The Sudden Appearance of Hope, Claire North
The Sudden Appearance of Hope, Claire North
1 Rating(s)
List: $38.99 | Sale: $27.30
Club: $19.49

The Sudden Appearance of Hope

Author: Claire North

Narrator: Gillian Burke

Unabridged: 16 hr 31 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Orbit

Published: 05/17/2016


Synopsis

The World Fantasy Award-winning thriller about a girl no one can remember, from the acclaimed author of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August and 84K.

My name is Hope Arden, and you won't know who I am. But we've met before -- a thousand times.

It started when I was sixteen years old. A father forgetting to drive me to school. A mother setting the table for three, not four. A friend who looks at me and sees a stranger.

No matter what I do, the words I say, the crimes I commit, you will never remember who I am.

That makes my life difficult. It also makes me dangerous.

The Sudden Appearance of Hope is a riveting and heartbreaking exploration of identity and existence, about a forgotten girl whose story will stay with you forever.

About Claire North

Claire North is a pseudonym for Catherine Webb, who wrote several novels in various genres before publishing her first major work as Claire North, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. It was a critically acclaimed success, receiving rave reviews and becoming a word-of-mouth bestseller. She has since published several hugely popular and critically acclaimed novels, won the World Fantasy Award and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, and been shortlisted for the Sunday Times/PFD Young Writer of the Year Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the Philip K. Dick Award. She lives in London.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Regan on June 09, 2023

4.5 Ugh, Claire North is just too good......more

Goodreads review by Emily on March 05, 2018

A beautiful book that simply wasn’t for me. Everyone forgets about Hope as soon as she leaves the room. 30s without seeing or hearing her and you start forgetting her existence…. The premise instantly attracted me but I went into this book expecting more sci-fi elements which is my fault. This book is......more

Goodreads review by Dannii on August 29, 2016

So I am definitely in the minority with my opinions on this book. I really wanted to love the story, as so many people seem to do, but there was something lacking in it for me and I can't quite pinpoint what that is exactly. I felt a disconnect from the characters and the plot, as if the author was......more

Goodreads review by Bradley on September 17, 2016

Freedom and Slavery, as written by one of the most dauntless minds in literature, today. :) Of course, it's also a very clever novel of freedom and slavery, written within a couple of very interesting premises, but by this point, I'm willing to assume that this great author is always going to push th......more


Quotes

"Beautifully written, with a protagonist who is both tragic and heroic, the novel is remarkably powerful and deeply memorable, the latest in a string of terrific books from this newly emerged star in the genre-blending universe."
Booklist (starred review)

"The experience of sitting with it, sinking into it, aching along with Hope as her loneliness shapes and breaks her, was wonderful, painful and moving."
NPR

"North has established a reputation for tense, dense, science fiction/fantasy-inflected thrillers that defy facile explanations... Simultaneously a tense conspiracy caper, a haunting meditation on loneliness and a brutally cynical examination of modern media... Well-paced, brilliant and balanced."—New York Times

"[T]his is an inquiry into modern human existence. Philosophical questions are threaded through the electrifying plot. Even the protagonist's darkness alias is "why." Reminiscent of William Gibson's best work, North leads us into a brilliant world of elite but mindless humans, and shines a sharp light on what a rare gift it is to be able to think for oneself and what the consequences of it are."—RT Book Reviews

"Startlingly original"—Independent (UK)

"North isn't here to lecture you or rehash tired debates. Instead, she's produced something that feels at the same time absent and necessary: Smart, compelling fiction about this future that asks us to outsource ever-larger chunks of our selves to the cloud."
Tech Insider

"This is a book which is incredibly compelling, and incredibly heartbreaking at times. I could not put it down."
The Forest of Books


Awards

  • World Fantasy Award