Eternity Diffused

by Mariah Blanchard

Theda, a joyous twenty-two year-old, is in love with life. Her job in the recycling factory is idyllic, she lives with her best friend, and she has no plans in sight for her future because the future simply doesn't exist. Her mother, Katherine, on the other hand, would disagree. Katherine can't quite put her finger on it, but something doesn't feel right. Life...just seems to be lacking something...Maybe it's because her brightest years are behind her? But it is almost impossible to know because she can't access any information from before last week. History is taboo now. Has she been robbed of her past? Therapy Bot tells her it isn't so, but Katherine is starting to wonder if Therapy Bot is to be trusted. Will Theda be able to pull Katherine back to reality, or will Theda's present begin to crumble?

148 pages, Paperback

Published June 5, 2026

Reviews

[Mariah Blanchard]

I’ve read this book far too many times. To be fair, I did write it. What can I say? Definitely five stars! 😉

[Isobel Deakin]

Blanchard did a beautiful job of presenting a mother daughter duo living very different lives in a technologically advanced future. Theda is a joyous young woman living an idyllic life, loving her job, friends, and every day life. Her mother Katherine, is restless and deeply unhappy with her current life, spending her evenings with her therabot. She secretly yearns for days pasted in a society where the past is taboo. This creates a page turning sense of unease. The novel examines relationships, with others and self, in the presence of AI and technology advancements. The relationships in this novel elicit reflection on how relationships may offer a buffer to circumstances out of one’s control in a rapidly changing world.

[Anna Baldyga]

Blanchard's Eternity Diffused explores a tumultuous, strained, yet deeply familiar relationship between a mother and daughter as they navigate their separate lives. Blanchard does an incredible job maintaining a persistent sense that something isn't quite right, creating an uneasiness that keeps the pages turning. The characters' reliance on a therapy bot as their primary mode of self-care serves as a clever commentary on modern self-help culture and raises interesting questions about where our relationship with technology, mental health, and human connection may be headed.

[Buck]

Thank you NetGalley for an e-ARC.

What a strange little book! I definitely need to sit with it longer. I loved the writing style and the overall story itself although it certainly wasn’t what I was expecting going into it. This book seriously promotes self reflection especially living in the time of AI - how much is going to change in the coming years? What makes humanity? Is it the knowledge of our past or the ability to live in the present?

[Callum Hakin]

GOAT

[Tristan]

Eternity Diffused is well worth reading. It will challenge your preconceptions with a profoundly human perspective. It will provoke you and make you question what it means to be human in a new world that oscillates between utopia and dystopia. Blanchard offers a unique and contemplative examination of the world we live in today through a world that we could find ourselves in, and some of the struggles the people that inhabit such a world might have. It is vividly descriptive and playful at times, and esoteric and eerie at others. This is a fundamentally personal and human book that is brimming with personal insights and an ocean of creative ideas.

This book has themes of artificial intelligence, technology, family, mindfulness, substance use, and many more. If you want a book that you can truly sink your teeth into and engage with some challenging ideas, this is that book.