{"id":20934,"date":"2013-06-15T06:30:58","date_gmt":"2013-06-14T18:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=20934"},"modified":"2013-06-13T18:55:27","modified_gmt":"2013-06-13T06:55:27","slug":"book-review-love-minus-eighty-by-will-mcintosh-reviewed-by-karen-mcmillan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2013\/06\/15\/book-review-love-minus-eighty-by-will-mcintosh-reviewed-by-karen-mcmillan\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: “Love Minus Eighty” by Will McIntosh\u2014Reviewed by Karen McMillan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today I’m really pleased to bring you another book review from Karen McMillan<\/a>, whose reviews cross a range of literature genres.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Love Minus Eighty<\/em> by Will McIntosh — Reviewed by Karen McMillan<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

This is an original love story set a hundred years in the future, in a world where the dead can be revived, but only the extremely rich can afford the procedure. This is a world where you can pay insurance to be stored on ice at minus eighty, in the hope someone will bring you back. It\u2019s a world where technology is king, where people prefer to interact with each other through floating screens and you can choose to live your life on full public view. It\u2019s also a world where dead beautiful woman are put on ice in dating centres in the hope that billionaires will revive these \u2018Bridesicles\u2019,\u00a0 although the dating procedure is extremely cruel. Usually they only have five minutes with prospective grooms for each date in the centre \u2013 with only their faces activated \u2013 before being turned off again.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mira has been on ice in the dating centre for more than 80 years, and the reader feels her despair each time she is woken by another perverted old man. She misses her partner, but yearns to be \u2018revived\u2019 rather than the nothingness of being on ice. But then she is visited by Lycan, a young man who seems genuinely kind, and he may be her opportunity for living again…<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile a tragic accident puts another young woman, Winter, in the dating centre. She was out jogging when she was hit by a car. Rob, the person who killed her, is filled with remorse.\u00a0 His girlfriend Lorelei had just broken up with him in front of hundreds of people on screen and he hadn\u2019t been concentrating when he was driving. He vows to make things right and gives up his dream of being a musician to do manual work so he can earn the $9,000 required for a five minute session. He wants to apologise to her \u2013 and after that, he promises to come back. Meanwhile Vernika works as a dating coach, but secretly has a crush on another dating coach, Nathan. All of these lives \u2013 the dead and the living \u2013 are soon to collide in surprising and thought-provoking ways, against a backdrop of protest about the \u2018Bridescicle\u2019 programme.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is a riveting read. At first glance it\u2019s a light book, but the further you delve into this world, the more interesting the themes that relate to our own time that question love, technology and mortality. Highly recommended for an innovative plot, a scarily imaginable world and wonderful characters.<\/span><\/p>\n

Publisher:<\/strong> Orbit, 2013;\u00a0 pp 432 [Paperback]<\/span><\/p>\n

To find out more about the author, click on: Will McIntosh<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

To read Karen’s previous review for ‘…on Anything, Really’<\/em> click on: Citadel<\/span><\/a><\/em> by Kate Mosse<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

About the Reviewer:<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n

Karen McMillan<\/a> lives in New Zealand and is the author of both fiction and non-fiction. She has a Diploma in Professional Writing and an Advanced Diploma of Applied Arts (Writing). Her non fiction title,\u00a0 Love in Aotearoa,<\/strong> was short-listed for the Ashton Wylie Book Award in 2005.<\/p>\n

Previously an award-winning fashion designer, Karen has worked full-time for a leading book publisher based in New Zealand for the past\u00a0twelve years.\u00a0Karen has written articles for a variety of different publications and from time to time she takes on ghost-writing projects. She\u00a0also volunteers for her local hospice and writes articles that promote the life-affirming work that they do.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Note: Given <\/em>“Love Minus Eighty” is an Orbit publication, I also note that Karen is an employee of Hachette New Zealand; the review was done for her private blog and represents her own opinion.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today I’m really pleased to bring you another book review from Karen McMillan, whose reviews cross a range of literature genres. — Love Minus Eighty by Will McIntosh — Reviewed by Karen McMillan This is an original love story set a hundred years in the future, in a world where the dead can be revived, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews-for-on-anything-really"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20934"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20967,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20934\/revisions\/20967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}