There is a reason this post is coming so late after reading this book for March -- burn out. Between grad school, my full-time job, personal things and the lingering pandemic, everything been kicking my butt the last eight months. I'm looking forward to finally having the summer off to do things like read non-required books, cross stitch and spend time outdoors.
This also means that there will be a hiatus from Book Club as well. Most of the other girls also have a plethora of other things going on too: two have new jobs, one is moving to a new city and the other has 4 kids. We've all agreed that a break over the summer is a good idea and we'll reconvene in the fall.
Now, for Klara and the Sun:
I really liked this book as a whole. I have some qualms about the ending though. I think it would have been better left as a cliff-hanger ending even though I don't like cliff-hanger endings. I also think premise is very poignant because it is not far off from what might be our nearer future than we'd like to admit. And while I was not a fan of the ending, it did make sense that the whole plot was a recollection of Klara's memories and how it all tied up in the end.
I'm not really sure how to feel about the characters in the book because the reader only ever sees things through Klara's eyes. I feel like she is relatively unbiased and relates things as they are, but is she really? Despite being an Artificial Friend, Klara tends to be very human-like, which I guess is the goal of the AFs, but its difficult to determine how much of what she relates is accurate or construed because she doesn't quite understand human behaviour.
I did and didn't see the twist coming at the same time. I won't write too much more about it because SPOILERS, but I can say that it was very interesting. Especially so since you kind of discover what is going on alongside Klara as she also pieces together her importance. I like the way the author did that.
Klara's odd worship of the Sun was hard for me to wrap my head around because that is not how I think in regards to religion or think about any type of deity at all. I can see why Klara thought and acted the way she did regarding the sun because I would assume in the realm of the book that the AFs weren't sophisticated enough in differentiating science from religion in that specific way. Unless they were created that way... worshipping the sun because it was how they stayed 'alive' or functional. Curious.
I'm not sure what else to comment on about this book because so many things could be spoilers! Plus its hard that we didn't have a good club conversation on it. Only Carmen and I were able to make it for the meeting for this book and rather than talk about it we ended up discussing the second season of Bridgerton for two hours because it had just come out. We were super diligent book clubbers that day.
Anyways, I do plan to keep posting about the other books I read this spring and summer, so stay tuned. And we'll hopefully pick up Book Club again in the Fall... when I will also be back at it with grad school again. I'm in a cycle of self-induced stress, haha.
