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The Completionist
Find her. You need to keep looking, no matter what. I'm afraid of what might’ve happened to her. You be afraid too.
A young Marine, Carter Quinn, comes home from war to his fractured family, in a near-future America in which water is artificially engineered and technology is startlingly embedded in people’s everyday lives. At the same time, a fertility crisis has terrifying implications for women, including Carter’s two beloved sisters, Fred and Gardner. Fred, accomplished but impetuous, the eldest sibling, is naturally pregnant—a rare and miraculous event that puts her independence in jeopardy. And Gardner, the idealistic younger sister who lived for her job as a Nurse Completionist, has mysteriously vanished, after months of disturbing behaviour.
Carter’s efforts to find Gard (and stay on Fred’s good side) keep leading him back home to their father, a veteran of a decades-long war just like Carter himself, who may be concealing a painful truth that could save or condemn them all.
A young Marine, Carter Quinn, comes home from war to his fractured family, in a near-future America in which water is artificially engineered and technology is startlingly embedded in people’s everyday lives. At the same time, a fertility crisis has terrifying implications for women, including Carter’s two beloved sisters, Fred and Gardner. Fred, accomplished but impetuous, the eldest sibling, is naturally pregnant—a rare and miraculous event that puts her independence in jeopardy. And Gardner, the idealistic younger sister who lived for her job as a Nurse Completionist, has mysteriously vanished, after months of disturbing behaviour.
Carter’s efforts to find Gard (and stay on Fred’s good side) keep leading him back home to their father, a veteran of a decades-long war just like Carter himself, who may be concealing a painful truth that could save or condemn them all.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published June 19, 2018
26 people are currently reading
1221 people want to read
About the author
Siobhan Adcock
5 books90 followersSiobhan Adcock is the author of the novels The Barter and The Completionist. She lives in Brooklyn.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 71 reviews
June 26, 2018
⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 5
The Completionist by Siobhan Adcock was such a strange book, and I think for that reason alone it will be pretty unforgettable.
The Completionist is about Carter Quinn, a 24-year-old Marine back from an ongoing war against a rebel group. The place he lives is now called New Chicago and the world is a completely different place from what it used to be. There is now a major fertility crisis that has made it hard for women to even have a child, let alone the new standards that make it hard for them to raise them. On top of that water is gone and has been replaced with something called H2.0, but most people use a type of sanitizer because they can't afford to have H2.0 run to their homes. Carter is dealing with unexplained physical symptoms that are basically taking over his life, all while his older sister Fred is pregnant and his other sister Gard has vanished.
The book switches between present and Carter's time as a Marine, both pretty disturbing to read about but especially the war parts. There are also messages to Carter from his sisters while he was gone interspersed throughout the book that go backwards in time. This was a very interesting way to read the book, and I enjoyed that part of it. The major mystery in the book is what happened to Gard, but I found it hard to really focus on that with all the symptoms that Carter is experiencing. I felt like a lot of the book was overshadowed by Carter's symptoms when we are in his POV which made it hard to focus on what was going on.
I was also pretty bored with the start of the book and didn't get into it until I was around the 80-something page mark. The ending was left pretty open-ended as well, but that didn't bother me as much as it will some people. I just think that this book wasn't executed in a way that really had me invested in the characters and I wish there would have been more world-building not seen through the eyes of a drunk/struggling Carter.
Final Thought: I really want to read more dystopian novels, and while this book gave me that, it wasn't in quite the format I would have preferred. I'm not really sure who to recommend this book to, but I think if the synopsis grabs your attention you should give it a shot. It was also a fast read despite starting out slow for me, and I didn't find myself wanting to skim anything. I really want to know what more people think about it so check it out and let me know!
The Completionist in 3-ish words: Complex, Dangerous, Unexpected
The Completionist by Siobhan Adcock was such a strange book, and I think for that reason alone it will be pretty unforgettable.
The Completionist is about Carter Quinn, a 24-year-old Marine back from an ongoing war against a rebel group. The place he lives is now called New Chicago and the world is a completely different place from what it used to be. There is now a major fertility crisis that has made it hard for women to even have a child, let alone the new standards that make it hard for them to raise them. On top of that water is gone and has been replaced with something called H2.0, but most people use a type of sanitizer because they can't afford to have H2.0 run to their homes. Carter is dealing with unexplained physical symptoms that are basically taking over his life, all while his older sister Fred is pregnant and his other sister Gard has vanished.
The book switches between present and Carter's time as a Marine, both pretty disturbing to read about but especially the war parts. There are also messages to Carter from his sisters while he was gone interspersed throughout the book that go backwards in time. This was a very interesting way to read the book, and I enjoyed that part of it. The major mystery in the book is what happened to Gard, but I found it hard to really focus on that with all the symptoms that Carter is experiencing. I felt like a lot of the book was overshadowed by Carter's symptoms when we are in his POV which made it hard to focus on what was going on.
I was also pretty bored with the start of the book and didn't get into it until I was around the 80-something page mark. The ending was left pretty open-ended as well, but that didn't bother me as much as it will some people. I just think that this book wasn't executed in a way that really had me invested in the characters and I wish there would have been more world-building not seen through the eyes of a drunk/struggling Carter.
Final Thought: I really want to read more dystopian novels, and while this book gave me that, it wasn't in quite the format I would have preferred. I'm not really sure who to recommend this book to, but I think if the synopsis grabs your attention you should give it a shot. It was also a fast read despite starting out slow for me, and I didn't find myself wanting to skim anything. I really want to know what more people think about it so check it out and let me know!
The Completionist in 3-ish words: Complex, Dangerous, Unexpected
June 23, 2018
2.5/5
Dystopian fiction can be a tricky genre for me, it either works incredibly well or it just flat out doesn’t most of the time and The Completionist sounded like it would be one that worked well for me. On the whole it was excellent and there were many aspects that I enjoyed, but I had enough issues that I’m torn, I’m not even sure if I actually liked it or not, so bear with me while I try to explain my thoughts.
I’m gonna expand on the blurb just a bit because it doesn’t give enough detail for once. Carter has just returned home after being in the war, there is a huge water shortage and now even engineered H2.0 is not readily available unless you have money. No showers, no running taps period and a fertility crisis is rampant as well. Women only usually get pregnant by using Insemnia, again for the wealthy but his sister, Fred gets pregnant the old fashioned way and is considered a miracle. They live in New Chicago and the world building was pretty great, the premise was interesting and I loved both Fred and Carter’s characters. So what went wrong….
I can be pretty picky about endings of books, they can truly make or break it for me. I’ve bumped books up an entire star rating based on an amazing ending and I’ve also bumped them way down for a weak ending and if I’m being brutally honest this had one of the most disappointing endings I’ve encountered in a long time. Everything was great, I was predicting a solid 4 star read, the mystery surrounding Gard was intriguing and the writing was top notch. Then the book just ended. Zero resolution and way too many questions left unanswered for me, it irritated me enough to bump my rating way down. If there was a planned sequel I guess I wouldn’t be as annoyed, but I can’t get past all that time and being invested in the story to leave with no clear answers.
Dystopian fiction can be a tricky genre for me, it either works incredibly well or it just flat out doesn’t most of the time and The Completionist sounded like it would be one that worked well for me. On the whole it was excellent and there were many aspects that I enjoyed, but I had enough issues that I’m torn, I’m not even sure if I actually liked it or not, so bear with me while I try to explain my thoughts.
I’m gonna expand on the blurb just a bit because it doesn’t give enough detail for once. Carter has just returned home after being in the war, there is a huge water shortage and now even engineered H2.0 is not readily available unless you have money. No showers, no running taps period and a fertility crisis is rampant as well. Women only usually get pregnant by using Insemnia, again for the wealthy but his sister, Fred gets pregnant the old fashioned way and is considered a miracle. They live in New Chicago and the world building was pretty great, the premise was interesting and I loved both Fred and Carter’s characters. So what went wrong….
I can be pretty picky about endings of books, they can truly make or break it for me. I’ve bumped books up an entire star rating based on an amazing ending and I’ve also bumped them way down for a weak ending and if I’m being brutally honest this had one of the most disappointing endings I’ve encountered in a long time. Everything was great, I was predicting a solid 4 star read, the mystery surrounding Gard was intriguing and the writing was top notch. Then the book just ended. Zero resolution and way too many questions left unanswered for me, it irritated me enough to bump my rating way down. If there was a planned sequel I guess I wouldn’t be as annoyed, but I can’t get past all that time and being invested in the story to leave with no clear answers.
January 31, 2018
There has been a good amount of female authored dystopian fiction lately concentrated on babies. Fertility appears to be a fertile subject. Certainly a relevant one in these days of increasingly terrifying politics, but still it seems so gender specific, maybe a case of write what you know or even write what you fear. Anyway, this is yet another one of those books and sadly not the best of the bunch. Particularly sadly since I seem to be the first person to review this one on GR. Mind you, this isn’t to flat out dis The Completionist, it’s a quite well written book with some interesting and original ideas, but it does have some detractors, the chief one being pacing. The bulk of the book (minus the flashbacks) actually takes place over a course of only several days, reading it shouldn’t feel like several days. Ok, I did read it in a day, but it moved slowly, partly due to the being overly detailed, partly due to repetition, partly due to just a deliberately exhaustively protracted narrative. The plot is essentially a young Marine returning from a war who sets off to find his sister, while also dealing with his other very pregnant sister’s impending nuptials and his strict disapproving father. What makes it stand out is that the story takes place in a future America devastated by natural disasters, deprived of water, with ravaged coasts and some cities in between rebuild and renamed New this or that, the story is set in New Chicago. There’s an ongoing decades long internecine war, the army in charge of protecting deliveries of engineered food and water are fighting those left outside of the new cities struggling to survive. And, of course, the baby crisis. Only 31000 births a year or so. Creating a correlated societal paradigm change…the relationships with low to no chance of procreation are deprioritized, so it’s s somewhat promiscuous world. The really interesting thing is that those who do managed by chance or design to get pregnant are treated…well, insanely. The women are essentially expected to sign their lives away and become functional incubators (sort of logical given the odds), while maintaining nearly impossible standards of care, strictly monitored and (this isn’t logical at all) restrictively financially punitive. Wait…what? So there’s a drastic shortage of babies being born with all the concordant ramifications (no future, etc.) and mothers to be are being fined? Fined? Punished? The wealthy can barely afford it, the others have to go as far as maim themselves for credits. Why wouldn’t the government encourage and support these babymamas? WTF? Unless this was meant to be a sort of social satire about the fact that US is the only first world country without proper paid maternity/paternity leaves, it just doesn’t add up. And it really doesn’t read as a satire either. It’s a pretty meticulously built world that frustratingly lacks rationality in its LEGO bricks. There’s also the fact that the disappeared sister mystery is dragged out so exasperatingly with only the tiniest nuggets of information dispersed…it becomes difficult to care. This is why I quit watching Glitch…pacing, everyone, pacing, don’t pose more questions that are answered. This book, particularly its stretched out dénouement, is much like a theatre play, without the inherent theatrical intimacy or immediacy. Just imagine watching a play where everyone narrated their thoughts out loud soliloquy style…it’s kinda like that. For a story The Complitionist isn’t without a promise, it’s properly bleak for a dystopia, it showcases some genuinely good writing and imagination. There’s a chance it was too eerily bang on...reading about a country that seems determined to shoot itself in a foot and continue dancing. But the main emotion evoked for me was frustration, which probably isn’t what a book strives for with its audience. Who knows what this one might have been with a different editor, actually I’d be very interested to read other reviews of the book and/or author interviews to see some other takes or the behind the scenes thinking that went into this. This isn’t a sort of thing to eagerly recommend personally, but might very well be an acquired taste. Is there a subgenre for this yet? Baby fi? I’m still not sure why anyone wants to reproduce in a dystopia. It just doesn’t seem like an ideal place to bring life into. Then again everyone’s always been very unreasonable about procreation, so maybe that’s the moral right there. Something to think about anyway. Thanks Netgalley.
June 4, 2019
An absolute mess.
What was this book about?
Sometime in the near future mankind has run out of water. Water is engineered with one small side effect, it causes infertility. Wars are fought over this precious commodity.
Mother Necessity with her good intentions, where would this country be without her inventions. Ever heard of a desalination plant? Elon Musk to the rescue. Premise of the book made no sense.
So back to the infertility. Pregnant women are monitored on a daily basis to ensure the health of the baby. If they do not follow a strict code they are charged for prenatal care. Uhm, what?
Women hurt themselves so they wont have to pay a fine for being pregnant. Uhm, what?
Gardner, a completionist nurse who helps pregnant women stay on course, goes missing. Her brother Carter, just back from protecting the H2O, is searching for her. Fredrika a self made millionaire who is pregnant is forced to sell her company to ensure the safety of the baby. Uhm. what?
This was a jumbled mess. Boring characters and a ridiculous plot.
I won this through Goodreads giveaway. Thanks for nothing.
What was this book about?
Sometime in the near future mankind has run out of water. Water is engineered with one small side effect, it causes infertility. Wars are fought over this precious commodity.
Mother Necessity with her good intentions, where would this country be without her inventions. Ever heard of a desalination plant? Elon Musk to the rescue. Premise of the book made no sense.
So back to the infertility. Pregnant women are monitored on a daily basis to ensure the health of the baby. If they do not follow a strict code they are charged for prenatal care. Uhm, what?
Women hurt themselves so they wont have to pay a fine for being pregnant. Uhm, what?
Gardner, a completionist nurse who helps pregnant women stay on course, goes missing. Her brother Carter, just back from protecting the H2O, is searching for her. Fredrika a self made millionaire who is pregnant is forced to sell her company to ensure the safety of the baby. Uhm. what?
This was a jumbled mess. Boring characters and a ridiculous plot.
I won this through Goodreads giveaway. Thanks for nothing.
June 7, 2018
In an America in the near future, there is little natural water and most is artificially engineered. The people have technological portals embedded in their skin, which keep track of their every movement. There’s a fertility crisis and those women who do become naturally pregnant are considered miracles but their independence is taken away from them and they’re fined for every small thing they do that isn’t within a certain code that has been set up to ensure the safety of these babies, a code that is practically impossible to adhere to.
Carter Quinn is a marine who has fought the battle to protect the engineered water and now has come home after 2 and a half years. He’s obviously ill from the “triggers” used in battle. His sister, Fred, has miraculously conceived and now has permission to wed. She’s frantic due to the disappearance of their sister, Gard, a Nurse Completionist, one who helps women through their pregnancies. Carter sets off on a quest to find Gard.
The author has created a unique and horrifying future world, yet doesn’t explain how we got to this point. Apparently, the problem was in the water and therefore there is now a need to engineer water. The main characters are each have their own distinctive voices and you can tell who’s telling the story or writing a letter just by their written voice, which I believe shows the author’s talent. The characters are very realistic and down to earth and believable, except for Carter. While I liked the guy, I found the character to be very frustrating. Granted, he was ill from whatever was being used as a weapon in the war and was not thinking clearly. But he was constantly drunk which just didn’t seem to go with his determination to find his sister. The thought “you can’t be that stupid” came to mind too often.
The most problem I had with this book was that I found it to be very repetitious and far too drawn out. Also it seemed to be very unrealistic that such a ridiculous child care code would be set up, which defeated the purpose of protecting these treasured unborn children. But it was an interesting concept and I found it to be a horrifying world for women to live in. Just the fact that women’s independence was so jeopardized by this situation compelled me to keep on reading.
This book was given to me by the publisher in return for an honest review.
Carter Quinn is a marine who has fought the battle to protect the engineered water and now has come home after 2 and a half years. He’s obviously ill from the “triggers” used in battle. His sister, Fred, has miraculously conceived and now has permission to wed. She’s frantic due to the disappearance of their sister, Gard, a Nurse Completionist, one who helps women through their pregnancies. Carter sets off on a quest to find Gard.
The author has created a unique and horrifying future world, yet doesn’t explain how we got to this point. Apparently, the problem was in the water and therefore there is now a need to engineer water. The main characters are each have their own distinctive voices and you can tell who’s telling the story or writing a letter just by their written voice, which I believe shows the author’s talent. The characters are very realistic and down to earth and believable, except for Carter. While I liked the guy, I found the character to be very frustrating. Granted, he was ill from whatever was being used as a weapon in the war and was not thinking clearly. But he was constantly drunk which just didn’t seem to go with his determination to find his sister. The thought “you can’t be that stupid” came to mind too often.
The most problem I had with this book was that I found it to be very repetitious and far too drawn out. Also it seemed to be very unrealistic that such a ridiculous child care code would be set up, which defeated the purpose of protecting these treasured unborn children. But it was an interesting concept and I found it to be a horrifying world for women to live in. Just the fact that women’s independence was so jeopardized by this situation compelled me to keep on reading.
This book was given to me by the publisher in return for an honest review.
January 25, 2019
This book had such promise.
A technologically oppressive post-collapse successor-state to the US sends troops to the ruins of the West Coast to protect shipments of engineered water that is having a direct effect on birth rates, leading to a suffocating social and economic apparatus that buries women under labyrinthine regulations and debts in the name of protecting the species and encouraging motherhood.
Sold, I'm interested.
The lead character is the troubled, poisoned veteran Carter, returned from 'the wars' across the Rockies, who is searching for his missing sister Gardener, with the looming presence of his father, a fellow combat veteran, and the upcoming marriage of his sister Frederika, miraculously pregnant, into a family of well-connected, wealthy and pompous elites.
Alright, definitely interested.
Then, the ball gets dropped. Weak prose, stereotypes left and right, page-long exposition and clumsy, clumsy, cringey attempts at speaking 'youthful' just take you out of the world. Speaking of the world, it's barely developed, hinted at here and there with vague 'newspeak' and occasional half-hearted techno-babble.
The most interesting moments are when we are allowed to dwell in a moment and the world itself, but it's so limited by the first-person perspective of Carter and the attempts at fleshing out his 'damaged veteran' persona and ailments. And even this is done so weakly that it just reads as someone's idea of what these things should be. There's a whole chapter that is just e-mail exchanges, where more and more exposition is dumped on you, to try and close the distance left by the preceding two hundred some-odd pages.
Time and again the interesting aspects of the world and the characters are just dumped aside before we're given time to care, and instead we're faced with hollow check-marks of tropes and exposition and lame characterization.
This book was a massive disappointment, and I do not recommend picking it up, beyond reading the inside flap and wondering at what could have been.
A technologically oppressive post-collapse successor-state to the US sends troops to the ruins of the West Coast to protect shipments of engineered water that is having a direct effect on birth rates, leading to a suffocating social and economic apparatus that buries women under labyrinthine regulations and debts in the name of protecting the species and encouraging motherhood.
Sold, I'm interested.
The lead character is the troubled, poisoned veteran Carter, returned from 'the wars' across the Rockies, who is searching for his missing sister Gardener, with the looming presence of his father, a fellow combat veteran, and the upcoming marriage of his sister Frederika, miraculously pregnant, into a family of well-connected, wealthy and pompous elites.
Alright, definitely interested.
Then, the ball gets dropped. Weak prose, stereotypes left and right, page-long exposition and clumsy, clumsy, cringey attempts at speaking 'youthful' just take you out of the world. Speaking of the world, it's barely developed, hinted at here and there with vague 'newspeak' and occasional half-hearted techno-babble.
The most interesting moments are when we are allowed to dwell in a moment and the world itself, but it's so limited by the first-person perspective of Carter and the attempts at fleshing out his 'damaged veteran' persona and ailments. And even this is done so weakly that it just reads as someone's idea of what these things should be. There's a whole chapter that is just e-mail exchanges, where more and more exposition is dumped on you, to try and close the distance left by the preceding two hundred some-odd pages.
Time and again the interesting aspects of the world and the characters are just dumped aside before we're given time to care, and instead we're faced with hollow check-marks of tropes and exposition and lame characterization.
This book was a massive disappointment, and I do not recommend picking it up, beyond reading the inside flap and wondering at what could have been.
August 15, 2018
The Completionist has been compared to the Handmaid's Tale, it even says so on its own jacket copy. While the two share a premise of near-future societies grappling with infertility crises, that is where the comparison stops. And a good thing, too. It can be a blessing and a curse to have your work compared to one so seminal, the pivotal criteria being the author's ability to stand out through their own unique voice—no matter how similar the setting.
In her latest story, Brooklyn-based author Siobhan Adcock shares the experiences of a damaged but enduring family as their brother returns from war, one sister discovers her unplanned pregnancy, one sister goes missing, and a father that strives to keep them together in an otherwise disjointed world.
Any great science-fiction dystopia will pay attention to not only changes in technology but how society is affected by them, something Adcock does well. The author connects this near-future world to the present with wearable technologies not too far off from our own, making the Completionist world easy to imagine without distracting the story or the reader from the core structure of its plot for sci-fi edge that doesn't overwhelm.
Adcock explores what changes might happen in a society racked with infertility when a governmental system is used as a false solution to a complex problem and mirrors the inherent issues in some of our real-world systems that serve to make a problem better, but can end up making it much worse.
In the Completionist's world expecting mothers are heavily controlled, billed, taxed, and reprimanded when any behavior is found outside of extremely stringent and unattainable care regulations. When expectant mothers find it near impossible to live up to care regulation standard, to what extremes will they go in order to survive?
Some serve to help these expectant mothers in whatever way they can, the solutions as extreme as the care standard reprimands they seek to avoid, and the result is dangerous. This is the case for the missing sister who her war veteran brother returns home to find.
This novel is, at its core, about the bonds of family that just happens to be set in a dystopian world and while it was an enjoyable read, it failed to make a strong stance on the very issues it presented, something I think any dystopian author should be prepared to do and do well. While it does acknowledge the effects of a unique societal structure, it neglects to explore the events or the systems that put that structure in place, who or what is in control on a grander scale, and how those structures are enforced.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
An enjoyable read for those who prefer character-driven novels about the exploration of family ties with a dystopian sci-fi edge. It also questions the effect of war on our soldiers, the role of regulation in societal issues, and the importance of individual choice. However, be warned that this novel fails to make a final statement on any of the grander subjects it questions, leaving the reader searching for a core message they'll be unable to find.
VERDICT: Borrow It
Rating: 3 Stars
In her latest story, Brooklyn-based author Siobhan Adcock shares the experiences of a damaged but enduring family as their brother returns from war, one sister discovers her unplanned pregnancy, one sister goes missing, and a father that strives to keep them together in an otherwise disjointed world.
Any great science-fiction dystopia will pay attention to not only changes in technology but how society is affected by them, something Adcock does well. The author connects this near-future world to the present with wearable technologies not too far off from our own, making the Completionist world easy to imagine without distracting the story or the reader from the core structure of its plot for sci-fi edge that doesn't overwhelm.
Adcock explores what changes might happen in a society racked with infertility when a governmental system is used as a false solution to a complex problem and mirrors the inherent issues in some of our real-world systems that serve to make a problem better, but can end up making it much worse.
In the Completionist's world expecting mothers are heavily controlled, billed, taxed, and reprimanded when any behavior is found outside of extremely stringent and unattainable care regulations. When expectant mothers find it near impossible to live up to care regulation standard, to what extremes will they go in order to survive?
Some serve to help these expectant mothers in whatever way they can, the solutions as extreme as the care standard reprimands they seek to avoid, and the result is dangerous. This is the case for the missing sister who her war veteran brother returns home to find.
This novel is, at its core, about the bonds of family that just happens to be set in a dystopian world and while it was an enjoyable read, it failed to make a strong stance on the very issues it presented, something I think any dystopian author should be prepared to do and do well. While it does acknowledge the effects of a unique societal structure, it neglects to explore the events or the systems that put that structure in place, who or what is in control on a grander scale, and how those structures are enforced.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
An enjoyable read for those who prefer character-driven novels about the exploration of family ties with a dystopian sci-fi edge. It also questions the effect of war on our soldiers, the role of regulation in societal issues, and the importance of individual choice. However, be warned that this novel fails to make a final statement on any of the grander subjects it questions, leaving the reader searching for a core message they'll be unable to find.
VERDICT: Borrow It
Rating: 3 Stars
June 19, 2018
Heralded as speculative fiction and perfect for fans of The Handmaid's Tale, of course I had my reservations that it could possibly be that good, but I was cautiously optimistic about this one! I think I need a good dystopian story right about now.
Unfortunately, this one just fell flat for me.
Told from a future where fertility rates are scary low and resources scarce, female rights and their choices have waned and completely surround their fertility and choices in child rearing are practically nonexistent this one definitely does give off a Handmaid's Tale vibe. However, about 1/3 of the way through this book I still had very little idea of what this future looked like and what events had transpired to get us there. I found it very frustrating to have a story surrounding a mystery (Gard's disappearance) and still have so many questions about everything else that was going on. I also found Carter, our narrator (*fresh to have a male narrator in this sub-genre), to be somewhat unlikeable, very unreliable and overall a little puzzling in what his end goal was and how little actual motivation or bond to his family he seemed to have.
Overall I found this to be a little slow, hard to follow and ultimately a story I didn't find myself to be very invested in. The premise and future that Adcock has created was still somewhat interesting and intriguing to ponder, but I just never fully bought in to this one. I'd recommend it to lovers of this genre craving a new dystopian future to consider.
Unfortunately, this one just fell flat for me.
Told from a future where fertility rates are scary low and resources scarce, female rights and their choices have waned and completely surround their fertility and choices in child rearing are practically nonexistent this one definitely does give off a Handmaid's Tale vibe. However, about 1/3 of the way through this book I still had very little idea of what this future looked like and what events had transpired to get us there. I found it very frustrating to have a story surrounding a mystery (Gard's disappearance) and still have so many questions about everything else that was going on. I also found Carter, our narrator (*fresh to have a male narrator in this sub-genre), to be somewhat unlikeable, very unreliable and overall a little puzzling in what his end goal was and how little actual motivation or bond to his family he seemed to have.
Overall I found this to be a little slow, hard to follow and ultimately a story I didn't find myself to be very invested in. The premise and future that Adcock has created was still somewhat interesting and intriguing to ponder, but I just never fully bought in to this one. I'd recommend it to lovers of this genre craving a new dystopian future to consider.
June 16, 2018
On the whole, it was good. I am not usually fond of dystopian fiction, but there are occasions when i feel like reading something different to my norm. If you enjoy dystopian, then i will say that this book is worth a read.
My thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers for my copy. This is my honest review.
My thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers for my copy. This is my honest review.
September 5, 2018
Dystopian novel about water wars and low birthrate. Lots of good potential but the story was flawed.
April 9, 2018
I received this book through Goodreads First Reads.
There were a few different giveaway books I won all around the same time frame. When I was picking which one I should read first, I immediately grabbed this one since the book summary caught my attention right away. Unfortunately, the book didn't exactly turn out the way I hoped. My main issues was first the narrator, I just had a hard time rooting for him. His main goal was to find his sister yet he seemed to spend a good portion of the book getting drunk and acting obnoxious. My other issue was the explanation of the dystopian angle of the book, I didn't quite understand it. The whole care system for the pregnant women seemed convoluted and hard to follow. I think the idea could have been simplified and in extension, made it a more interesting read. The author gets points for writing style which bumped up my rating to what it is.
There were a few different giveaway books I won all around the same time frame. When I was picking which one I should read first, I immediately grabbed this one since the book summary caught my attention right away. Unfortunately, the book didn't exactly turn out the way I hoped. My main issues was first the narrator, I just had a hard time rooting for him. His main goal was to find his sister yet he seemed to spend a good portion of the book getting drunk and acting obnoxious. My other issue was the explanation of the dystopian angle of the book, I didn't quite understand it. The whole care system for the pregnant women seemed convoluted and hard to follow. I think the idea could have been simplified and in extension, made it a more interesting read. The author gets points for writing style which bumped up my rating to what it is.
June 2, 2018
I feel like this is a typical "dystopian" type novel. Some parts were very engaging and other parts were a bit of a struggle to get through.
I will say that my biggest struggle were the characters. I just didn't care much for any of them.
My thanks to netgalley and Simon and Schuster for this advanced readers copy.
I will say that my biggest struggle were the characters. I just didn't care much for any of them.
My thanks to netgalley and Simon and Schuster for this advanced readers copy.
July 3, 2018
I wanted to like this book a lot more than I did, in the end. It was very well-written, great world-building, but with the plot being so heavily about what it's like to be a woman in this world, it seemed odd that the POV character is male. I did like it a lot, but I wound up feeling like it could have been something more.
July 10, 2018
I wanted to know more about the world, what happened
July 23, 2019
Wow. This book. It’s not something I would have picked up by myself, so thank you work book club, for making me read this. Powerful, haunting, and darkly funny - I want to go pick up Adcock’s first book now too!
December 12, 2018
I really wanted to love this book, but I couldn't. I only finished it because I just *had* to know what happened. I was a bit disappointed from beginning to end.
February 3, 2018
Siobhan Adcock's novel, "The Completionist" was a whirlwind of a read, leaving me engrossed in its storyline and concerned for its characters. Set in a future where a government system controls its citizens lives through electric monitors inserted in everyone's arms and access to clean water, we meet a young soldier, CQ, who comes home to search for a beloved sister who has disappeared. This sister, Gardner, is a Completionist, a type of medical specialist working to facilitate successful pregnancies in a time when fertility rates are dangerously low. As CQ and his older sister Fred search for Gardner, a whole world of corruption, government control, and a rising resistance unfolds before them. Adcock expertly leads the reader through astonishing truths that are revealed at just the right moment. The story is suspenseful and heartbreaking; it is a completely satisfying read.
June 7, 2018
Received as an ARC from the publisher. Started 5-27-18. Finished 6-3-18. Didn't like this one. The jacket describes this book as "dark humor." I didn't find it funny at all; I saw it as sad and depressing.
Maybe it's my age. I didn't really thoroughly understand this society until page 125 when a character refreshed the memory of her brother who had been gone for more than 2 years fighting a war over WATER!!!!!
Maybe it's my age. I didn't really thoroughly understand this society until page 125 when a character refreshed the memory of her brother who had been gone for more than 2 years fighting a war over WATER!!!!!
June 19, 2018
THE COMPLETIONIST, by Siobhan Adcock, is set in a future where water is gone and their are constant wars over the engineered replacement water. On top of that, birth rates are remarkably low, even with scientific engineering to help women get pregnant. The government has taken control of the entire pregnancy and birthing process, taking all of the beauty and wonder out of child birth and turning it into as an emotionally sterile and business-like process as possible. Carter Quinn has returned from war to find out his sister, Fredericka, is pregnant naturally, which is almost unheard of, and his other sister, Gardner, who is a Nurse Completionist (someone who helps women and families through this arduous pregnancy and birthing process) has disappeared. Before Fredericka gets married and has her baby, she asks Carter to find Gardner and his search unveils truths Carter wishes he had never found.
The backdrop of this dystopian world aside, Adcock has written a story about family, war, and societal survival. Each sibling, along with their father they call Pop, has a different take on what is right and wrong in this morose future and each one has different ideas on how to make it better for themselves. In desperate times, should a community become involved with someone's pregnancy to help save the human race? Is war necessary even if the soldier's aren't sure what they are fighting for anymore? When is finding gray areas in the rules and ways around the laws of your world ok and when isn't it? Adcock presents these topical issues among others as unbiased as possible. The plot itself is predictable, no real twists or surprises along the way. And the most well written and entertaining character is Fredericka, called Fred by her family, because she has no filter and is unabashedly and often humorously blunt.
Adcock paints a future where everyone struggles in THE COMPLETIONIST and by doing so, forces the reader to consider war, governmental control, and family bonds. A thought-provoking , emotionally dense book that leaves the reader to decide how they feel on those heavy topics.
Thank you to Simon & Schuster, Siobhan Adcock, and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
The backdrop of this dystopian world aside, Adcock has written a story about family, war, and societal survival. Each sibling, along with their father they call Pop, has a different take on what is right and wrong in this morose future and each one has different ideas on how to make it better for themselves. In desperate times, should a community become involved with someone's pregnancy to help save the human race? Is war necessary even if the soldier's aren't sure what they are fighting for anymore? When is finding gray areas in the rules and ways around the laws of your world ok and when isn't it? Adcock presents these topical issues among others as unbiased as possible. The plot itself is predictable, no real twists or surprises along the way. And the most well written and entertaining character is Fredericka, called Fred by her family, because she has no filter and is unabashedly and often humorously blunt.
Adcock paints a future where everyone struggles in THE COMPLETIONIST and by doing so, forces the reader to consider war, governmental control, and family bonds. A thought-provoking , emotionally dense book that leaves the reader to decide how they feel on those heavy topics.
Thank you to Simon & Schuster, Siobhan Adcock, and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
June 22, 2019
Sturgeon's Law has really been hitting me recently. I always want to give a book at least three stars, but too many recently don't deserve even that. This is one of those books.
Let's start with the basic premise of this post-apocalyptic story. A future Chicago survives after environmental disasters make both coasts pretty much unlivable. Water is scarce and there's now an "engineered water" that is making people sterile. The rich are drinking it and the poor can't afford it, so pregnant women, usually poor, are turned into chattel.
What? Water is three atoms. Unless the atmosphere is zero humidity, water can be condensed from the air. Unless the Great Lakes have run dry, water can be purified. Even if there's not enough for all, the rich would, as a status symbol, have real water. The idiotic concept of "engineered water" would be for the poor.
Oh, yeah, and they've intentionally built the fake water plants on the west side of the Rockies.
Into this mess comes a family of idiots who all pretty much annoyed me.
Finally, a novel that has a subtitle "A novel" is too pretentious, or at least the author is.
Not a good read. Not a mediocre read.
Let's start with the basic premise of this post-apocalyptic story. A future Chicago survives after environmental disasters make both coasts pretty much unlivable. Water is scarce and there's now an "engineered water" that is making people sterile. The rich are drinking it and the poor can't afford it, so pregnant women, usually poor, are turned into chattel.
What? Water is three atoms. Unless the atmosphere is zero humidity, water can be condensed from the air. Unless the Great Lakes have run dry, water can be purified. Even if there's not enough for all, the rich would, as a status symbol, have real water. The idiotic concept of "engineered water" would be for the poor.
Oh, yeah, and they've intentionally built the fake water plants on the west side of the Rockies.
Into this mess comes a family of idiots who all pretty much annoyed me.
Finally, a novel that has a subtitle "A novel" is too pretentious, or at least the author is.
Not a good read. Not a mediocre read.
March 31, 2018
The Completionist is a bleak, cold, look at the future where infertility abounds due to a water shortage. The world created is amazingly real and engaging, but the main characters are difficult to connect with. CQ returns home from the war and tries to assist in finding his sister, but overall, I found it hard to root for him. The story is worth the read for the incredible look at a dark future and I would still recommend for dystopian fans.
August 10, 2018
I was intrigued in the beginning of the story, but halfway through I lost interest. The conclusion was a bit predictable. I would be interested in reading another book by Adcock because I did like her writing style.
July 3, 2018
http://www.themaineedge.com/buzz/the-...
In the realm of speculative fiction, the line between “inspired by” and “derivative of” is gossamer thin. It can be wonderful to read works that wear their influences proudly, but if influences are all the reader sees, the story ultimately falls short.
But sometimes you read a book that pulls from the stories that have come before while also generating something with heft and impact, something that feels timely and thoughtful, something that is reminiscent of what has come before without ever feeling like a facsimile.
Siobhan Adcock’s “The Completionist” is just such a book, a vivid rendering of a bleak near future where water shortages have led to scientific solutions with unintended consequences – consequences that have put the future of mankind into question.
In the future, climate change and other factors have led to water scarcity. The civil conflict surrounding that scarcity has led to significant societal collapse, though cities that crumbled have been largely rebuilt by the powers that be into “New” cities that are home to the remaining elite. Science has engineered a water substitute – dubbed H2.0 – that has an unexpected, but never examined consequence: infertility.
Those fertility issues lead to massive governmental control over the various aspects of reproduction, with draconian rules in place that are almost impossible for anyone but the wealthiest of the wealthy to appropriately follow. The implications for women are bleak, with those in control exerting that control over every aspect of these increasingly rare pregnancies.
Carter Quinn is a young soldier back from the decades-long wars that have been raging over water – wars being fought on battlefields you might not expect. They’re the same wars in which his father fought … and the same wars that the next generation will likely fight as well. Carter fights insurgents with “triggers,” deadly weapons whose full effect is not truly understood by the men who wield them.
Suffering from an unknown illness and PTSD, Carter comes home on leave. His sister Fred has become pregnant – completely naturally, no less – which is just short of a miracle; however, she’s leery of the regimented reality into which this event has placed her. Meanwhile, his other sister Gardner, who works as a Nurse Completionist – a medical professional who specializes in doing whatever it takes to ensure the carriage of healthy pregnancies to term – has disappeared following months of erratic behavior.
Despite his own issues – his dark memories, his creeping illness, his alcoholic tendencies – Carter undertakes to find Gardner at Fred’s behest. And the clock is ticking – Fred’s marriage to her baby’s father, scion of a wealthy health care family, is looming … and she refuses to go through with it without Gardner by her side.
What Carter discovers is that there is much more to everyone in his family – his sisters, his father – than he ever knew. Secrets are abundant, even in a world where the most intimate aspects of life have been quantified and commodified. Bringing those secrets into the light could be their salvation … or their doom.
Dystopian visions are seemingly a dime a dozen in the speculative realm these days, so finding something that stands apart is relatively rare. That’s what “The Completionist” does. The reader might capture tonal or thematic similarities to other works here – Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” is an obvious comp, though there are others – but one never gets that lazy writing vibe that springs from more derivative work.
Instead, Adcock has given us a tragic, flawed hero making his way through a tragic, flawed world. Part of what makes that world so effective is the feeling of possibility that infuses it; the America that Carter Quinn and his family inhabit is close enough to our own that we can see the paths that society would have to travel to get there from here. It’s bleak and painful and sad, rendered with a ferocity that makes the whole thing that much more immersive.
And the HOW of that world’s creation is interesting as well. I’m a fan of less is more in terms of expository development. World-building is always better when it happens contextually; the societal and social structures of this alternative America are teased out slowly, with bits and pieces coming out organically. This isn’t about hand-holding; we learn plenty about the world, but not through third-person narration or in-story info dumps. It’s a fascinating, engaging setting meticulously rendered.
“The Completionist” is the best kind of speculative fiction, smart and sharp. Its themes and ideas challenge readers while the narrative and characterizations capture and hold their imagination. There’s plenty of dystopian fiction out there, but very little of it is anywhere close to this good … and you’ll be hard-pressed to find any that’s outright better. Powerful and thoughtful, this is a book that will stick in your synapses long after the last page is turned.
In the realm of speculative fiction, the line between “inspired by” and “derivative of” is gossamer thin. It can be wonderful to read works that wear their influences proudly, but if influences are all the reader sees, the story ultimately falls short.
But sometimes you read a book that pulls from the stories that have come before while also generating something with heft and impact, something that feels timely and thoughtful, something that is reminiscent of what has come before without ever feeling like a facsimile.
Siobhan Adcock’s “The Completionist” is just such a book, a vivid rendering of a bleak near future where water shortages have led to scientific solutions with unintended consequences – consequences that have put the future of mankind into question.
In the future, climate change and other factors have led to water scarcity. The civil conflict surrounding that scarcity has led to significant societal collapse, though cities that crumbled have been largely rebuilt by the powers that be into “New” cities that are home to the remaining elite. Science has engineered a water substitute – dubbed H2.0 – that has an unexpected, but never examined consequence: infertility.
Those fertility issues lead to massive governmental control over the various aspects of reproduction, with draconian rules in place that are almost impossible for anyone but the wealthiest of the wealthy to appropriately follow. The implications for women are bleak, with those in control exerting that control over every aspect of these increasingly rare pregnancies.
Carter Quinn is a young soldier back from the decades-long wars that have been raging over water – wars being fought on battlefields you might not expect. They’re the same wars in which his father fought … and the same wars that the next generation will likely fight as well. Carter fights insurgents with “triggers,” deadly weapons whose full effect is not truly understood by the men who wield them.
Suffering from an unknown illness and PTSD, Carter comes home on leave. His sister Fred has become pregnant – completely naturally, no less – which is just short of a miracle; however, she’s leery of the regimented reality into which this event has placed her. Meanwhile, his other sister Gardner, who works as a Nurse Completionist – a medical professional who specializes in doing whatever it takes to ensure the carriage of healthy pregnancies to term – has disappeared following months of erratic behavior.
Despite his own issues – his dark memories, his creeping illness, his alcoholic tendencies – Carter undertakes to find Gardner at Fred’s behest. And the clock is ticking – Fred’s marriage to her baby’s father, scion of a wealthy health care family, is looming … and she refuses to go through with it without Gardner by her side.
What Carter discovers is that there is much more to everyone in his family – his sisters, his father – than he ever knew. Secrets are abundant, even in a world where the most intimate aspects of life have been quantified and commodified. Bringing those secrets into the light could be their salvation … or their doom.
Dystopian visions are seemingly a dime a dozen in the speculative realm these days, so finding something that stands apart is relatively rare. That’s what “The Completionist” does. The reader might capture tonal or thematic similarities to other works here – Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” is an obvious comp, though there are others – but one never gets that lazy writing vibe that springs from more derivative work.
Instead, Adcock has given us a tragic, flawed hero making his way through a tragic, flawed world. Part of what makes that world so effective is the feeling of possibility that infuses it; the America that Carter Quinn and his family inhabit is close enough to our own that we can see the paths that society would have to travel to get there from here. It’s bleak and painful and sad, rendered with a ferocity that makes the whole thing that much more immersive.
And the HOW of that world’s creation is interesting as well. I’m a fan of less is more in terms of expository development. World-building is always better when it happens contextually; the societal and social structures of this alternative America are teased out slowly, with bits and pieces coming out organically. This isn’t about hand-holding; we learn plenty about the world, but not through third-person narration or in-story info dumps. It’s a fascinating, engaging setting meticulously rendered.
“The Completionist” is the best kind of speculative fiction, smart and sharp. Its themes and ideas challenge readers while the narrative and characterizations capture and hold their imagination. There’s plenty of dystopian fiction out there, but very little of it is anywhere close to this good … and you’ll be hard-pressed to find any that’s outright better. Powerful and thoughtful, this is a book that will stick in your synapses long after the last page is turned.
June 7, 2018
The marketing of this book makes no secret of the similarities between The Completionist, The Handmaid’s Tale and Station Eleven (and I’d even throw Children of Men in there)—and if you liked any of those, you’re probably going to really like The Completionist! But don’t go in looking for anything more.
There’s a lot of really good stuff in here, the world building is top notch, whether it’s simple things like an alcoholic-in-denial saying “engineered beer is cheaper than engineered water” or imagined technology like the “wearables” that are implanted into everyone’s arm. We’ve seen enough futuristic cities (Blade Runner, modern day Tokyo) to know what New Chicago looks like, and the way Adcock describes the War happening in the wastelands of California is crisp and clear; we have no problem being firmly rooted in the setting of this story.
One of the strongest elements of the book is Carter’s saga returning home after serving on the front lines of the War with the marines for two and a half years. His struggles with PTSD, depression and a physical injury brought home are the most realized aspects of the book. Carter’s PTSD is worked beautifully in tandem with an oversaturation or overabundance of media, which adds onto the anxiety felt by Carter in a way that’s approachable by most modern readers.
What the story does lack, in a place that Station Eleven, for example, really succeeds, is the character repertoire built up over the novel. In Station Eleven, the characters bled through the pages, and each time we met a new band of survivors, it felt like they had a past, present and future outside of the book. In The Completionist, characters lives outside of the three days (and flashbacks) of the narrative don’t feel like they exist. Pop, the father of our main characters, feels like he is sitting around in his apartment, waiting for things to happen around him, waiting to be necessary in the story. The same goes for Gard, whose disappearance as the central mystery of the book, should propel the story more than she does. Her disappearance serves as the inciting incident, for sure, but after that she functions more of an ideal that Carter and Fred are trying to achieve, rather than fully formed human being, who may or may not be in serious trouble.
I was expecting a lot more of a gut punch at the end, and, without going into any spoilers, I got really concerned when I noticed I only had ten or so pages left in the book. There’s a number of storylines that need resolution (Gard’s disappearance, Fred’s future, Carter’s illness, etc.) that are left hanging and it felt like the author hit a desired page count and stopped writing.
There’s a lot of really good stuff in here, the world building is top notch, whether it’s simple things like an alcoholic-in-denial saying “engineered beer is cheaper than engineered water” or imagined technology like the “wearables” that are implanted into everyone’s arm. We’ve seen enough futuristic cities (Blade Runner, modern day Tokyo) to know what New Chicago looks like, and the way Adcock describes the War happening in the wastelands of California is crisp and clear; we have no problem being firmly rooted in the setting of this story.
One of the strongest elements of the book is Carter’s saga returning home after serving on the front lines of the War with the marines for two and a half years. His struggles with PTSD, depression and a physical injury brought home are the most realized aspects of the book. Carter’s PTSD is worked beautifully in tandem with an oversaturation or overabundance of media, which adds onto the anxiety felt by Carter in a way that’s approachable by most modern readers.
What the story does lack, in a place that Station Eleven, for example, really succeeds, is the character repertoire built up over the novel. In Station Eleven, the characters bled through the pages, and each time we met a new band of survivors, it felt like they had a past, present and future outside of the book. In The Completionist, characters lives outside of the three days (and flashbacks) of the narrative don’t feel like they exist. Pop, the father of our main characters, feels like he is sitting around in his apartment, waiting for things to happen around him, waiting to be necessary in the story. The same goes for Gard, whose disappearance as the central mystery of the book, should propel the story more than she does. Her disappearance serves as the inciting incident, for sure, but after that she functions more of an ideal that Carter and Fred are trying to achieve, rather than fully formed human being, who may or may not be in serious trouble.
I was expecting a lot more of a gut punch at the end, and, without going into any spoilers, I got really concerned when I noticed I only had ten or so pages left in the book. There’s a number of storylines that need resolution (Gard’s disappearance, Fred’s future, Carter’s illness, etc.) that are left hanging and it felt like the author hit a desired page count and stopped writing.
September 2, 2022
Another dystopian novel involving mass infertility where women take it on the chin. I think "The Handmaid's Tale", all the way back in 1985, was the first bestseller in this genre, and has been hard to beat in terms of the level of creepy misogyny involved.
Still, this book has its own creepiness.
The book is set in a time in the not-too-distant future where the coastal United States is just...gone. The East Coast is underwater, and almost everything from the Rockies to the Pacific has been destroyed by fires. All the major cities still existing are in the northern part of the Midwest: New Minneapolis, New Detroit, New Chicago.
The US is in the middle of a civil war over the water supply. The water is synthesized in a plant in a contested area Out West, and must be transported by rail under military escort to the cities. (One of the many "Whys?" in this book-why not construct a plant in a safe area?).
Infertility has become a national issue, and the government is handling it with a web of draconian laws that place the burden firmly on the shoulder of women.
Only very wealthy women can afford IVF. The rest must conceive naturally, which typically occurs in women who are poor (an issue that the book addresses and I won't spoil). Thanks to the Big Brother-like monitoring of women, pregnancy can be detected early and women can be fined from the moment of conception if they don't put in the Department of Health sanctioned care hours.
The care requirement is so demanding (e.g. breastfeeding until age five) that women have to give up paid work to put in the care hours.
Completionists are medically trained personnel that assist women in reaching "completion": birth, which is ironic since women must put in care hours until the child turns sixteen.
The Quinns: Pop, daughters Fred and Gard, and son CQ are a family hailing from New Chicago. CQ has just been discharged from service as a Marine in the West, Fred is pregnant, and Gard is missing. Gard had been working as a completionist before she disappeared.
Fred gives CQ the task of finding Gard before her wedding, despite the fact that CQ is an obvious physical and emotional wreck due to his 2 and 1/2 year stint in the Marines.
CQ must fight his own demons, deal with his frantic sister Fred and his tight-lipped father, while trying to solve a mystery with very few leads.
A worthwhile read because of its relevance. Women's reproductive rights are under fire. Also, water. Jackson, Mississippi, a relatively large city , is in the middle of a crisis due to the fact that its water supply is compromised.
Still, this book has its own creepiness.
The book is set in a time in the not-too-distant future where the coastal United States is just...gone. The East Coast is underwater, and almost everything from the Rockies to the Pacific has been destroyed by fires. All the major cities still existing are in the northern part of the Midwest: New Minneapolis, New Detroit, New Chicago.
The US is in the middle of a civil war over the water supply. The water is synthesized in a plant in a contested area Out West, and must be transported by rail under military escort to the cities. (One of the many "Whys?" in this book-why not construct a plant in a safe area?).
Infertility has become a national issue, and the government is handling it with a web of draconian laws that place the burden firmly on the shoulder of women.
Only very wealthy women can afford IVF. The rest must conceive naturally, which typically occurs in women who are poor (an issue that the book addresses and I won't spoil). Thanks to the Big Brother-like monitoring of women, pregnancy can be detected early and women can be fined from the moment of conception if they don't put in the Department of Health sanctioned care hours.
The care requirement is so demanding (e.g. breastfeeding until age five) that women have to give up paid work to put in the care hours.
Completionists are medically trained personnel that assist women in reaching "completion": birth, which is ironic since women must put in care hours until the child turns sixteen.
The Quinns: Pop, daughters Fred and Gard, and son CQ are a family hailing from New Chicago. CQ has just been discharged from service as a Marine in the West, Fred is pregnant, and Gard is missing. Gard had been working as a completionist before she disappeared.
Fred gives CQ the task of finding Gard before her wedding, despite the fact that CQ is an obvious physical and emotional wreck due to his 2 and 1/2 year stint in the Marines.
CQ must fight his own demons, deal with his frantic sister Fred and his tight-lipped father, while trying to solve a mystery with very few leads.
A worthwhile read because of its relevance. Women's reproductive rights are under fire. Also, water. Jackson, Mississippi, a relatively large city , is in the middle of a crisis due to the fact that its water supply is compromised.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 13, 2018
At first, I wasn't really sure if I would like this book, I almost DNFed it a couple of times but I ended up pushing through and, for the most part, enjoying it.
Thanks so much to BookSparks for sending me a copy of this book for an honest review, as always, all opinions are my own.
This book follows Carter, a Marine who has returned to his family home in a near-future America after his sister, Fred, gets pregnant. Because of some sort of chemical in the old-world water, fertility rates have been extremely low. As a result, any pregnancy is treated as a miracle. Women are assigned Care Standards and Care Hours, tracked through implanted devices, to ensure they are meet proper standards of health. However, many women are unable to fulfil the unreasonable expectations and are forced to pay fines - something that the wealthy can manage but for the impoverished, it means a life-long debt. Carter and Fred's sister, Gardner, is a Nurse Completionist, who helped women reach their levels, but she is missing and Carter has to find her before it's too late.
I think the plot of this book itself was pretty unique and interesting. I'm sure people will draw comparisons to The Handmaid's Tale, especially now with the popularity of the show, but since I haven't read or seen it, I can't really say too much about the similarities. It's been a while since I've read a dystopian, let alone an adult dystopian, so I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it.
My main issue with this book was that beyond the plot of trying to find out where Gard was and why she disappeared in the first place, there wasn't really a lot going on. Most of the book was setting up the background and developing the new gadgets and ways of life in the new world. There wasn't much book space for a lot of plot so - understandably - the book was a little lighter on the plot.
I also felt like the ending happened right in the middle of when we were finally figuring out what was going on. The book just kind of ended right when they explained everything. I don't think there will be a sequel so I think there could have been a different ending. Also along those lines, I felt like not everything was as fully explained as it could have been. We get a lot of half-explained issues that crop up and never really get resolved over the course of the book.
Overall, I liked this one enough to finish it, but I don't think it will be one that I am excited to talk about.
Thanks so much to BookSparks for sending me a copy of this book for an honest review, as always, all opinions are my own.
This book follows Carter, a Marine who has returned to his family home in a near-future America after his sister, Fred, gets pregnant. Because of some sort of chemical in the old-world water, fertility rates have been extremely low. As a result, any pregnancy is treated as a miracle. Women are assigned Care Standards and Care Hours, tracked through implanted devices, to ensure they are meet proper standards of health. However, many women are unable to fulfil the unreasonable expectations and are forced to pay fines - something that the wealthy can manage but for the impoverished, it means a life-long debt. Carter and Fred's sister, Gardner, is a Nurse Completionist, who helped women reach their levels, but she is missing and Carter has to find her before it's too late.
I think the plot of this book itself was pretty unique and interesting. I'm sure people will draw comparisons to The Handmaid's Tale, especially now with the popularity of the show, but since I haven't read or seen it, I can't really say too much about the similarities. It's been a while since I've read a dystopian, let alone an adult dystopian, so I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it.
My main issue with this book was that beyond the plot of trying to find out where Gard was and why she disappeared in the first place, there wasn't really a lot going on. Most of the book was setting up the background and developing the new gadgets and ways of life in the new world. There wasn't much book space for a lot of plot so - understandably - the book was a little lighter on the plot.
I also felt like the ending happened right in the middle of when we were finally figuring out what was going on. The book just kind of ended right when they explained everything. I don't think there will be a sequel so I think there could have been a different ending. Also along those lines, I felt like not everything was as fully explained as it could have been. We get a lot of half-explained issues that crop up and never really get resolved over the course of the book.
Overall, I liked this one enough to finish it, but I don't think it will be one that I am excited to talk about.
December 31, 2022
I started out writing a longer review, but it was getting mean, so I'll keep this short.
This is a book primarily about the oppression of women in a post-apocalyptic society, but the POV is an oblivious young man who has to have the facts of his own world explicitly explained to him, primarily so that the author can drag out the reveal of what's going on and turn what should have been a short story at best into a whole novel.
The worldbuilding makes ZERO sense. The most egregious example is with the water. So there's a severe water shortage, leading to the development of some kind of synthetic water just to keep people alive. The problem is this synthetic water also causes infertility. Which everyone knows, but what are you going to do? People need water to live. But in this world poor people still have higher fertility rates, because they can't afford the synthetic water and have to get by with whatever real water they can manage to scrounge up. Except why would the rich, ruling classes voluntarily drink something that is making them infertile instead of hoarding all the real water for themselves and letting the masses drink the fake stuff? This makes no sense at all. I think the author was going for something about a hyper-capitalistic society in which only the rich can afford even the basics to survive, but this is a point too far. There is no way the rich wouldn't be hoarding the real water for themselves, both as a class marker (we're so rich we can afford real water) and because everyone knows the synthetic water is harmful. It just makes no sense.
The author's knowledge of human behavior and speech seems to have come entirely from arch early-2000s sitcoms, only with worse characterization.
If you're looking for an ending--not even a satisfactory ending, just an ENDING--look elsewhere.
That's all the energy I feel like putting into this review.
This is a book primarily about the oppression of women in a post-apocalyptic society, but the POV is an oblivious young man who has to have the facts of his own world explicitly explained to him, primarily so that the author can drag out the reveal of what's going on and turn what should have been a short story at best into a whole novel.
The worldbuilding makes ZERO sense. The most egregious example is with the water. So there's a severe water shortage, leading to the development of some kind of synthetic water just to keep people alive. The problem is this synthetic water also causes infertility. Which everyone knows, but what are you going to do? People need water to live. But in this world poor people still have higher fertility rates, because they can't afford the synthetic water and have to get by with whatever real water they can manage to scrounge up. Except why would the rich, ruling classes voluntarily drink something that is making them infertile instead of hoarding all the real water for themselves and letting the masses drink the fake stuff? This makes no sense at all. I think the author was going for something about a hyper-capitalistic society in which only the rich can afford even the basics to survive, but this is a point too far. There is no way the rich wouldn't be hoarding the real water for themselves, both as a class marker (we're so rich we can afford real water) and because everyone knows the synthetic water is harmful. It just makes no sense.
The author's knowledge of human behavior and speech seems to have come entirely from arch early-2000s sitcoms, only with worse characterization.
If you're looking for an ending--not even a satisfactory ending, just an ENDING--look elsewhere.
That's all the energy I feel like putting into this review.
March 28, 2020
The Completionist takes place in 22nd century New Chicago--a city reclaimed after climate change has shrunken the lake. The west coast has been largely abandoned for residents, but water is engineered there and shipped east. Twenty-plus years of war have been fight by men like Carter Quinn and his father, defending the trains of water heading east. The last western inhabitabts--the "terrorists", need that water too. And that engineered water is what is causing the infertility epidemic.
Carter is back from the wars, his oldest sister is miraculously pregnant and his other sister has disappeared. Gardner worked as a nurse completionist, and it is only through Fred's pregnancy do Fred and Carter learn what that means. Given the fertility issues, Care Hours and penalties have been mandated, making them virtually impossible to meet for most women--and mathematically impossible for many. Where has Garnder gone? Was it by choice? And what does it have to do with her work as a completionist?
I found the world building to be promising and interesting, but there were so many holes--or, at least, questions I wanted answered--that it didn't quite come together for me. Who is mandating these Care Hours? What/where is the government? What are the jobs women are working in? If pregnancy is so rare, how are there so many pregnant women? Where is the engineered food made? How do people purchase it? What are the jobs? Since there is no piped-in water, are there outhouses? Reading the book felt strange, as the world is very different (and very interesting)--yet the people seem to live, by and large, as we do today. Which also seems impossible.
Carter is back from the wars, his oldest sister is miraculously pregnant and his other sister has disappeared. Gardner worked as a nurse completionist, and it is only through Fred's pregnancy do Fred and Carter learn what that means. Given the fertility issues, Care Hours and penalties have been mandated, making them virtually impossible to meet for most women--and mathematically impossible for many. Where has Garnder gone? Was it by choice? And what does it have to do with her work as a completionist?
I found the world building to be promising and interesting, but there were so many holes--or, at least, questions I wanted answered--that it didn't quite come together for me. Who is mandating these Care Hours? What/where is the government? What are the jobs women are working in? If pregnancy is so rare, how are there so many pregnant women? Where is the engineered food made? How do people purchase it? What are the jobs? Since there is no piped-in water, are there outhouses? Reading the book felt strange, as the world is very different (and very interesting)--yet the people seem to live, by and large, as we do today. Which also seems impossible.
March 11, 2018
This dystopian novel is set in a future where there's a HUGE water shortage. The solution to this is something called H2.0, which is an artificial water that, unfortunately, causes infertility. Only the rich can have children, using a drug called Insemina.
The protagonist is a guy who came back from a war (guarding the H2.0 factories from being robbed by people who are, uh, thirsty). He finds out that one of his sisters is missing, and the other is naturally pregnant, which rarely happens and is considered a bit of a miracle.
As the story unfolds, one finds that, being pregnant is a huge burden on the woman, who has to give up all of her assets and spend all of her time eating carefully and managing all of her activities "healthfully" to accrue "care hours." She has to breastfeed until the child is five. Due to the population shortage, these women basically become slaves to their children (/the human race).
The male protagonist bumbles and day-drinks his way through the story, honestly just tripping into clues about his sister's disappearance and causing trouble. He's very frustrating. The world itself is interesting, and depressing, but perhaps not as depressing as this guy's life. He really is a wreck.
Anyway:
Worldbuilding: 5 stars
Main character: 2 stars
Plot: 4 stars
How sad I felt for all the characters while reading it: 1 star
Average: 3 stars
The protagonist is a guy who came back from a war (guarding the H2.0 factories from being robbed by people who are, uh, thirsty). He finds out that one of his sisters is missing, and the other is naturally pregnant, which rarely happens and is considered a bit of a miracle.
As the story unfolds, one finds that, being pregnant is a huge burden on the woman, who has to give up all of her assets and spend all of her time eating carefully and managing all of her activities "healthfully" to accrue "care hours." She has to breastfeed until the child is five. Due to the population shortage, these women basically become slaves to their children (/the human race).
The male protagonist bumbles and day-drinks his way through the story, honestly just tripping into clues about his sister's disappearance and causing trouble. He's very frustrating. The world itself is interesting, and depressing, but perhaps not as depressing as this guy's life. He really is a wreck.
Anyway:
Worldbuilding: 5 stars
Main character: 2 stars
Plot: 4 stars
How sad I felt for all the characters while reading it: 1 star
Average: 3 stars
June 18, 2018
Natural disasters have ravaged the country leaving many without water and leaving the coasts inhabitable. Water is a precious commodity and has started to be artificially engineered. The downside is that this ne w water causes infertility. This story takes place in New Chicago. Carter Quinn is a marine that has just returned from the H2.0 war.
Carter’s sister Gardner is a Completionist, one of those that help the few women that become pregnant to carry the baby to full term. Carter’s other sister; Fred has become pregnant and is preparing to get married.
I love dystopian stories and I was excited to start reading this one. It was an interesting story; although there are other ways to get clean water I suspended that idea for now. Most of the population cannot have children, ok good idea. But then those few women that do get pregnant are fined for it? I do understand the strict regiments and basically making them breeding stock.
Over all this is one of those books I think you will either like or hate. It’s not a bad read if you suspend belief in several areas. It is worth a read and I don’t feel like I would have wasted my money. But it’s not one for me that is screaming to be added to my shelves.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. I voluntarily chose to read and post an honest review.
Carter’s sister Gardner is a Completionist, one of those that help the few women that become pregnant to carry the baby to full term. Carter’s other sister; Fred has become pregnant and is preparing to get married.
I love dystopian stories and I was excited to start reading this one. It was an interesting story; although there are other ways to get clean water I suspended that idea for now. Most of the population cannot have children, ok good idea. But then those few women that do get pregnant are fined for it? I do understand the strict regiments and basically making them breeding stock.
Over all this is one of those books I think you will either like or hate. It’s not a bad read if you suspend belief in several areas. It is worth a read and I don’t feel like I would have wasted my money. But it’s not one for me that is screaming to be added to my shelves.
I received a complimentary copy of this book. I voluntarily chose to read and post an honest review.
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