded into the book's over-arcing themes of identity, validation and how people desperately try to stand out in a world swamped in social media and superficiality. The storyline revolves around Perfection, an app which monitors users' habits and advises them if they are being "perfect" or not. It rewards people trying to be perfect with points, and at higher levels they gain rewards, from stays in posh hotels and spas to money off expensive beauty treatment and lifestyle courses. When people using the app find themselves getting dream jobs, meeting their perfect partners and improving their quality of life, it explodes in popularity. But Hope soon finds something sinister lurking behind the App, both in the people that made it and the people who use it regularly, something that ties in with the media's idea of what makes people perfect and what makes people people.

 

The result is a timely reflection and analysis of the world we live in. An app like Perfection isn't quite possible right now, but it's probably not too far off. Of course, the book takes the concept to its ultimate conclusion, bringing in body horror and invasive brain surgery. When Hope discovers a second person like herself who has been made memorable by the surgery, she suddenly finds herself fighting the urge to use it herself, to rejoin the human race at the expense of the things that make her unique.

 

The result is a book with a killer high concept, a fascinating and psychologically complex lead character and which uses its premise as a prim through which to examine the world around us, from vacuous media culture to spin doctors to lifestyle gurus and tabloid editors wielding more power than any elected political official, all told through some tremendously skilled prose.

 

There are moments where the pace stalls a little, where the movements between story and theme and characters don't jar quite as well as they should, and occasional moments where you find yourself questioning quite how Hope's abilities work (most of which, to be fair, the book answers quite well), but these issues are pretty limited.

 

The Sudden Appearance of Hope (****½) is a jet-setting novel about a jewel thief which metamorphoses into a beautifully-written taken on life in the 21st Century and on the meaning of identity. It is available now in the UK and USA.

[Damelon]

This sounds intriguing, thanks for the review Wert.

[brunhilda]

I read this third: after the first Fifteen Lives of Harry August (admired, didn't love), and Touch (which I adored). I didn't really like it. Writing was fine, the concept really grabbed me, but the character was so unlikeable and petty.

This was the first book I read after my "OMG Touch is the best, I'm going to pre-order every single thing she ever writes ever again" and it was a huge letdown. The villain was ridiculous and over the top. The story didn't satisfy like a proper story. It's just a bunch of political polemics masquerading as a book. Even so, I pre-ordered End of the Day. While I actively hated Hope, End of the Day was so boring that I had to push my way to the end.

Right now under her "Claire North" identity, I consider her a one hit wonder. Get "Touch". I loved it. It has a full story with mystery, a rich backstory that we discover over time, and a main character you can go on a journey with.

You might also want to try a Madness of Angels, which is very very clever, but I didn't particularly love.

[RedEyedGhost]

I would put this one on the same level as Touch, with The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August at a step above.  Her newest book, The End of the Day at about thirty-two steps below - I haven't finished it yet, but I'm not sure I even will.

1 hour ago, brunhilda said:

Right now under her "Claire North" identity, I consider her a one hit wonder.

You're right about that, you're just wrong about which is the "hit"  

[brunhilda]

The funny thing is that I bet I can find you a lot of people who will connect with Touch, Hope, or Harry (there may not be overlap on these) and they will all be dead from boredom at the End of the Day.

[williamjm]

I liked the book, but not as much as North's previous two novels. I did like that its main plot was about something other than the special ability of the main character, unlikely the previous two - while Hope's forgetability may be important to the plot it isn't the main focus. I thought she was an interesting character, and although many of the characters she meets are deliberately dull I thought Byron was intriguing as well. The plot did lose momentum at times (the roadtrip across America, for example), but there were some great scenes, such as the big heist or Byron's idea of what a party should be like.

and occasional moments where you find yourself questioning quite how Hope's abilities work (most of which, to be fair, the book answers quite well)

One thing I wondered about was that since Hope's digital footprint is apparently more memorable than she is (hence Byron remembering her online conversations with _why_), why she doesn't live more of her life on the Internet. She might not be able to make friends in the real world, so I'm surprised she wouldn't try to build up relationships in online communities as some sort of way to compensate.

2 hours ago, RedEyedGhost said:

I would put this one on the same level as Touch, with The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August at a step above.  Her newest book, The End of the Day at about thirty-two steps below - I haven't finished it yet, but I'm not sure I even will.

I'd probably rank First Fifteen Lives and Touch as being fairly similar, I liked them both a lot. First Fifteen Lives probably has the better plot, but I found "Kepler" to be a more compelling character than Harry and the body jumping does lead to some unique action scenes. The fact that nobody has yet had a kind word to say about The End of the Day isn't really encouraging me to read it. I also read her first Gameshouse novella, which was well-written but I found I didn't really care about any of the characters.

[Sheep the Evicted]

10 hours ago, RedEyedGhost said:

I would put this one on the same level as Touch, with The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August at a step above.  Her newest book, The End of the Day at about thirty-two steps below - I haven't finished it yet, but I'm not sure I even will.

You're right about that, you're just wrong about which is the "hit"  

Im with you exactly, I swore off Clair North after finding the Gameshouse book really disappointing as well. Also unlike you william i found Kepler to be the opposite of compelling and the main reason why i didnt like the book.

[Bastard of Godsgrace]

I liked A Sudden Appearance of Hope a lot, both because of very compelling character and interesting conflict. Both Harry August and Touch are a level lower IMHO, but still really good. I agree Gamehouse novella were mediocre, and The End of the Day positively bad, though.

[polishgenius]

I liked the Gameshouse books- nothing mindblowing but love the premise, and the first novella did the election games thing way better than the last Locke Lamora book for example.

For the rest, Harry August is by far my favourite- both Hope and Touch were well written but it felt like Touch failed at really having a point beyond the premise whereas Hope had too many; the forgetting thing and the app thing could have been a book each and the ideas clashed.


The End of the Day is a real shame. It's a brave book, and all of the individual bits are well written, but it feels like an unfinished pitch for something much much bigger. Really strange.


I hope we see some more Kate Griffin work from her sometime.

[drawkcabi]

I've read and reread First Fifteen Lives of Harry August three times now, I love that book. I've not read anything else by North or any of her other AKA's. Thinking of trying Hope.

[RedEyedGhost]

I was able to force myself to finish End of the Day and would definitely recommend avoiding it. Terribly boring book. I'm shocked it was  published.

[unJon]

6 hours ago, RedEyedGhost said:

I was able to force myself to finish End of the Day and would definitely recommend avoiding it. Terribly boring book. I'm shocked it was  published.

This. 

 

I love 15 Lives. Thought Hope was really good and Touch was ok. Games Gouse was fine for what it was.