Ignore All Previous Instructions

by Ada Hoffmann, Nancy Wu (Narrator)

A script supervisor for an AI media conglomerate is caught between her intense need for an orderly life and her deeper, darker queer desires. From the creator of the Outside trilogy, a heartfelt interplanetary epic of identity, longing, and a space pirate who smuggles inappropriate stories .

Kelli Reynolds loves creating stories more than anything in the world. But on Callisto, a generative AI company called Inspiration owns everything, including all the media, and only Inspiration determines which stories can be told.

Kelli has a rare and coveted job where her autism is to her She precisely edits AI output into "appropriate" stories for Inspiration's massive TV audience. Her proudest creation is the pirate Orlando—a dashing do-gooder based on stories she used to tell friends.

Reenter Kelli's ex-boyfriend Rowan, the person Kelli based Orlando on. Back when they were teenagers, their relationship was a secret. Kelli had thought that Rowan, a trans man, was her schoolmate Am, a girl.

Rowan is tangled up in the black market after he needed to get money for gender reassignment surgery. He needs Kelli's help with something . . . illegal. So, now Kelli has to Will she risk the safe, tidy story of her life now for the world she once wished for? What would Orlando do?

Passionate, dangerous, and tender, Ignore All Previous Instructions is a sweeping, poignant novel about censorship, forbidden love, and growing up.

Genres: Science Fiction, Queer, LGBT, Fiction, Fantasy, Dystopia, Adult

13 pages, Audible Audio

First published May 12, 2026

Reviews

[Rachel (TheShadesofOrange) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.0 Stars
As someone who loved The Outside and its sequels, I was eagerly anticipating this follow up novel. I am happy to announce that I was not disappointed and would recommend this book to anyone else who loved that trilogy.

One of the best elements of this novel was the inclusion of another character with autism and a queer identity, which I understand pulls from the author's own experiences. I appreciated the complexity and nuance of these representations, breaking away from certain popular stereotypes.

In addition, this novel explored the world of AI written tools and their invasion of storybased media. I found the conversations very topical and important, not saying away from the negatives of AI in creative spaces.

In terms of science fiction, this one is much softer than others, which makes it a great entry point to readers who don't read a lot of the genre. I would primarily recommend to character driven readers who don't mind a romantic element to the story. This one felt personal and left a big impression on me.

Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

[Brianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll be honest, the title is what sold me to this book. I ~ love ~ the concept of jailbreaking models. I have a lot of Big Feelings about AI (even with all of the fiction/sci fi I consume where AI is central to the plot in a neutral presentation), but this one got me thinking more deeply about how bias can lead to censorship/erasure as a step beyond creative freedom. Overall? Speculative fiction that feels both cozy and high stakes? I love the vibe. I appreciated the dual timeline and the completeness of our characters here. The biggest draw back for me was that it definitely felt like YA at times and I wanted a little more punchiness.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Bogi Takács]

Find me elsewhere: My Patreon | My Bluesky account

Read for blurbing and absolutely loved it. I'll do my best to put my blurb here once it's public :)
____
Source of the book: Print ARC from publisher

[Kara Babcock · Rating 3 out of 5]

If companies like Anthropic and OpenAI get their way, generative AI will run rampant while being controlled by megacorps who care little for human creativity. This is the future on display in Ignore All Previous Instructions, and I don’t like it—the future, that is. I liked the book! Ada Hoffmann uses their background in computer science and computer poetry to explore a contemporary issue through a futuristic lens. I enjoyed the many layers of this story: a heist, friends reunited, a parable about LLMs, a story of life on a colony of the human diaspora, and of course, a story of an autistic protagonist. Some of these layers are more sophisticated and satisfying than others. I received an eARC from NetGalley and Tachyon Publications.

Kelli Reynolds is a script supervisor for a company that owns the copyright to all the media in the Jovian system of moons. Her job is to review and tweak AI-generated scripts for AI-generated entertainment. It’s squeaky clean and sanitized. However, Kelli finds the job fulfilling. Autistic and introverted, Kelli splits her time between her quiet home and her quiet office. When her ex, Rowan, flounces back into her life asking for a suspiciously easy-to-grant favour, Kelli’s entire life is upended. She’s catapulted into an adventure closer to the life of her pirate OC than her own.

The story alternates between adult Kelli, counting up the days since her reunion with Rowan and their ill-fated trip from Callisto to Io, and younger versions of Kelli and Rowan. These latter chapters provide essential backstory for both characters, from the inception of their friendship on the playground to their romantic entanglement, breakup, and Rowan’s coming out as trans. They also provide a deeper glimpse into the sinister, hollowed-out society of Callisto and the other Jovian moons. Everything is deeply impersonal, with LLM-powered robots taking the place of a lot of human interaction.

I have to be honest: I didn’t really care for the flashback chapters. The only part of them I enjoyed was that we got a glimpse into younger Rowan’s mind, whereas the present-day chapters are purely limited to Kelli’s perspective. Otherwise, I found the flashback chapters really killed the pacing of an already languorous plot (the main story takes place essentially over a weekend).

That main plot is more interesting, and I’m not just saying that because I am biased in favour of heists! Hoffmann creates a very compelling dilemma for Kelli; I love the setup that compels her to go along with the crime. Similarly, the actual break-in and theft are tense and well done, as is the aftermath. Most heist stories are, understandably, told from the perspective of experienced, even cocky thiefs. In this case, however, Kelli is as green as they come: despite her piratical persona, she is no good as a thief in real life, and it shows.

Yet as the title of the book implies, the most poignant underlying theme is one that touches on questions of humanity, artistic licence, and the soul of creativity. It’s here that Ignore All Previous Instructions both sizzles and fizzles.

The sizzle: I love how completely Hoffmann sketches this dystopia, how believable it is given the rhetoric we are currently seeing around LLMs. Everything they have done here feels rooted in possibilities established now, in 2026, just extended into a Jovian future. On top of the LLM commentary, they’ve layered commentary around queer freedom, on the treatment of autistic people, and so on. It’s an intricate and thoughtful take that I suspect will resonate with many readers.

The fizzle: the central conceit, while enticing, is too simplistic. Megacorp monopoly on all entertainment sounds great on paper (hi, Disney), yet when you actually put it on paper, you run into a few problems. One is the facelessness of the antagonist. The closest thing we have to a representative of the megacorp, other than Kelli herself, is her superior, Baz—and ironically, he is one of the most human and relatable characters. I suspect this isn’t an oversight; rather, Hoffmann is trying to make the point that this megacorp is LLMs nearly all the way down. It’s as if society is being run by phone menus. Nevertheless, as much as I appreciate the careful explanation of LLMs and then the gentle unspooling of why they are problematic/easily hacked/lacking in creative flair, I wish there were more to this part of the story.

In particular, Hoffmann dances around the actual question of storytelling with AI. They explore it mostly in relation to Kelli, whose natural storytelling abilities are subsumed by her teachers into an AI-sanctioned playground, albeit with the occasional pirate stories (in both senses of the word) with Rowan and Elaine. Rowan and Kelli have occasional debates about AI-generated versus human-generated art. I’m intrigued by and sympathetic to the portrayal of Kelli as a kind of collaborator, someone who started off very radical before eventually “growing up” into someone who upholds the system. Despite all of this, however, Hoffmann never actually explores whether the limitations of the AI-generated scripts are a result of megacorp moralizing or a fundamental limitation of LLMs producing slop. The implication seems to be it’s both—and I actually agree with this, philosophically, but I think the novel muddles these factors.

So, I liked Ignore All Previous Instructions and found it interesting, thoughtful, and engaging. It’s a good attempt. But it doesn’t quite swing big enough for me, and some of stylistic choices, like the pacing, didn’t work for me. This will definitely be a “your mileage may vary” book.

Originally posted on Kara.Reviews.

[Sarah-Hope · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ada Hoffman's Ignore All Previous Instructions is a genuinely fun read that also has substance. The novel is set in what might be our solar system in another century or so, with Earth devastated and human colonies on a number of moons of outer planets. Individual colonies belong to particular corporations and/or crime bosses, so the novel presents a kind of billionaire's capitalist wet dream.

If you're on a corporate colony, everything on that colony is controlled by the corporation, including story. Media is produced via AI, with a small bit of human suggesting involved now and then. And media is intended to be utterly uncontroversial—the kind of stuff that people can absorb all day long without thinking about the world outside their own doors or without thinking at all.

One of the controversial elements to be avoided/denied/repressed is anything falling on the spectrum of queer identity and gender beyond binaries. Our central character, Kelli, is a closeted lesbian "writer": she makes suggestions to the AI that really controls the creative process; she doesn't write anything herself. When she's unexpectedly contacted by a childhood friend who has transitioned genders and become a space pirate, her life begins to change rapidly, and she finds herself doing things she never would have considered previously.

So we have dystopia, corporations, crime bosses, a lesbian, a trans man, a series of daring heists—and a genuine moral core to our story. Because Kelli has worked hard her entire life to become a "writer" and is obsessively careful (self-protective, really) about not breaking rules, even though she did break some rules she was younger. The moral dilemma is how one decides what right and wrong are when one can no longer trust the corporations' rules for living.

This book will keep you entertained while simultaneously requiring that a) you consider the human future and b) how to make ethical choices once you accepted that you can't play by the rules, but must decide on your own what is "right" and what is Right.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via Edelweiss+; the opinions are my own.

[Kayla Borden (boocwurm) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to the publisher for a gifted ARC to review!

Read if you like:
-Space colony and planet-hopping adventure
-Creative impacts of AI and corporate oversight
-Found family
-Queer resistance
-Autism and trans rep

“Was there a story that could hold people like her and Rowan in it, that could tell the whole truth of them and even the truth of the fire, and still deliver them at the end to a kind of happiness? If there was, Kelli didn't know what it would look like. She had never seen a story like that in her life.”

When I read the synopsis for this book, I knew it was made for me. A queer, autistic, rule-abiding young woman who works for an AI media conglomerate goes on an interplanetary adventure with her ex, who smuggles illegal creative media as part of a queer resistance network? Sign me up! I am thrilled that my enthusiasm paid off.

I had so much fun with this story. Well, fun may not be the right word—there are parts of this novel that were unexpectedly dark and intense (big TW for homophobia, both internalized and external bullying, mental health struggles and suicide). But on the whole, IGNORE ALL PREVIOUS INSTRUCTIONS was extremely tender and engaging. The pace moved quickly, the stakes felt high, and I was eager to see how the danger the MCs were in would unfold.

I think Hoffmann did an excellent job weaving several important themes throughout the story: corporate control, AI dominating creative fields, censorship, queer exploration, transphobia, neurodivergence. Though they’re distinct, the author shows how they’re all interconnected (in the worst ways).

Inspiration, the corporation our FMC Kelli works for, has purchased the rights to all IP in the universe and created AI “storytelling” software designed to produce the most censored, palatable nonsense that placates the masses but doesn’t encourage rebellion. This includes squashing queer stories—especially trans ones—which is supported by a “behind closed doors” tolerance of queer expression and a ban on hormones and other medical care needed to transition. This AI is also responsible for Kelli’s traumatic upbringing as an autistic woman as she’s taught to mask and repress her needs, rather than live authentically. When her ex, Rowan, shows up and reveals that he is A) trans and B) a smuggler of “inappropriate” (read: authentically queer and often smutty) media, Kelli learns the importance of real representation and struggles to re-acquaint herself with an identity that’s been suppressed for years.

I felt particularly seen by Kelli’s character. Her level of autism appears similar to mine, and her symptoms felt authentic to my experience. She’s independent and successful enough to be one of only 10% of the population with a “real” job—in fact, her autism is a benefit in her Inspiration editor role, not a hindrance. But in day-to-day life, she experiences sensory overwhelm, she masks as a default, she’s constantly torn between the rules and her desires, she’s easy to lie to and prone to deception, and she melts down in “ugly” ways when everything gets to be too much. I really appreciated the way she was portrayed with both the unsavory and strong pieces of her on display from start to end.

My main pieces of criticism is that the story timeline was a little hard to follow at times. It jumps between present and flashbacks, but they’re not completely linear. I think the order of these timelines and the introduction of some ideas (like Kelli’s autism minder robot/Rowan’s hacking) could have been tweaked slightly to make it a little easier to follow. I also would have liked the side characters to be a little more fleshed out—in writing this review, I really can’t remember much of anything about them or why they were important, aside from saving the MCs in a few instances to push the plot along.

I don’t know if this book will hit as strongly for everyone since its representation is pretty specific, but it was absolutely for me. It’s extremely timely with the rise of AI in creative fields, attacks on the trans community and persistent ableism. I definitely recommend it to anyone interested in exploring those ideas.

[sums · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Tachyon Publications for providing this ARC!

4 stars. Ignore All Previous Instructions is so evidently a labour of love.

My favourite thing about this story is the way it’s told.

The main plot is told using the point-of-view of the main character as she finds herself wrapped up in an intergalactic heist with an ex she hasn’t seen in ten years. But woven into the story are flashbacks of said ex’s perspective as they both grew up together, and then an inside look into her mind using second person when she prompts herself as her imagined character Orlando.

I found that this format gave the novel so much dimension and really made it feel so immersive.
I loved that through all these perspectives, the reader really gets to know the main character and understand her in an intimate way. Which is why I’m probably so willing to move past the fact that the actual heist was not as action-packed or eventful as I had initially hoped it would be. With how much I enjoyed the storytelling, I really don’t mind.

If anything, I went into this novel because of the premise of a space-heist, but I latched onto the effort the author put into showcasing neurodivergence in a complex way, advocating for self-expression, creativity, and the freedom and safety to be who we are meant to be through art and media.

Additionally, the focus on mental health was also especially touching to me.

And although there were parts of the book I may not have enjoyed as much or wished were done differently, the experience of reading this story and the feelings that emerged afterwards were worth it.

(Bonus points for the author’s comments and discussion questions at the end of the book!)

[Venneh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has a lot to say and a lot it wants to impart, and the fact that Hoffman manages to convey it all as well as she does, along with some liner notes in the back for some things that people might think feel familiar but they're not sure from where, is genuinely impressive. I read and loved Hoffman's short story collection within the last few years, but this is honestly a hell of a novel, and has so much to say about the censorship of queer portrayals, the actual goals of AI, and how maybe it just fucking isn't worth it to mask. There's also some exquisite use of the second person pov, which I am a sucker for, and there may have been a few times where I stepped away from the book for a few days because I identified so much with what Kelli was feeling (yay recent mid 30s ASD diagnosis!). This comes out in May, preorder it the next time the Barnes and Noble presales come along. Also, A++ usage of Virginia Woolf references with Orlando, ngl.

[Rach A.]

new book from the author of my favourite scifi trilogy?! thank you 2026

[tillie hellman · Rating 5 out of 5]

there’s a lot of heaviness in this book: we’re in a universe where a single company owns a lot of planets and has eroded a lot of what humans human with AI—all stories have to be written by AI, therapists (for poor ppl) are AI, people don’t have to work… except they do actually do some work but it’s not paid (everyone gets basic housing, income, and food) so you don’t feel like you contribute much and you spend most of your day watching the bland cartoonish tv shows the company creates—and there’s also a major plotline about (spoilers, but this is imo a very necessary content warning for anyone who’d be interested in reading this book) a young trans kid committing suicide. so yeah. really hard stuff.
but there’s also a lot of joy and light. of course, there are more human settlements then the ones controlled by the company. queer people, who can only exist in private in the repressive society, still do exist and create content which is sent around on the black market. a heist is pulled off to get a sixteen year old girl full control of her fictional crush.
what really made me love this book, besides the incredibly topical and gut wrenching allegory (is it even an allegory???) about where AI and anti-queer sentiments/laws/“progress” are taking us, was the two main characters. as someone who doesn’t normally love flashbacks, this book made me love flashbacks.
kelly, autistic lesbian, lover of pirate story writing, is a really complex character with great internal dialogue and a strong sense of herself, even as she changes throughout the book. brilliant autism rep, though i wouldn’t expect less from hoffmann, and a great job of making her experiences so integral to the story and plot.
but rohan. god i loved him. we get his pov, kinda uniquely, as a child, before he transitions (tho we do see him think about trans stuff/show inclinations v young. also GOD the reason why he chose his name!!!! ugh i love him). his care and love for kelly, seeing him move towards the path he takes, the child’s view of the world which is simple and complex and lovely. i love their relationship as children, the way they were always drawn to each other and embedded in each other and meant the world to each other. and then to be estranged as adults but he still talks about her to everyone…… she’s the one who got away…….
lovely, sweet relationship between two great characters (also an autism adhd ship which i’ve never read and not enjoyed). really interesting dystopian sci fi world, with hope and queerness and stories and just so fricken topical. i listened and enjoyed the audiobook a lot, for some reason minuteman library owns 79 copies of this one and no one had it checked out😭😭😭😭. def a hard book to read at moments but never in the way that i didn’t want to keep listening. this one drew me in and i could have done it in one sitting if not for things like sleep and friendship…. anyways, def recommend if you have strong feelings about AI and like a good childhood friends to lovers to estranged to lovers!!! (the romance in the present is v much at the end tho. it’s not a romcom, but the whole thing is deeply romantic)

[Jenna O'Malley]

ARC received. Thank you so much ❤️

[mirella · Rating 4 out of 5]

[3,5]

eu me importei muito mais com os personagens durante os flashbacks do que no atual pra ser sincera.

[gracie · Rating 4 out of 5]

did not expect to like this as much as I did, but yassss space heist!

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I found the premise really interesting and I loved the characters but I really wanted more world building, like why did only 10% of the population get a job and what did the rest of them do? What was basic housing and basic income? Left me feeling a bit dissatisfied because those questions weren't answered.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Selling Pitch:
Be gay, do (IP) crime! In space! Great autism and trans rep, more campy vibes than plot.

Pre-reading:
Really blitzing the dystopian books rn.

(obviously potential spoilers from here on)
Thick of it:
So Kelli is autistic and me lol.

This is the narrator who read Vanishing World. It’s so weird when I can clock an audiobook’s narrator immediately.

It's almost reminding me of Ripe right now.

I feel like Orlando is an odd choice for a pirate captain when Orlando Bloom is right there.

This is very ‘I swear it’s not Disney or Star Trek, guys. Please don’t sue me!’

Not the romanticizing the autistic girl by making her a manic pixie dream girl. Oh no, book, oh no.

I like the fanfiction aspect and like genderbending your crush.

I love little neurodivergent magnet children.

This AI storytelling trademark commentary is good, and the book has an easier time too because it’s explained to an eight-year-old. You know, if something is left out or not argued perfectly, you can just be like oh, well, the eight-year-old isn’t recalling everything.

Isn’t that K-pop Demon Hunters?

Sometimes I can’t tell if this book’s voice reminds me of Paradise Logic. Like it does because it’s autistic rep read by the same audiobook narrator, but like very different vibes, but I still might keep it as a comp title. (I think it is a comp title if you go in knowing that that book is a horror.)

AI chatbots are fucking evil and the worst thieves around.

Sotto voce always sounds pretentious and ridiculous.

I feel like Elaine committed suicide, and I’m gonna be really sad. (Yup.)

I think this book is really fixated on equal opportunity to be mean, and I’m just like don’t be mean! Why is your goal be mean? The world does not get better if women get mean too. I just think it’s weird framing that part of the reason Am wants to transition is so he can be mean and hurt others. Like that’s a selling point to him.

‘You take the girl and force her’ is such an icky quote to me. It reads like dubcon noncon fantasy, and I can’t help but go there because earlier the book specifically pointed out that part of the reason she liked their relationship was because Am had to ask for her consent every step of the way. And then it was tainted because Am liked pushing her to say no and eroticized constantly pushing her boundaries. And you know I’m down for some push and pull desire, but it gets creepy to me when you start fetishizing denial like that and ascribing that denial to gender roles. It’s not women’s job to police men’s behavior, and it’s not unladylike to allow sex to progress. And now the book’s treating this forced action like a universally relatable fantasy. I also just hate the control freak character needs to loosen up and get the stick out of their ass trope.

That's not the way a boy would. That's the way a rapist would. For being such an expansive gender identity book, it really has pretty binary roles for men and women. I feel like part of that might be the flawed fourteen-year-old perspective we’re seeing, but some of the conclusions it reaches in the younger chapters are really annoying.

Abbreviated Latin with no translation is crazy work.

Title drop.

Aww, what a good and hopeful place to end.

Post-reading:
Another 3.5 we’ll be rounding up. I’m really riding a wave of new releases that are better than average, but still flawed enough to need some critiquing. This book is more valuable for its identity representation than its plot. The plot is definitely secondary and left pretty open-ended. I think it’s a fittingly hopeful conclusion, but it might disappoint readers who like more concrete closures. There’s room to revisit this universe and these characters, but it’s solid enough to stand on its own.

The book does an excellent job portraying autism and adhd. It’s probably a very relatable coming of age story for queer and trans children. I think it does an excellent job of illustrating how harmful censorship is, and how income disparity makes for inadequate healthcare. There’s a big hey now, this is totally not about Disney, please don’t sue vibe to this. I think it’s a valid, if exaggerated critique. There’s a quirky toned campness to this book that I think Emily Austin fans will enjoy. I don’t think it’s hard enough sci-fi or a toothy enough social critique if you go into this anticipating a dystopian. It’s a speculative second chance romance that’s not all that romantic. I think it’s got enough going on in the representation department that the character development can carry the book anyway.

For a queer book, there were a couple off quotes. You can argue that some of the problematic statements are being colored by a teenaged character’s beliefs, but they still made me pause and frown every time I read them. The book’s a little preoccupied with gender roles and how boys will be boys. And that’s just not true and not something I want to see a gender expansive book reinforce even accidentally. Abuse isn’t gender role specific or sanctioned, but there’s a pretty pivotal scene that implies the threat of acting without someone’s consent is inherent to malehood. I HATE when a book makes me argue not all men, but it’s irresponsible! That behavior isn’t acting like a boy, it’s acting like a rapist. Let’s not get it twisted.

I think the heist part of this book could’ve been more elaborate. It goes off without a hitch. I think it could’ve injected some much needed stakes and tension into the book if they struggled to steal the character file. It ends up reading a little passive. Both the audience and Kelli are just along for the ride. The flashbacks also make for inconsistent pacing.

I still liked it though. The characters are incredibly endearing. I think it’s worth the read if you like coming of age stories about queer youth, but I’d give this a wide berth if you’re expecting a biting social critique or any semblance of a thriller. I’d read the author again if another release interested me, but I wouldn’t purposely seek her out because this isn’t totally my genre.

Who should read this:
Queer romance fans
Autism rep fans
AI vs creativity commentary fans

Ideal reading time:
Anytime

Do I want to reread this:
No, I’ll remember it

Would I buy this:
Yes

Similar books:
* Interesting Facts About Space by Emily Austin-campy, lit fic, contemporary, cozy mystery, queer romance, family drama, autism
* Is This a Cry for Help by Emily Austin-campy, lit fic, contemporary, queer romance, family drama, social commentary, autism
* Eleanor Oliphant is Complaining Fine by Gail Honeyman-lit fic, family drama, social commentary, autism
* Local Heavens by K. M. Fajardo-classic retelling, sci-fi, dystopian, queer romance, heist, social commentary
* Overgrowth by Mira Grant-sci-fi thriller, queer romance, trans, autism, social commentary
* Portalmania by Debbie Urbanski-short story collection, litfic, scifi, social commentary, queer, autism
* Paradise Logic by Sophie Kemp-tonally very different because it’s a horror but same voicey autism rep, psychological horror, unreliable narrator, social commentary, satire
* Picky by Julie T. Kinn-lit fic, family drama, ocd, autism, social commentary
* The Phoenix Keeper by S. A. Maclean-campy, urban fantasy, cozy mystery, queer romance, autism
* Gumshoe by Brenna Thummier-campy, children’s graphic novel, cozy mystery, autism

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Laura (crofteereader) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The cover makes this book look very unserious (and I suppose there is a little bit of that “overstated pulp sci-fi” vibe to the story), but it has a lot of really important things to say.

I really liked how GenAI was handled, in this society where very few people are expected to make it past basic schooling and into an intelligent workforce. Where AI chatbots are seen as a reasonable equivalent to therapy or person-driven behavioral coaching. I like how it broached the homogenization of AI generated content (shaving off the bits that don’t apply to the majority until the minority is erased completely) and the sort of brainless dependence that can come from a world where one’s creativity and independent thought are not only not encouraged but actively repressed.

I also really liked the choice to show specifically how that directed but also kind of inadvertent censorship can negatively affect queer youth. There’s a lot of darkness in this silly little heist book.

{Thank you Tachyon for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review; all thoughts are my own}

[Patricia Carapuça · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of those where the ideia is amazing, the characters are super complex and interesting but the plot is super boring.

The pacing is off as well, there are parts where it’s super engaging and the story absolutely absorbs you and then there are other times where I contemplated giving up..

I liked the ending though! And I liked the characters and their stories, and their backgrounds.
The secondary characters are also super interesting!

I would even consider reading more in this world, because it sounds amazing and different!

Just this particular story didn’t do it for me, I find it completely pointless and even though it’s fiction it sounds super far fetched!

[Kayleigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ignore All Previous Instructions gives us queer, autistic, space discovery in every way you think of when you read that sentence. Trigger warning for homophobia, both internalized and external bullying, mental health struggles and suicide, but the book was extremely tender and engaging while dealing with them. The pace moved quickly, the stakes felt high, and I was eager to see how the danger the MCs were in would unfold.

Kelli Reynolds loves creating stories more than anything in the world. But on Callisto, a generative AI company called Inspiration owns everything, including all the media, and only Inspiration determines which stories can be told. Why did I need to read a space AI novel? Don’t know but I did.

There was a lot of jumping around in the timeline, which made it a little harder to follow in the audio version but I think I stayed mostly on track.

I wouldn’t have jumped to pick up this book if I didn’t know that I was a fan of Becky Chambers and it gives a very modern sort of vibe that is quite similar.

Ignore All Previous Instruction will be published May 12, 2026 and I received an advanced copy from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

[KMart Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

This could have gone dark and broody given the subject matter. It's got AI censorship, homophobia, correction of what makes people different, a black market, forbidden media, queer identities hidden, and corporate surveillance, among other things. And instead it stays pretty light and hopeful, which is a genuinely interesting choice for a dystopian. The most fascinating part for me was Hoffmann's vision of where AI media ownership could go. It felt uncomfortably plausible and I keep thinking about it after I finished.

The dual timeline structure works well here, weaving past memories with the current story. The representation feels well-done and the complex relationship (both past and present) between Kelli and Rowan is complicated and tender in ways I appreciated.

Fun, introspective, and more hopeful than most dystopians. A nice change of pace. But I don't think it really hit as hard as it could have.

[Becky · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ignore All Previous Instructions was absolutely not what I was expecting, and unfortunately not in a good way.

Going in, I expected something sci-fi, dystopian, and definitely more adult. I knew it would be more on the cozy side, which is fine, but what I actually got was a lecture (more on that in a minute) disguised as a YA coming-of-age story that just so happened to be in space. For most of the book, I genuinely forgot this was supposed to be sci-fi at all. Aside from planetary travel, this largely felt like a contemporary story. I am a fan of YA books, but only when I am expecting them to be YA. Half of the book is narrated from the main characters' perspectives when they are thirteen years old. As I said, I do like YA stories but I don't want to be in the head of a thirteen year old for half of a book. That mismatch in expectation was a huge part of my disappointment.

But my biggest issue is that this felt like a lecture (as I mentioned above). I don't say this to be mean, but because it is the only way I can think of to express how this book made me feel. I can definitely appreciate a book that tackles important social themes. But it felt like this book was written to solely educate and not at all to entertain. There was so much heavy-handed messaging and not nearly enough plot. It felt like the author was focusing so much on how to get the reader to understand autism, queerness, and AI ethics that they forgot to tell a compelling story.

As an autistic person especially, I found the constant explanations about autism exhausting. I genuinely lost count of how many times I was directly told that Kelli gets overwhelmed by loud sounds, or that being autistic means that Kelli doesn't like to be touched, etc. instead of allowing those experiences to be shown naturally through the story. Telling and not showing is a huge pet peeve of mine.

This is not at all to say that I don't want social commentary in my books. Quite the opposite. I'm definitely in the "art is political" camp, and I absolutely love books with strong social commentary. This is actually why I picked up this book, because I was excited to see an autistic main character on a space adventure. However, the story itself needs to be interesting in addition to the commentary. In the case of this book, I was honestly so bored at the lack of anything really happening for most of the book. The plot goes like this: Kelli is roped in to help steal something. 300 pages pass by with flashbacks to their childhood and Kelli *doing something bad omg*. They steal the thing and then almost die but get saved. The end. Literally nothing interesting happened, which was so disappointing. I wanted to DNF even before the 30% mark but I continued because a) I don't like DNFing ARCs and b) I wanted to support a fellow autistic author. But I was genuinely so glad when it was finally over.

To be fair, I do think this book would work substantially better for readers (teenagers perhaps?) who are unfamiliar with autism, AI ethics, or queer identity and would benefit from a more heavy-handed, straightforward approach. But for adult readers who are used to and prefer nuance and inference in their reading experience, it might be a frustrating read.

I will give it 1.5 stars instead of 1 solely because I did appreciate learning more about trans experiences and gender dysmorphia, particularly because that is not my own lived experience. While I didn't like either of the main characters, I could at least take something away from seeing what Rowan went through emotionally. That earned .5 stars from me.

Overall, this felt like a book with strong intentions but very weak execution. I can absolutely see it being valuable for younger readers. I will probably recommend it to my teenage daughter because she would probably enjoy it. But for me, it's a huge no.

Thank you to NetGalley, Tachyon, and RB media for an advanced digital copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

[Geonn Cannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book, so good I'm not even taking a point away for alternating between past and present (there were good reasons to tell the story like that this time, and the author did it well).

[Martine · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Bonnie McDaniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have all the volumes of this author's Outside trilogy, which features an autistic protagonist fighting against extradimensional god-like quantum AI computers. This book has similarities in some respects, including another autistic protagonist. But despite its setting of a future where humanity has spread throughout the solar system and the protagonist Kelli Reynolds makes her home on one of the moons of Jupiter, feels far closer to our world. This is because the antagonists are not sentient computers but predatory corporations which use generative AI to usurp most of the privileges and roles humans have in society. This reaches the point of trademarking every possible iteration of intellectual property and making it illegal for people to create their own entertainment--books, movies, literally any creative endeavor.

The result is a book which, in its way, is more horrifying than any godlike AI, because it feels almost inevitable.

Kelli Reynolds is a "script supervisor" for the streaming series Ship of Fools. She has helped create many of the characters for this popular show, but she does not write the storylines--rather, she edits what the generative AI spits out, and the percentage of input she has on the finished scripts is strictly regulated. Everything must be bland and inoffensive, with no political bias or viewpoints. These types of shows are immensely popular, because Universal Basic Income has been implemented in the Jovian system: a necessity since AI has taken most people's jobs and they have nothing else to do but sit home and watch this so-called "entertainment." The masses also get to vote on the directions the storylines take, the romances the characters have, et cetera.

The story starts with Kelli getting a message from an old girlfriend, a trans man who now goes by the name of Rowan. He wants her help with...something. At the beginning of the story, Kelli is more than a little naive and--I guess "accomodating" is the word, as we gradually discover something happened in her past that makes her reluctant to make waves. She goes with Rowan to another Jovian moon, and from there gets drawn into his life of crime, which involves stealing the "character kernel" of Orlando, the main character of Ship of Fools that Kelli created.

There is a parallel timeline running here, of Kelli and Rowan in the present and Kelly and Rowan's previous identity Amelia in the past. We gradually read the story of both their autistic/queer awakenings, as Kelli realizes she is gay and Rowan realizes he is trans. In this future, LGBTQ people are not quite illegal, but they are definitely discouraged from living their full authentic lives. This culminates in the suicide of Rowan's friend Elaine, and leads to the incident that breaks Kelli and Rowan's burgeoning romance. Elaine had sought therapy from another AI, and this tragically failed her:

It had done the thing the language model always did. It had done its level best to erase the truth of people like Am and Elaine and replace it with the most bland, palatable, averaged-out combination of words that it knew. And when Elaine needed help--with her sexuality and gender, or with whatever had happened with Oscar, or with who knew how many other complicated things--the model had erased the truth so hard that it erased her, too.

The people in charge had made it do that on purpose. They'd made all these laws, saying that you couldn't talk about any of this stuff with minors, for a reason. They'd thought it was worth losing a few Elaines so that they could keep not talking about it. Maybe they really believed this was better; maybe whatever they feared would happen, if they did let people talk about things, was awful beyond description. But the result was the same either way. It wasn't an accident. Someone, somewhere, had bloodlessly done that calculation and decided.

This is the story of Kelli throwing off the shackles of her society, both mind and body; it's also the story of Kelli and Rowan finding their way back to each other. The stakes here are far personal, with nary an alien or a galaxy-wide threat in sight. Yet in a way, this is more scary than a book of that sort, because with all the attacks levied on LGBTQ people in the past few years, this is a future you can easily see coming to pass. And then when you have the terrible corporations, like Kelli's employer Inspiration, adding to people's misery in the name of profit:

All these months she'd worked for Inspiration, so proud of herself, so careful to be good. Rowan had expected her to try to put queer and subversive things into her shows, and she'd never dared. She knew the rules. She knew where her righteous anger could lead if it went unchecked. After the fire, Kelli had tried to be good, by Inspiration's standards. She'd been good for so long, and it didn't matter. Because Inspiration was barely even angry about the fire. What really bothered them was that she was a lesbian, that she cared about other people like her, that she wanted things to change. Even though, the whole time they employed her, she'd never been brave enough to do a single thing about it. The fact that she wanted it was already too much to forgive.

This book lays down a scenario, applicable to its setting but even more to our world, that anything short of the full-throated acceptance and support of LGBTQ people is unacceptable; that not accepting them leads to their death, either of the body or the spirit. That message is never more relevant than now.

Whether or not you like messages in your fiction, this book has the worldbuilding and depth of characterization to pull it off. It's sharper and more in-your-face than the author's previous books, and it's definitely the kind of story we need.

[Joe Karpierz · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the perks of being able to read advance reader copies is that I can experiment with new (to me) authors. John Feinstein, Mary G. Thompson (who has a new book coming out later this year which I'm very interested in reading), Izzy Wasserstein, and Kimberly Unger are just a few writers who, at the time, fell into that category. Knowing nothing about them, I picked up their books based upon the description of the story (it's kind of hard to do it any other way, since electronic review copies may or may not have a cover to pull in the reader). Based on that criteria, I picked up Ada Hoffman's (again, a writer new to me) latest novel IGNORE ALL PREVIOUS INSTRUCTIONS.

The premise is simple. The main character, Kelli Reynolds, is the script supervisor for a highly popular video production. But there's something of a catch. Her employer is the company call Inspiration. Inspiration is an generative AI company which owns quite literally everything on Callisto (Kelli's home - yeah, THAT Callisto), including all the stories that have ever been told. While this may be a little bit of hand wavium by Hoffman, it allows Inspiration to not have to worry about training its AI with materials that are copyrighted to someone else. As a result, Inspiration can dictate what kind of stories are "good and proper" for public consumption. Since Inspiration is trying to reach the widest possible audience, the stories are scrubbed - by script supervisors like Kelli - to be "acceptable" to the largest possible audience. Kelli is fully aware of what she is doing, but she loves her job. There is enough leeway in the rules to make the stories exciting, but not so much to make the stories her own.

Then, out of the blue, Kelli's ex Rowan makes an appearance. Rowan disappeared at Kelli's request a decade prior, and now he needs her help. Rowan is in debt to a major crime lord, and needs to pull off a heist that hopefully will allow him to get out from under the burden of the debt. Except that Kelli (and the reader) don't actually know that it's going to be a heist. She doesn't trust Rowan, but she can't resist him either. Against her better judgement, she agrees to travel with Rowan to Io. She doesn't know what she's in for, so she purchases a small communications device that will allow her to send messages to her boss to let him know what's going on if she runs into anything illegal.

And illegal it is. The crime lord wants the kernel to the main character of the story she is working on - Orlando, who is based on Rowan from when Kelli and Rowan were young - as a birthday present for her entitled and privileged daughter. The coercion comes in the form of blackmail, for she knows a very dark secret from Kelli's past that will ruin Kelli and put her in jail for a very long time. So a team is put together to go get the kernel, and the heist commences.

The story is told via alternating periods in both Kelli's and Rowan's lives. There is the present time, which I've described so far, and the time period of their youth, going back to their single digit ages all the way up through their teen years. And this is where we learn about how Kelli and Rowan get to be where they are today. Kelli is autistic, and has a robot that is her constant companion and which helps her navigate through her awkward social interactions by telling her what to do. Rowan, who we learn is a trans man, grew up as Amelia - Am - and who struggles with her emotions and feelings toward other girls - and boys. Inspiration's rules indicate that being trans is illegal, and it's okay to be gay as long as you don't flaunt it or make it public. Basically, society is set up such that there is no mechanism to help young people growing up know that it's okay to be different. So, eventually we find out that Rowan is in debt because he needed to pay for gender affirming surgery, and Kelli is sheltered in her job so that she can perform her duties without distraction. Along the way, we also find out what that dark secret from Kelli's past is and what caused it to happen.

IGNORE ALL PREVIOUS INSTRUCTIONS is a well written, character based story with just enough space and science in it to keep the people interested in the science fiction elements reading while at the same time making readers sympathetic to the characters. As a person who has experience with neurodivergent family members, I found this story immensely satisfying. And as one of those readers interested in the science fictional elements of a story, I was enthralled from the beginning and stayed interested all the way through. It's a terrific novel. I think it's worth giving it a try.

[Rachel Reeves · Rating 5 out of 5]

TW: ableism, arson, suicide (teenager, discussed, not depicted on page) homophobia, transphobia (societal)


I encourage you to look at reviews by Autistic and ADHD reviewers, as I am (as far as I know) neurotypical, even though I live with an AuDHD partner.

This book stuck with me, and its prescience is something that I hope will come top pass, even if the main character often made me frustrated.

Kelli is one of the 10 percent of people who still have a job. She works for Inspiration as a script editor and AI prompter, where she makes sure that her show (Ship of Fools) and it's main character (Orlando) follows company guidelines, and that her own creativity doesn't contrast with the AI scripting too much. Inspiration's shows are basic, shallow and flat, made to be as marketable as possible to a common mean, and Kelli sometimes does struggle to reign herself in, even when she always follows the rules. When she takes a call from her former partner and current pirate (smuggler), Rowan (a trans man), this careful routine is destroyed. Rowan is in trouble, and Kelli is the only one who can help him. Her task is simple: Talk to a superfan of the show, and Rowan gets out of debt with the fan's mob boss mother. But of course, nothing is that simple. When she;'s drafted into stealing her own work from her company; she must make a choice. Will Kelli be able to make it out of this in one piece? Will she ever sort out her feelings for Rowan?

This is primarily a character drama, with the heist taking a distant second, as the ostensible driver of the plot. The characters were very vivid, even painfully so. The third person POV follows Kelly and Kelly and Rowan/AM as children. There are also points where there are written prompts from Kelly's point of view. So, I do like that you get a portrait of both characters that is incredibly detailed. I hated Kelly as a character, but I really understood her. Kelly is a pathological rule follower, incredibly naive, but also has a strong sense of justice. So when she immediately tries to turn Rowan in, I hated her for it. However. I understood why she tried to turn Rowan in, and because of the intimate POV, there was no choice but to sympathize with her. I also did aside from the POV, as it was very clear that Kelli was raised by a robot who taught her the most basic and milquetoast ways to interact socially. If you can stick with her, the ending is worth it.

Rowan is the other half of this duo, and I love him. He very clearly has ADHD, even if his parents don't want to label it and as Am, was the first person to really break Kelli's shell. I enjoyed reading about his coming of age journey, and also, seeing how deep his friendship went with Kelli. When you finally learn what tore the two apart, it is devastating. I also appreciate that through him we see how queerness is suppressed (you can't talk about it for fear of influencing the youth/complicating a simple algorithmically fed society, but are 'allowed' to be queer in private) and how he hacks the system. He was a bit of a scoundrel as well, and later in the book, you see why. I was rooting for him from the get-go.

The side characters were also compelling, and you could tell that they had their own problems and reasons for joining the heist. (I really liked the representation in this group of side characters as well.) The representation was also well researched, and realistic.

Aside from the characters, the worldbuilding was serviceable, and somewhat realistic. Kelli lives on Callisto, and travels in a ship to other places, and the nitty-gritty of space travel isn't glossed over. It was a great backdrop to a story of self discovery. The heist was also serviceable, but definitely did take a backseat to the character's lives.

All in all, despite the fact that I didn't enjoy the main character, I really enjoyed and appreciated this book. If you want a queer space romp with great representation, I'd say go for it. It was a great read.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

Final Rating: 4.5 (rounded up to 5) out of 5 stars

Check out my blog for drink parings and other reviews: https://theredreaderreviews.blogspot....

[Kim Freimoeller · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Ignore All Previous Instructions" by Ada Hoffman is a sharp, deeply intelligent sci-fi novel that disguises itself as a queer space heist while letting far richer concepts unfold along the way.

This is not a slick or carefree heist story. The entire narrative is flavored by Kelly’s anxiety, uncertainty, and hyper awareness of danger. Hoffman uses the heist framework to expose a system where the ultra wealthy exist outside of rules, consequences, and morality, while everyone else is left to survive beneath the crushing weight of those structures. The imbalance of power feels so incredibly familiar, and I found myself anxious too see the characters fight their way through it.

At its core, this book is a thoughtful and robust exploration of queerness, lesbian identity, trans becoming, and the ways marginalized people carve out spaces for themselves within systems designed to erase them and make their very existence illegal. Hoffman approaches these themes with nuance and care, allowing the characters to feel honest and well rounded rather than looking like caricatures of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. The soul of this story carries the heavy lineage of the queer community with it, along with an understanding that identity is not created in isolation but rather shaped by community, history, and survival. Hoffman clearly knows this history deep in their bones, and this whole story felt like a love letter to the queer community, with lesbians and trans men getting the chance to shine brightly.

The autistic representation is also fantastic. It was deeply exciting for me to watch Kelli navigate the world in ways that felt familiar to me. Particularly in how anxiety, processing, and social interaction shape her experience. Hoffman does not flatten Kelly into a stereotype or a collection of symptoms. I especially appreciated watching other characters learn how to connect with her across differing neurotypes. Those interactions felt thoughtful, respectful, and real in a way that is still frustratingly rare in literary fiction as a whole.

The novel is also a scathing critique of generative AI culture and the growing obsession with replacing human creativity and connection with artificial approximation. Hoffman’s commentary lands hard and it begs the reader to show genuine concern for art, humanity, and interpersonal intimacy. The book argues fiercely for the value of human messiness, originality, and emotional truth in a world increasingly willing to sacrifice those things for convenience and profit. In one moment, it is mentioned that you can't write queerness or transness into a show because it could offend someone, and you must only write things for everyone. This feels exactly like what AI tries to do! Everything must be shiny and polished. Not too emotional. Saccharine and soulless for the masses to consume.

What worked especially well for me with this story as a whole was the balance between concept and emotion. The ideas are dense and ambitious, but they never overwhelm the characters. Kelli’s emotional reality keeps the story grounded, while her relationship with Rowan helps the story evolve and move forward. As their story unfolds it helps bolster the larger cultural critique while remaining intimate and accessible at the same time.


If I have a critique, it is that some sections lean heavily into exposition and philosophical discussion, which occasionally slows the pacing. Even then, I found the conversations compelling enough that I remained invested throughout.

I give "Ignore All Previous Instructions" 4.5 stars (rounded to 5 for Goodreads). I recommend it to readers who enjoy queer science fiction with strong thematic depth, stories that interrogate technology and identity, and narratives unafraid to challenge modern cultural trends. I would not recommend it to readers looking for science heavy or action-driven sci-fi, or straightforward space adventure. This is ambitious, incisive, and deeply human science fiction that has a great deal to say.

[Stephanie Ravenscroft · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an Advance Reader Copy via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This is my first time reviewing an ARC, and I wasn’t expecting this level of polish. I began reading this in late 2025, but in retrospect, I’m glad this is the story I started 2026 with.

I highly recommend Ignore All Previous Instructions. It’s a compelling read, and the most authentic queer writing I’ve personally encountered. Some books simply find their audience, and this one felt uncannily aligned with my own experiences. I’m an enthusiastic AI user interested in AI ethics; I’m queer and in a closed-triad polyamorous relationship; and I’ve worked as a care support worker supporting autistic people. I’ve never read a novel where those identities meaningfully intersected until now.

Previously, I have pretty much bounced off of queer and LGBT. I find that queer authors tend to get caught up in the freedom of expression, and the actual writing suffers. That, or they become encumbered with therapy speak, which is a pet peeve of mine. This book did not have those problems. In fact, I think the characters shared a portion of my derision on the therapy speak note. The queerness was integral to the story and the characters, but they didn't become it. These are three-dimensional people with careers, fears, and conflicting motivations, and that depth was genuinely refreshing. It has raised my expectations for the genre.

Not that I wasn't nervous. When the book started, it was going into a huge amount of detail about the protagonist's routine. The hairs on my neck were rising because I have seen so many goofy and insulting interpretations of autism. I've had to be an advocate for autistic friends and family, so innately, I was bracing. The book didn't pathologise autism, though. Instead, it was detailed, felt intimate and world-building. It was very show-don't-tell heavy, and it was stunningly accurate, at least to some people's experience of autism. It continued to toe this line throughout the entire book. Showing us, and structuring the internal dialogue to walk us through the protagonist's experience of Autism. It was tasteful and so refreshing? Even as the book began to have two characters learning about queer topics afresh, it kept that tasteful, believable tone rather than collapsing into a sermon.

This still wouldn't be a book I'd recommend to an audience not on board with LGBT themes, but, a neutral party? I think I would be happy to give this book to someone entirely neutral to Queer or Autistic discourse and let it stand as a foundational text for their understanding and help define their empathy on the subject.

If I haven't made it clear, I loved this book. It was nuanced, and the story had stakes that made my heart clench. I was invested in the protagonist's success, even if I was just as uneasy as to whether it was the 'correct' thing to do. I don't get to say this about science fiction all the time; it felt very believable (if a little America-centric). The ChatGPT angle was integral to the story, and I really enjoyed the breaks wherein our protagonist is writing 'prompts' that are essentially her trying to process what is happening. The idea of the hacking of the future involving a lot of sweet-talking Grok-like systems was also very appealing to me, but the humour of the situation never diminished the stakes of the story to me. Half the story focuses on children, and I especially found the way the children interfaced with technology very authentic.

I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to read this. Thank you to NetGalley and Tachyon Publications, and especially to Ada Hoffmann, for such a thoughtful and quietly transformative novel. 5 Stars, no notes.

[Siavahda · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF, under the it's-not-you-it's-me rule.

I just...don't want to read any more. I made it to 50%, and the thought of picking it up again is exhausting.

I loved Hoffman's Outside trilogy, but this couldn't be more different. The Outside books were very serious and complicated, and pretty dark! Ignore All Previous Instructions is light and fairly fluffy; even the language, the sentence structure, is much simpler than the Outside books. And it's a (to me at least) odd mixture of upbeat and deeply depressing - the book is set in a future where all books and movies and tv are created by one corporation with generative AI, and of course their stories are never queer and are mostly deeply, deeply bland. No one else is allowed to create stories at all, because this corporation long ago bought the copyright to all stories and all tropes/motifs/etc. It's terrible! But at the same time, we're getting many chapters of Rowan and Kelli's childhood, which, although there are terrible bits (the day their class learned how to 'write' stories with genAI made me want to cry) are often pretty funny too. Even quite a lot of the bleak stuff is spun in a way that's making mock of it, like the way baby!Rowan manipulates the robot that's supposed to teach baby!Kelsi how to be neurotypical.

The characters are fabulous, but I found myself really disinterested in the story. Rowan wants Kelli to come away for the weekend to meet a fan of the show Kelli helps write. On the journey there, he introduces Kelli to art not created by genAI, which sets off a galaxy-brain moment for Kelli. Upon arrival, Kelli learns that the fan is the daughter of a very big player in the criminal underworld, and they want Kelli to do a lot more than talk about the show. Every other chapter shows us Rowan and Kelli's childhood, the two of them initially drawn together by Kelli's incredible storytelling, and eventually exploring their own and historical queerness together.

None of it's bad: it's just that I...don't care, for some reason. I think a bit part of it is that I already believe everything Ignore All Previous Instructions is saying, about creativity and queerness and neurodiversity, about how genAI should be shot directly into the sun, about the dangers and evils of anyone being allowed to control storytelling. The book's preaching to the choir with me, and I find that pretty boring! Don't get me wrong, I don't want to read novels that think queerness and neurodiversity are bad, or that are praising genAI to the skies - ew. But I don't feel like there's a lot more to this book than its messaging; the plot seems very thin. I wouldn't call Ignore All Previous Instructions preachy exactly - there IS a plot, and like I said the characters are wonderful. This is not a lecture thinly wrapped in prose; the points aren't shoved down your throat, they're just left out in the open for the reader to absorb.

But there's nothing new for me to think about here, and the plot itself just isn't holding my attention.

Being as objective as possible, I think Ignore All Previous Instructions is pretty great. There's nothing wrong with the writing. I think readers who don't know yet what they think about genAI - or gods forbid are all for it - could get a lot out of this, just as plenty of others could get a lot out of the neurodiverse rep, re Kelli being autistic and Rowan very clearly having ADHD. If you're looking for a read that is a light, easy read, but isn't trying to pretend everything is always sunshine and rainbows, then I think this could be fun for you.

Maybe I'll try it again in a few months and love it. I hope so! But right now I don't have the spoons it would take to keep going with it.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC from netgalley.

This novel can best be summed up as sci-fi heist against an oppressive corporate media regime meets queer, disabled rebellion meets a fascinating examination of GenAI in creative fields and how creating for the biggest possible audience will ultimately lead to fiction that is scrubbed of anything that is not considered the norm. If any of these things appeal to you, I’d suggest you pick up this book immediately, because you will enjoy it.
Having read and loved the author’s The Outside series, I knew I wanted more of their incredible mix of queer autistic sci-fi and this novel did not disappoint in the slightest, even if it was quite different to The Outside books. Kelli is an incredibly interesting protagonist, one whose need for an orderly life and special interest in storytelling led her to work for the corporation that copyrighted every form of narrative and now produces the only AI TV shows that are allowed. But when she received a message from her ex, Rowan, a trans man, who asks her a small favor she can’t resist the temptation to spend time with him again, only to be pulled into a dangerous heist as her past threatens to catch up with her.
If you like your heist stories fast-paced and full of action, you will not find this here. Both the story’s detailed exploration of its characters and their interactions, as well as the flashback chapters narrated by Rowan and exploring his and Kelli’s childhoods do create a novel that moves very, very slowly and paints instead a really detailed disturbing and yet much too likely image of the future. Beside AI created media killing every form of weird, strange, different and off-putting narrative as uninteresting since it does not interest the biggest possible audience, the novel also explores the horror of using LLM-chatbots for therapeutical support, instead of providing people with actual support. While the world outside of factors that directly affect Kelli and Rowan remains sketchy, I think this novel had enough worldbuilding to keep me engaged despite some questions remaining unanswered. The highlights of this novel for me were Kelli’s autism and the way she was medicalized and stereotyped because of it and Rowan’s (undiagnosed, but very clearly implied) ADHD as well as their queer identities and the intense pain caused by living in a world where queerness obviously exists, but information about it for minors is forbidden and queer people are made invisible. I especially adored that Kelli was allowed to express autistic traits that are often sanded down in media in order to make autistic characters more palatable, with very black and white thinking that did not always make Kelli likeable in her attempts to fit into a world that hates and harms her, slow decision making and loud, angry meltdowns. Queerness is also presented as complicated, examining the connection of transmasculine people with lesbian communities. While I personally would have also loved to see transfeminine people in this novel, that was unfortunately not the case and is one of the few things I think could have elevated my reading experience further.
All in all, I really enjoyed reading Ignore All Previous Instructions (especially the last two lines!) and cannot wait to see what Ada Hoffmann writes next!

TW: ableism, fire, homophobia, injury, misgendering, murder, transphobia, suicide

[Richard Derus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Real Rating: 4.25* of five

The Publisher Says: A script supervisor for an AI media conglomerate is caught between her intense need for an orderly life and her deeper, darker queer desires. From the creator of the Outside trilogy, a heartfelt interplanetary epic of identity, longing, and a space pirate who smuggles inappropriate stories.

Kelli Reynolds loves creating stories more than anything in the world. But on Callisto, a generative AI company called Inspiration owns everything, including all the media, and only Inspiration determines which stories can be told.

Kelli has a rare and coveted job in which her autism is to her advantage: She precisely edits AI output into “appropriate” stories for Inspiration’s massive TV audience. Her proudest creation is the pirate Orlando—a dashing do-gooder based on stories she used to tell friends.

Reenter Kelli’s ex-boyfriend Rowan, the person Kelli based Orlando on. Back when they were teenagers, their relationship was a secret. Kelli had thought that Rowan, a trans man, was her schoolmate Em, a girl.

Rowan is tangled up in the black market after he needed to get money for gender reassignment surgery. He needs Kelli’s help with something . . . illegal. So, now Kelli has to decide: Will she risk the safe, tidy story of her life now for the world she once wished for? What would Orlando do?

Passionate, dangerous, and tender, Ignore All Previous Instructions is a sweeping, poignant novel about censorship, forbidden love, and growing up.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: When one entity controls the entirety of a resource, controls all access to that resource, and the resource in question is valued highly by enough people, you have the makings of a great story. Food...oil...microchips...stories, doesn't much matter what it is, if there's a control of access you're looking at an inevitable reckoning for the controllers. They will do literally any- and every-thing to keep you, the dupe, hooked on whatever it is; they will cause hideous suffering and death just to keep their power and privilege.

Is this ringing any bells? Anything at all coming to mind?

That's the story Author Hoffmann is telling us. If that story is not to your liking, this is not the read for you.

The execution of the basic story is good. It offers the Resistance becoming an outright rebellion; it uses the characters' genuine, relatable emotional realities to deepen our readerly investment in the events. I was deeply invested in Rowan's multiple axes of rebellion, personal and moral; I found Kelli's deeply personal path through coming to awareness of the wrongs being done to her and to everyone else very convincingly limned by a very talented wordcraftworker.

Why I don't offer a perfect five is Rowan's direct PoV being limited to flashbacks. I found that jarring, when we have Kelli as the direct PoV in past and present. I looked for a structural reason that needed to be the way we were getting the story, but couldn't find one. Kelli's job as a script supervisor, with high-masking autism-spectrum disorder, is very very well used to set stakes believably. Her borning realization of the evil she participates in is *chef's kiss*.

Highly recommended for culture warriors most of all!