Hum - by Helen Phillips

Book Synopsis

A Most Anticipated Book for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, Goodreads, LitHub, and Book Riot
A Best Book of the Summer for Esquire, Electric Lit, and Town & Country
A People Book of the Week

From "one of our most profound writers of speculative fiction" (The New York Times), this "tense dystopian thriller" (Time) and "tender portrait of love and care in an uncertain world" (Esquire) is an urgent and unflinching portrayal of a woman's fight for her family's security in a world shaped by global warming and rapid technological progress.

In a near-future world addled by climate change and inhabited by intelligent robots called "hums," May loses her job to artificial intelligence. Desperate to resolve her family's debt and secure their future for another few months, she becomes a guinea pig in an experiment that alters her face so it cannot be recognized by surveillance.

Seeking reprieve from her recent hardships and her family's addiction to their devices, May splurges on passes for her family to spend three nights respite in the Botanical Garden: a rare green refuge where forests, streams, and animals still thrive. But when her children come under threat, May is forced to put her trust in a hum of uncertain motives to save her family.

Written with "precision, insight, sensitivity, and compassion" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), Hum is a "striking new work of dystopian fiction" (Vogue) that delves into the complexities of marriage, motherhood, and selfhood in a world compromised by global warming and dizzying technological advancement, a world of both dystopian and utopian possibilities.

Review Quotes

"Hum is a prescient, unnerving and excellent novel of a future that seems frighteningly possible. It's the story, in part, of a mother just trying to make her family happy and how the world punishes her for it. Helen Phillips writes with sharp insight and sly humor, making her critique of our current moment feel timely and timeless." --Victor LaValle, author of Lone Women

"Hum is something special. Helen Phillips is something really special. This novel is gripping and a true page-turner that made me think about our current world in completely new ways. Ultimately and most importantly, I closed the last page with a profound, deep love for the simple, beautiful and very human lives we lead."

--Ramona Ausubel, author of The Last Animal

"A transcendent portrayal of artificial intelligence, love, the fate of families, and the emergence of synthetic beings beyond human imagination." --Clifford A. Pickover, author of Artificial Intelligence: An Illustrated History

"An indelible family portrait and a narrative tour de force, Hum generates almost unbearable tension and unease from start to end. Stunning, strangely beautiful, and written from a place of deep compassion but also a clear and analytical eye. Helen Phillips, in typical bravura fashion, has found a way to make visible uncomfortable truths about our present by interrogating the near-future. I loved it."

--Jeff VanderMeer, New York Times-bestselling author of Hummingbird Salamander

"Helen Phillips (The Need) imagines a dystopian future that's about five minutes away, in which the very fundamentals of society have been shifted by climate change, AI, surveillance tech, and our relentless electronic devices. When a desperate mom agrees to a dangerous experiment, things get even darker." --Goodreads, "Readers' Most Anticipated Summer Books"

"There's a lot going on in this novel, but trust Helen Phillips to navigate it effortlessly.... It's Anxiety Central, but in a good way." --Literary Hub, "Most Anticipated Books of 2024"

"This sleek ride of a novel further cements Phillips's position as one of our most profound writers of speculative fiction." --New York Times

"[A] striking new work of dystopian fiction... Textured, intimate, and taut with dread, Phillips's latest is a well-crafted machine with a throbbing pulse." --Vogue

"A familiar yet distorted world in which a desperate family clings to rare moments of joy." --PEOPLE, 'Book of the Week'

"A tense dystopian thriller set in a near-future where sophisticated artificial intelligence threatens human existence as we know it." --TIME, "25 New Books You Need to Read This Summer"

"Phillips' skills as a stylist and keen observer of human nature keep us feverishly turning pages. And her unexpected humor lightens the mood." --Los Angeles Times

"The fearsome power of Phillips's imagination always dazzles, but in this prescient novel, it's the tender portrait of love and care in an uncertain world that leaves a lasting mark." --Esquire, The Best Books of Summer 2024

"This chilling vision of a near future, one where its dwellers 'can't avoid the void, ' resonates unnervingly with the way things already are. Readers won't be able to look away." --Publisher's Weekly

"With propulsive intensity and extraordinary finesse and insight, Phillips keenly dramatizes the love and terror of parenthood in a poisoned, high-tech, yet not utterly hopeless world." --Booklist

"The world of Hum feels not too far from our present day reality. [Hum] makes you, the reader, deeply uncomfortable (in a good way) about the advances in AI and our dependence on technology." --Town & Country, "The 39 Must-Read Books of Summer 2024"

"The true wonder of Hum lies in its chilling reflection of our present times. However, Phillips cuts through the bleakness of the fictitious world she has created by transporting readers deep inside May's psyche, the tumultuous beating heart of the novel, to witness the tender humanity no amount of technological advancement can destroy... an intriguing novel about motherhood set in a technologically advanced future." --Shelf Awareness

"Phillips' new novel again shows her talent for finding warmth, humanity, and connection within an all-too-conceivable dystopian landscape... Writing with precision, insight, sensitivity, and compassion, Phillips renders the way love and family bonds--between partners, parents and children, and siblings--can act as a balm and an anchor amid the buffeting winds of a fast-changing, out-of-control world. A perceptive page-turner." --Kirkus (starred)

"A dystopian, futuristic hellscape just around the corner, Hum digs into our tenderest wounds... Infuriating and enthralling, Hum rushes along with an undercurrent of panic about our own not-too-distant future." --Electric Lit, The Best Books of the Summer, According to Indie Booksellers

"What's more intoxicating than a Helen Phillips novel? Her books have blown open the doors of what's possible with the art of storytelling--and her latest, Hum, is her best work yet: one that captures, with fire and grace, our future and what it means to love, to persist, and to be human. This is a hold-your-breath book. Buckle up and get ready to deeply feel the joy--the thrill, the magic--of reading." --Paul Yoon, author of The Hive and the Honey

About the Author

Helen Phillips is the author of six books, including, most recently, the novel Hum. Her novel The Need was a National Book Award nominee and a New York Times Notable Book. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award. Her collection Some Possible Solutions received the John Gardner Fiction Book Award. Her novel The Beautiful Bureaucrat was a finalist for the New York Public Library's Young Lions Fiction Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. A professor at Brooklyn College, she lives in Brooklyn with artist/cartoonist Adam Douglas Thompson and their children. Find her online at HelenCPhillips.com or on X @HelenCPhillips.