Why a Booktrail?
2000s: She watches you constantly. She knows all your secrets. Now she wants to destroy you.
The Assistant
What you need to know before your trail
Newly divorced Jo is delighted to move into her best friend’s spare room almost rent-free. The high-tech luxury Camden flat is managed by a meticulous Home Assistant, called Electra, that takes care of the heating, the lights – and sometimes Jo even turns to her for company.
Until, late one night, Electra says one sentence that rips Jo’s fragile world in two: ‘I know what you did.’ And Jo is horrified. Because in her past she did do something terrible. Something unforgivable.
Only two other people in the whole world know Jo’s secret. And they would never tell anyone. Would they? As a fierce winter brings London to a standstill, Jo begins to understand that the Assistant on the shelf doesn’t just want to control Jo; it wants to destroy her.
Locations
ResetTravel Guide
Alexa…show me London
This could be set in any city in any country in the world as London is a mere backdrop and although a few locations are mentioned, it’s to show the wealthier areas compared to those less fortunate. Those houses who are more likely to have the lifestyles where having a virtual assistant such as Alexa is going to more necessary and trendy.
The flat with the assistant here is in Camden. The real setting however is our reliance on A I and the virtual assistants we invited into our home and allow them to listen in on all our conversations. What happens when the machines stop listening and start talking instead?
This is a story for the modern world.
Booktrailer Review
If you have an Alexa style device in your home or one like it, well lets just say if you read this book you might well be throwing it in the bin after this!
A novel for our times – what do you do if the machine you talk to and ask things, talk intimately in the same room as it is, share everything that goes on inside your home…and it listens and listens… Then it starts answering back, talking to you, controlling you and wanting to destroy you.
If that doesn’t get people talking, thinking and freaking out, I don’t know what will.
Not the kind of book I usually read but I was intrigued to read this one!
BookTrail Boarding Pass: The Assistant
Destination/location: London Author/guide: S K Tremayne Departure Time: 2000s
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