Subterranean

The story revolving around Hil and Ronnie is one of a great journey filled with psychedelic characteristics and overbearing government conspiracies. It is a story that will make you think about how much technology has a hold on our modern day society and where it could lead to. I really enjoyed the read and I hope for a sequel from this debut author.I will say that this book is geared towards adults with strong language throughout and a couple controversial scenes here and there. Regardless, this book has a very excellent plot and kept me hooked until the end leaving me wanting more.

Highly recommended!

As an English teacher in the modern world, I have been swept up in the craze of dystopian fiction. So many students want it, and so many teachers try to incorporate it into their classrooms ranging from classics like The Giver all the way to contemporary works like Ready Player One. I found Subterranean an absolute delight. It felt like I was stepping into a blended world of Kurt Vonnegut, Terry Pratchett, Ray Bradbury, Douglas Adams, and Joss Whedon all at once. I love the dark humor and irony throughout the entire story. From the very start, I was entranced with the character of Hil, wondering what motivated her and how she would drive the plot (and of course, I also immediately added blue mascara to my shopping list). I am not normally a fan of robots, but I do love the premise of books like Feed by Anderson, where the Internet has taken over people's minds. Colombo's book helped push the boundaries in terms of science fiction and mystery, and I love the voice and humor that comes to life through her characters and their ability to interact and criticize the (too close) futuristic setting. Although there are a couple of scenes that might lead me to hesitate to check out the novel to my students, I think that if they can handle Bradbury or Pratchett, they will have the maturity to read and love this novel. I am so excited to see what is in the future for Colombo!

This book is a lot of things—a hilarious comedic romp, a rousing paranoid thriller, a series of stirring character portraits—but basically it's just awesome. There are a lot of lazy comparisons I could make (Philip Dick if he had an actual ear for dialog and was a much better prose stylist? Black Mirror if it had anything resembling a sense of humor? Thomas Pynchon if he wasn't so into ribald song lyrics and pedantic tangents on technical topics?), but I think that those would belie the surplus of heart that sets this book apart. A powerful meditation on technology and human connection and the ways that they interact, one that I'll be puzzling over for a long time.

This book is both an amusing and somewhat frightening critique of our society's dependence on technology. The constant surveillance of people by the very technology they depend on and the privacy that this culture is so willing to give up is remarkably similar to our current culture. The characters are well developed, interesting and feel like people you may actually know. The plot is a fun romp through a tech-obsessed wasteland and bizarre run-ins with people fascinated with raves, the X-Files, grunge and the Buffy fandom. It's entertaining, interesting and I couldn't put it down. I would absolutely read this again.

The image of Hil in a Christmas tree sweater with blue mascara running down her face dancing at a party drew me in the way it drew Ronnie in. After that I had a very tough time putting the book down to do other things. Colombo’s use of imagery (a “stained convenience store”- who’s heard of that but who doesn’t know exactly what she’s talking about?), satiric dark humor and constant sense of mystery - it was a pleasure to read which brings me back to my headline....

This was a great story about technology, society and a future in which the second functions so fully dependently on the first. The story reads smoothly and the characters are well developed. I do hope a second book is in the works.

This book is so good. It sucks you in on the very first page and doesn’t let go until you’ve finished the thing. It’s funny, thoughtful, and hits pretty close to home for me as a ukulele playing children’s librarian.