This Great Hemisphere is a speculative/sci-fi novel by Mateo Askaripour. It hits shelves on July 9th, 2024, suspiciously close to the 4th. Even the title seems like a nod to “Make America Great Again,” calling a government system great when it is, and always was, riddled with problems. We picked this book up because the concept of this book is compelling. This Great Hemisphere primarily follows Candace, also known as Sweetmint, in a world hundreds of years in our future. While many things have changed, the biggest shift is that some people have been born invisible.
As you might guess there are advantages and disadvantages to being invisible. But the main advantage, moving in secret, has been taken away by government tracking. Invisibles have been relegated to the status of second class citizens, rounded up and placed in their own communities. Candace, who is a skilled inventor, receives an internship with the world's foremost expert in the field, a man who is visible aka a DP (Dominant Population). Candace believes she's on track to proving that invisibles can do great things, but just then, someone assassinates the leader of the hemisphere. Candace, though, has bigger problems: the murder has been pinned on her brother who has been MIA for three years, and she needs to find her brother before anyone else does.
We enjoyed this book, it kept our attention and made us think, two of the main things we look for in a novel. There are, however, a few things that kept it from being something we’d recommend to our friends (and fellow frivolous) without reservation.
First, the things we liked:
- Great world building - The slang and conventions of the future added layers and texture that made the whole story more realistic
- Apart from the conventions of the people we loved hearing about futuristic inventions, (not quite as good as hoverboards and flux capacitors but we’ll take it)
- The idea of invisible people and how they would experience life differently from visible people
- The ways invisible people are kept under oppression, a powerful commentary on our own world
- The writing style, two thumbs up from us
A few issues we had:
- No talk of how people became invisible. This made us think the whole novel was more of a metaphor and kept us from becoming too immersed in the narrative. It always seemed a bit like the characters and themes were illustrating an issue rather than real fleshed out people.
- The end was a bit ambiguous, it doesn’t seem as if certain plot points and motivations were full resolved.
We’d really love to be in a book club that discusses This Great Hemisphere (someone invite us!), there are details that we would love to delve further into and viewpoints we’re sure we didn’t consider. This novel would be a great jumping off point for important conversations around race and the future of humanity. So if you read this book, let us know your thoughts, and maybe send a book club invite our way.
Thank you to PENGUIN GROUP Dutton for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are our own.