A User's Guide to Make-Believe

by Jane Alexander

An all-too-plausible thriller that will have you gripped

You create the fantasy. They control your mind.

Cassie McAllister worked at Imagen, the tech giant behind the cutting-edge virtual reality experience Make-Believe™, and she got to know the product far too well.

Now Cassie has been blocked from Make-Believe and legally gagged by the company. With Imagen holding all the cards and personal and public freedoms at stake, how far will she go to expose their deception?

What is Make-Believe™? Whatever you want it to be. Ever wanted to fly? Live out your ultimate fantasies? Tell your boss what you think of them? The only limit is you.

Cassie McAllister had the perfect job - bringing Make-Believe to life. Now the dream has been shattered, the nightmare has begun…

Genres: Science Fiction, Audiobook, Fiction, Thriller, Contemporary, Fantasy

Audio CD

First published January 23, 2020

About the author

Jane Alexander is the author of The Last Treasure Hunt (Saraband), which was selected as a Waterstones Debut of the Year in 2015, and A User’s Guide to Make-Believe (Allison & Busby, 2020). Her short stories have won awards and been widely published.

In 2018, she completed a PhD in creative writing, exploring the contemporary uncanny in short fiction. Her forthcoming projects include a collection of unsettling short stories about everyday and near-future technologies. Jane is represented by Lutyens & Rubinstein Literary Agency.

As a teacher of creative writing, Jane has worked with all kinds of learners – from secondary school pupils to local elderly people, international students to men in prison. For several years she ran creative writing workshops for for people in recovery from substance misuse, and she currently teaches at the University of Edinburgh. Originally from Aberdeen, Jane has previously worked as an illustrator, designer and arts marketer, and has lived in Edinburgh – the world’s first UNESCO City of Literature – for 20 years.

Reviews

[Susan Hampson · Rating 4 out of 5]

You know that this is only fiction but part of you wants it to be real. It only takes your imagination, a bit of time and of course a fee but it wouldn’t be long before it isn’t enough. Then, of course, there had been a few clients that had found more than they were looking for while using it.
Cassie had been with Imagen from the very beginning as one of the minds that they used to tweak the programme before the launch. For her and the other originals, it had become a daily fix. Well, that was until the day they were asked for the access passes and told they weren’t needed any more. A clause was put in place, a legal gagging order to prohibit her and those like her from telling anything about Make-Believe. So they form a help group and some of them seem very familiar to each other although they have never met.
I loved the concept of Make-Believe but the story turns edgy and darker when Cassie is dismissed. Who can she trust when she can no longer trust herself? Cassie is a well-developed character in the story that is easy to connect with. Beautiful descriptions of the Make-Believe places that made me think about what actually surrounded me that I took for granted. Plus the places that I could make myself. It is certainly a story that wakens up all of your senses.
I wish to thank the publisher for an e-copy of this book which I have reviewed honestly.

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this randomly from Borrowbox (library) on audio as it sounded interesting and it was. A bit slow to get into but this was clever speculative fiction.

[Kelly Van Damme · Rating 3 out of 5]

Looking back, I’ve become aware of the fact that I compared quite a lot of books to Black Mirror last year… I tried not to make the same comparison now, but it was literally the first thing that popped into my mind. A User’s Guide to Make-Believe takes life as we know it, life as we’re living it today, and adds a technology that seems highly plausible and too good to be true, rubbing our noses into everything that could go wrong (if that doesn’t sound like a Black Mirror episode, I don’t know what does). The technology in this case is called Make-Believe™. And doesn’t it sound enticing? Being able to escape reality by creating your own little world in your mind? You want to fly like a bird, or on the back of a dragon, be a princess or a warrior, veg out in a hot tub with a bunch of Victoria’s Secret models, or relive quality time with someone dear but lost to you, whatever it is your heart truly desires, you can make it happen, even if it’s only in your imagination and for only a few hours a day.

Working for Imagen, the company responsible for Make-Believe™, Cassie was one of its early users, but when she became addicted, she was sacked. As such, the story starts out with Cassie down on her luck and her money, living in a rowdy, smelly bedsit in a dilapidated low-rise. From there ensues a tale that I found entertaining but that made me feel a little incredulous at times. I’m a huge Blake Crouch fan, I know how to suspend disbelief in these kind of stories, in order to allow the story to take over and I love nothing more than to give the book free reign, have it take me on a wild ride, the wilder the better. Unfortunately, however many things I enjoyed about A User’s Guide to Make-Believe, it never completely grabbed me and I failed to truly connect with Cassie. I loved the premise but I couldn’t help but find the execution a bit lacking. I can’t go into the reasons why without talking about plot lines and giving away too much, so let’s just keep it at that.

What I did love was the way A Guide is constructed. Despite having an obvious main character, Cassie, many chapters are told from the POV of other characters. Quite often a chapter from Cassie’s POV is followed by a chapter from the POV of the character with whom she has just interacted, allowing us to see the same interaction, or its aftermath, from a different perspective. I don’t think I have ever read a book constructed in this manner so it felt unique, and it’s a technique that I really enjoyed.

To my mind, A User’s Guide to Make-Believe is an entertaining enough read with an amazing premise that didn’t fully live up to its potential.

[Lel Budge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imagine a day dream brought to life. A fantasy VR world that feels real. That’s what Make-Believe offers…but at what cost?

Cassie is an ex-employee of Imagen, the developers of Make-Believe, she found a glitch that allowed her to stay in Make-Believe beyond the 2 hour limit. When Imagen found out she was dismissed and barred from Make-Believe…

As she investigates further she finds disturbing information and plans to fight….but can she win?

This is set in the near future and is so very scary in its plausibility. In this troubled world who wouldn’t want to escape into a fantasy world of your own building?

A mix of San Junipero (Black Mirror) and Total Recall, the lines blur between dreams and reality. A thought provoking and utterly terrifying thriller. Just fantastic.

Thank you to Anne Cater and Random Things Tours for the opportunity to participate in this blog tour, for the promotional materials and a free copy of the book. This is my honest, unbiased review.

[Chante Jacobs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Make Believe is the newest "in thing" and everyone who is anyone is using it. But there are safety precautions put in place and you can only spend 2 hours a day in this dream world. but all is not as it seems as people become addicted even tough Imagen denies the allegations and people start abusing the system.

We follow our protagonist Cassie, who used to be an employee of Imagen and a user of Make-Believe. Cassie is a really likeable main character, she feels authentic and real and her struggles with her addiction makes the reader really sympathize with her.

I really loved the concept of this book, there isn't any kind of shortage of VR inspired books but Jane Alexander did something unique with this one by delving into what it would be like if people actually started getting addicted and having to deal with withdrawal symptoms - this delivers some really interesting social commentary that mirrors what is happening current day.

Overall the pacing to me was quite slow but the characters and plot made this book an enjoyable read. I would categorize this as a "soft" Sci-fi and would definitely recommend this to anyone looking to dip their toes into the genre but who find most Sci-fi to be too intimidating

[Annarella · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book but even though I found the idea interesting and the characters fleshed the plot failed to keep my attention and it fell flat.
Not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

[Emily Wrayburn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I DNFed this a year ago when I started reading the paperback. If something better had come along, like one of my holds, I probably would have DNFed the audio book as well. I really only listened to it all the way through because I had nothing else to listen to, and Kristen Atherton is currently my favourite narrator.

This is really slow paced, it spends most of the first half just establishing things, before anything actually happens. It's supposed to be a Black Mirror-style thriller, but I honestly just didn't feel any thrills. I couldn't get invested enough in Cassie's and Alan's story to be bothered by the fact that bad things had happened to them. Lewis was a bit of a loose end at the end of the book, even though there was suggestion that there was more to him than we got to see...

[Stephanie Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

A terrific read. Unputdownable. I was hooked from the start by this sci-fi, all too real psychological thriller about the addictive allure of Virtual Reality that can suck you in to a dangerous darkness.
VR gets inside your head, as does this novel so you don't want it to end. It is also about Cassie, the protagonist's past and present love affairs, how appearances are deceptive and the exploration of these relationships are both convincing and shocking. Cassie is vulnerable too and we follow her on many twists and turns of plot, equally surprising and devastating. Must read.

[alomie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid book, enjoyed the audio book, just was a little too long in my opinion. 
I enjoyed the idea of a virtual reality place completely controlled by your imagination and also could see the way that companies could quickly abuse this. 
It was an interesting idea and I think I would recommend it to people. 

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s set in the not too distant future and shows one possibility of what can happen if technology continues to advance. For the most part we embrace technology and few people seem to question the dangers and pitfalls. In the book we meet Cassie, still trying to move on and recover from being completely disconnected from Imagen and Make-Believe. We follow her as she continues to work out her new life but also questions what happened and whether there is more to it than she realised.

I’m wary of the constant advancement of technology and what appears to be our almost lack of concern over the future impacts of blithely accepting all these new advancements, smart speakers and driverless cars are the one’s I’m particularly not keen on at the moment. However I have also tried virtual reality recently and have always found the idea of that, from the VR in Blade Runner to the holodecks in Star Trek, to be fascinating. Therefore this book sounded right up my street, virtual reality combined with hints that not everything with new technology is as it appears.

We follow Cassie as she investigates, learns and meets new people on her journey to find some answers. I liked her as a character, her confusion and struggles were understandable and came across well. I didn’t agree with everything she did but through the writing I could understand why she did what she did. The locations were equally well written and easy to imagine because they had a mixture of the familiar that we see everyday and the near future parts that have enabled Make-Believe to exist. The other characters all add to the story in different ways. Whether they are in it for a few pages or half the book they all bring something to the story.

I enjoyed the different facets to the story, the investigation, Cassie trying to understand her role in a world that was now changed, deciding how much she could trust other people given what had happened. There’s a lot to the story and it’s all woven together well in a book that will keep you reading and perhaps, unless you’re already cautious like me, will make you rethink your relationship with technology and whether you really want to give it so much of your personal data………..

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Imagen, a new British tech startup has come up with a sure-fire winner and path to riches: a fully immersive virtual reality system. Gone are the goggles and vertigo of old, instead biomolecules are absorbed via nasal spray and these interact with an adaptor worn on the ear. Using this, those who subscribe to the system can enjoy a dream world, better than the real one, the only limit their imagination. But there’s a dark side. Some people indulge in their worst fantasies and perversions; people can get addicted, preferring the dream world to reality; and there’s something else that the company is determined to suppress from the public eye.

Cassie McAllister is a former employee of the company. She’s been sacked and blacklisted, forced to sign a punitive gagging clause after she was found immersing herself for far longer than the regulated hours and completely dependent. Determined to find her way back in, she discovers the company’s secret by accident, and this has profound implications for her.

A User’s Guide to Make Believe is a techno-thriller, set in the near future, and in a world that’s all too possible to imagine. It touches on numerous issues that we grapple with today: the power of big tech, how these companies promise much, and how while they might deliver on what they promise, there's always an inherent quid pro quo; the sheer amount of data these companies amass on us and what they do with it is also tackled; as is the intertwining of government with their corporate power and the implications this has for transparency and holding them to account, in other words, the corruption this can lead to.

Cassie is an engaging character, deeply flawed but likable in her own way. The plot is intriguing and the story is of the moment. This is a dystopian vision of the dark side of our increasing reliance on technology and the corporate behemoths that supply us with it. This is a novel that is well worth a read.

[Shauna O'Halloran · Rating 3 out of 5]

What if there was a technology that allowed you to create your ideal world, where anything is possible? Where anything you ever wanted could come true, but there is a price to pay - your mind.

A User's Guide to Make-Believe is a science fiction, psychological thriller that follows Cassie, an ex-employee of one of the biggest tech companies in the world, Imagen. The same company who created Make-Believe, a hyper realistic VR system that Cassie helped promote, until she became addicted. Now she's living in a crappy apartment, after being fired from Imagen and shunned by her remaining family, banned from Make-Believe and legally gagged by the company she used to work for. But she's about to uncover the sinister side of her previous employer and just how far they will go to cover up the damage Make-Believe can do.

I LOVED the concept of this book. I have always been fascinated by the idea that VR technology could soon become a regular occurrence in our lives and this story shows that scenario in vivid detail. The descriptions of the Make-Believe system in this book were done so well and you could see why it would be so easy to get addicted. I also loved how they alluded to people using it to live out more vicious, criminal scenarios. It shows the dark side of the human mind and what people will do when they know they can't be punished for it.

Cassie was an interesting main character, but due to the nature of the story she was also quite an unreliable narrator. You never really know if what your reading is true or is it tainted by Make-Believe or the meddling of Imagen, still trying to keep Cassie silent. This aspect definitely helped to keep you on your toes while reading! The cast of characters is quite small, so we did get a decent amount of character progression with the few that we had.
There was a certain part of the plot that didn't get enough attention as it should have. I don't want to give too much of it away, but I definitely think it could have been expanded on more and would have helped to see the sinister side of Make-Believe and what exactly this technology can do in the wrong hands.

There is a slight romantic aspect to this story and honestly, I felt it was unnecessary. I didn't really see the point in it and I feel like the time spent on it could have been used in other ways to help move the plot along. I also wish that that Cassie's addiction to Make-Believe had of been explored a bit more. For the majority of the story, Cassie denies ever being really addicted even though she can see the negative effect it has had on her life and I think it would have added to the story to see her face up to that a bit more.

Overall, this was a really interesting book and given how attached we all our to technology in this day and age, I think these stories are important to tell.

[Kath · Rating 4 out of 5]

Make-Believe is the latest immersion game/experience. Legislation and software is in place to prevent users playing too long. But nothing is infallible and there are those who abuse the system. Including those who work for the company. People like Cassie who worked at Imagen, the company behind the game. Her immersions have lead her to discover something quite shocking. But she was found out, sacked with a gagging order, cut off from the game, and now her life is a mess. But the she meets someone who appears to be in a similar situation to her. Can they pool their resources and bring down the giants that now run Imagen and stop the nefarious dealings that appear to be happening?
I really enjoyed the concept of Make-Believe. Users can play out their dreams. They can fly, become superheros, get their dream job. They can also experience more darker things; bit scary. It appears that anything goes. But there's a new side to the technology coming and it is this expansion that worries Cassie. This side must stop. And our story basically revolves around Carrie trying to do just that. The minnow fighting the sharks! There's action galore both within and outwith Make-Believe and, as with other similar books of the genre, the lines blur occasionally. But it never gets confusing and I managed to follow everything very easily.
Characterisation was good. I took to Cassie from the off which helped me with all the rest of what was going on around her. She's just someone with a goal, and she's gutsy enough to take what she knows about what is going on and go all in to do something about it instead of sitting back and trying to get on with what is left of her life. She chooses to become involved and that impressed me. Other characters are just as well drawn although I can't go into specifics as it might inject spoilers.
Pacing was good. There was a good solid build up as the scene was set and then the action ramped up all the way to the end. Description complemented said action rather than distracting and the story got on with itself very well.
All in all, a good solid read that held my attention nicely throughout, leaving me satisfied at its conclusion. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars really. 4's a touch too much and though I did like it, I'm rounding down.
I was pretty sceptical about this one through the first hundred pages or so. It felt like the romance was meant to add a kind of humanity to a story about technology, to connect us to the protagonist, but I found it kind of forced, kind of uncomfortably horny in a very het way. In hindsight maybe a kind of clinicality may have been intentional, but the descriptions of warmth and safety in it towards the end seem to indicate it was an accident.
It picks up once the plot starts going though I think there was a messy balance between keeping reveals obscured and dropping hints of what might be important. At times things were so opaque that I couldn't get what was being hinted towards at all and just following along with what I was meant to know got tricky as I sorted out the false leads and red herrings from the things that were actually true. Other times the hints were a little too much. The slip of paper with the title of the children's book, for instance, obviously a clue, so I was sort of left waiting for it to reappear. There were absolutely moments that the balance was just right, where something seemed off without screaming it - Lewis' anger about the lost bike springs to mind. But perhaps there are just as many threads dropped, like the warning from the nurse not to sneeze when she couldn't have known that would be something to warn for. I suppose Cassie wouldn't know everything in the end, though.
The ending was very well put together, from chapter 41's haphazard view swapping, to the long sequence afterwards, back to Cassie in her flat, all great stuff. Good action and then something interesting to chew on with the difference between fantasy and reality.

[Charlotte Cowley · Rating 3 out of 5]

5 / 10

You could kill as easily with too much as with too little. "

A User's Guide To Make Believe - Jane Alexander

Imagine a world where your dreams can become a reality. This happens in Jane Alexander's book where a virtual reality is available to people for 2 hours a day as part of a new dystopian society.

Cassie, the main character, used to work for the company that developed this. She was fired for breaching her contract and using the headset for longer than intended. Now though, Cassie has realised that this 'so called' perfect universe is not all that perfect after all and she must work to expose this.

I have heard a lot about this book from the #bookstagram community, but honestly, i didn't get it! Half of the time I didn't know what was going on and I found it a little boring? I had high hopes for this book but sadly it fell short of my expectations.

[Doon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked Cassie as a character, and I thought the world of the story was richly imagined. I particularly liked how Cassie felt real, and had a host of issues, some of which we came to understand well, and others that remained partially obscured throughout the novel. I also thought the idea of Imagen was intriguing and raised interesting ethical questions, especially given the emerging popularity of VR games. However, the plot, and the ending in particular felt far too convenient for me.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

An intricate and highly original novel that explores the connections we share and lose with one another - and the lengths we can go to reclaim them. Literary speculative fiction at its thought-provoking best.

[David Garlant · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hugely disappointing ramble into the world of virtual reality and commercial manipulation. Tedious plot, no real drama, far too much techno babble and psycho babble for me. Cassie, as a character, had her moments, which prevented the award of a solitary star

[S Pearlyan · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. I liked the direction this book was going in, but little too slow and way too much meandering.

[Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up at random after trawling what was available for loan in my Library through the BorrowBox app (love the free audiobooks, hate how hard to browse the app is). The cover and the title caught my attention, and the description landed in my audiobook sweet spot of “sounds interesting but not enough that I might want to make notes on it.”

To my surprise this had me hooked from the first chapter! The plot is very “Black Mirror” and imagines a world in which technology company Imagen has developed virtual reality available as a small device you hook on your ear which interfaces directly with your brain. This allows you to explore a virtual world – Make-Believe – directed entirely by your own imagination. As you might – er – imagine this addictive, but to combat negative effects usage is limited to 2 hours per day.

Cassie is an ex-employee of Imagen, fired from her marketing job and banned from Make-Believe for her addiction, after she was somehow able to exceed the 2 hour limit (thereby breaking the terms of service). She meets Lewis, another cut off Make-Believe addict, and the story goes from there.

Cassie was well fleshed out as a character. As a shakily recovering addict drowning in debt she is at times desperate, manipulative and not particularly likeable, but the circumstances that led to her addiction were sympathetic. The reasons for her losing her job and severity of the terms are immediately suspicious, I have to wonder why she didn’t question things herself earlier, but then she was in the grip of addiction and the shame was definitely used against her.

Most of the time the reader is with Cassie, but occasionally will switch to the POV of another character who has just interacted with her. I liked this technique because it gave her more dimension, and really helped get across what a mess she is when in Make-Believe.

I did find the first half of the book stronger than the latter. Some things were easy to see coming, and I wasn’t entirely satisfied with where the plot went but I did I like how the unreliability of Cassie’s point of view was played with.

It’s not Great Literature, or even especially original, but it’s relatively rare that an audiobook will grip me like this one did, Kristin Atherton also did a fantastic job narrating (note to myself to look for more with her), so while this is more of a 3.5 I’ll round up on my own enjoyment!

You can read this review and more on my blog

REVIEW SUMMARY
I LIKED
- The possibilities with a technology like Make-Believe (good and bad) are intruiging.
- The story remains grounded in Cassie’s personal experience.
- The “zoom out” POV chapters where we see an outside perspective on Cassie was a good way to give her more dimension.

I DIDN’T LIKE
- First half was stronger, the resolution felt a bit anticlimactic… But arguably also more realistic that way!

[Jeanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this audiobook, with excellent narration by Kristin Atherton. The book had me from the very start, with the way a 12-step meeting venue was described without ever calling it that. Excellent show-don't-tell writing. The story was gripping and very applicable to today's life. I liked the ending which was perhaps more bleak and realistic than some would prefer, but open-ended and hopeful enough to really give the novel some pith. The story will linger with me for quite some time, with much food for thought on what we get addicted to, what we believe and imagine, and what is real. Even though it is set in a near-future world, it sharply addresses the issues of this current world.

[Liz Moffat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cassie McAllister worked for a research firm, Imagen, that made Virtual Reality receivers and software. She was part of the marketing team until she became addicted to the experiences, trying to relive a relationship she had with school friend Alan. She was banned from using VR and was sacked. She lost her job, her house, her family. Now she sells finished assignments to students to help her make ends meet and keep her run down flat. She is not the only one addicted to VR and meets a like minded soul, Lewis, at a support group for addicts. This is a thriller that kept me turning the pages. A warning of what can go wrong when technology gets out of control and into the wrong hands.

[Nikki Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Imagine if we could go into the world that is Make Believe, do anything we've ever dreamt of, live out your fantasizes - with 0 consequences and no-one ever finding out.

Well Cassie had the 'perfect' job of bringing Make-Believe to life, but soon everything wasn't so perfect.

This read described the beginning of a nightmare, I didn't find the nightmare through this read. I was halfway through the read and I finally thought, oop here is is, but nope, fell flat.

Does make you think about what you would want to make believe though - I'd have my current life, but with family/friends who are no longer with us and I'd wanna fly and travel the world.
What would you Make-Believe??

[Chris Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

This comes at the tech story from an interesting angle. We're thrust into the consequences, being shown the problems before we see the benefits. The main character suffers from tech addiction and this is presented really well. The gadgets are fictional, but the psychology seems convincing, even if the science isn't. There are some interesting ideas but the plot gets in the way of any meaningful message. It's well written and kept me wanting more, but I think a little less focus on the story and more on the themes would really make this sing.

[Sophie Constable · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book up on a whim from my local library and I am glad I have it a go. It is a very entertaining near-future sci-fi novel with some thriller elements that really propel the plot forward. It is well written and well paced, keeping me engaged the entire time while reading. I liked the main character and her journey throughout the book. This is a good book but it just lacked something that prevented me from fully getting invested in the story and I'm not 100% sure what it was. However, I would still recommend this book if the synopsis intrigues you.

[Iain · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's been five years since "The Last Treasure Hunt", and that's way too long to wait for a Jane Alexander novel, but the wait more than pays off. "A User's Guide..." is a speculative story that will stay with you long after the last page, both because of the fabulous characters and the terrifying plausibility of it all.

[Carol McKay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cutting edge

Cutting edge 21st century science fiction, so plausible that it feels as if intrusive technology could be wooing us, seducing us at this very moment. Jane Alexander creates a world, characters and scenario that are utterly credible. Recommended.

[Sean Randall · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a hauntingly powerful read. It doesn't have the technological fun factor other VR tales do. it goes further in, to the core of the results of not having the technology and really makes one consider the brutal implications of that in a well thought-out yet depressingly glum world.

[Maria Zakruchenko · Rating 1 out of 5]

Не могу больше! Половину книги героиня размышляет стоит ли ей возвращаться в мир воображения, где она счастлива со своим возлюбленным, которого в реальной жизни потеряла. А то ей грозит ШТРАФ. Невероятно скучно.

[Alex Rogers · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit of a surprise how much I enjoyed this - started off thinking I'd made a mistake in picking it up at tyhe library - but Alexander is a good writer, the story was coherent and interesting, and it was a very competent and enjoyable read.