Girl Minus X

by Anne Stone

Fifteen-year-old Dany is trying to survive with her little sister, Mac, in a world collapsing under the weight of a slow, creeping virus that erodes memory. As their identities slip away from them, the late-stage infected are quarantined by the Ministry of Disease Control in prison-hospices, military camps where some of Dany's family have already been taken.

When a new and more virulent strain of the disease emerges and Dany begins to experience symptoms, the sisters are cast into crisis. As they try to escape the city together with Dany's best friend, Eva, and history teacher, Mr. Faraday, Dany comes to see the ways in which her own fear has carried her trauma with her. As her past erodes, Dany's present flickers into full fluorescence.

Elegant and thoughtful, Girl Minus X is a novel in which a young girl navigates her trauma in a world that can't help but forget.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Dystopia, Canada

296 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2020

About the author

Anne Stone teaches Creative Writing and Literature at Capilano University. Her latest novel, Girl Minus X (Fall 2020), tells the story of a girl with an eidetic memory and a traumatic past, navigating a world in which a slow creeping virus erodes memory. Publishers Weekly called the novel “a prismatic look at disaster striking people already in crisis. Stone’s brilliant, breathless novel will put readers in mind of Emily St. John Mandel and Margaret Atwood.” She’s also the author of the novels, Delible (2007), Hush (1999), and jacks (1998). Just now, she’s working on a book of speculative / slipstream / Weird short stories.

Reviews

[George Ilsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. Can't imagine what it must be like to have spent a few years researching and writing a novel about a viral pandemic and have it published in the year 2020. This novel hit close to home for that reason, but also because it is set in a near-future, dystopian Vancouver (which feels oddly all-too-familiar).

The virus and its symptoms are different in this novel than in "real life" but there is still enough overlap to create an uncomfortable frisson. Except for the back cover blurb, which suggests the book will "captivate both teens and adults alike" there is nothing about the scope and intelligence of this novel which clearly indicates it is intended for the YA market.

Much of the plot revolves around elements mostly found in thriller-type novels, which normally I find to be not so interesting. Luckily here we have strong complicated characters, enriched with layers of smoke and shadows, the warp and weft of their natures woven from resilience.

[Mutated Reviewer · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you've read one of my recent blog posts about the horror genre, you'll know that I have an overactive imagination, whether that's from anxiety or not, this book really dug it's way into my brain because of that. The horrifying scenes in this book, just vaguely described as a past trauma, are things that have stuck with me, and I think are so much worse than could have been created in a horror movie. This is just one of the reasons why I loved this book so much. Though it's torture to be able to imagine those scenes so vividly, I was helplessly addicted to this book, and I couldn't put it down until it was finished.

Check out my full review here!

https://radioactivebookreviews.wordpr...

[Celestial · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfect read during a pandemic. I enjoyed the adventure, the sorrows, the unknown and especially the characters. I definitely did not expect the ending and I enjoyed how the author tied everything together as I came closer to the conclusion and ultimately the end. Great storyline, great graphic details, I just wish it wasn't stand alone.

Thank you to the publisher, author and goodreads for the giveaway.

[Enid Wray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! I loved this… brilliant... like The Girl With All the Gifts meets This is Not a Test - but no zombies, just a COVID-like virus... Add in a dash of James Bond meets Die Hard, and a little MacGyver... Total winner!!!!!

Female protagonist (but boys will eat this up)… Solid world building. Fast moving, seat of your pants plot and action. Oh so timely - hello COVID and hello contemporary politics of division (fear and stigmatisation)!

Add in a diverse cast of characters, girls doing pretty cool science, a liberal dose of deadpan humour…. and a Canadian setting to boot (Vancouver and surrounding area).

I’m ready to read the sequel NOW (but it totally stands alone).

[Emily Pohl-Weary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prescient and compelling read.

[Whitney · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m not exactly sure what why this work was compared to that of Emily St. John Mandel or Margaret Atwood. There was almost no world building to be had, the little backstory that we have for Danny did not endear her to me, she spent the majority of the book hating her father only to have you opinion changed within 13 hours of meeting up with him. She was supposedly a genius, but her only genius act was to determine that she was a super spreader of a new strain the the virus that created a dystopian cityscape. Dang didn’t even realize that Mac was creating the periodic table of elements on the scrabble board until Liz pointed it out. Also, how did Danny have such a long incubation period, Liz, Jasper and Bea were consumed with the virus hours after contact with her. Her teacher served no purpose because he was injured during the prison break for her aunt. Eva was just as useless because she interned at the same lab as Danny and she didn’t realize that Danny was spreading the new virus. Also, what was the point of Eva being wealthy, it served no purpose other than as a reason for them to go to the pier.

The setting wasn’t clear either, Negro Island and D’arcy don’t appear to be near each other (I not Canadian so I’m not entirely sure about the geography of the area). I generally appreciate knowing the location and time period of the book that I’m reading. Some of the technology mentioned is more advanced than out time (Evas glasses), yet the girls had an answering machine with a cassette tape.

I gave up on the novel after the prison break and skimmed the rest of the book. None of the characters were interesting.

[Megan McMillen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't quite articulate why I didn't like this. It was a jumble is the best way I can put it, and trying WAY too hard to he deep. I couldn't connect to the main character at all and kept falling asleep reading it.

[Trasie Sands · Rating 5 out of 5]

The characters in this book are wonderful! I was especially fond of Eva, who was brilliantly written as not only a quirky best friend, but one that would clearly do anything for the people she cares about and it's so obvious why Dany chooses her -- because it's what she needs.

It's interesting to read this while we are in the throes of a pandemic, because it feels even more desperate, frightening as a result. This is a year where so many things we never thought would happen, or rather, things we didn't think to imagine, happened. And the detail was so brilliantly penned I could feel, hear, taste, envision all of it.

Dany is a fantastically flawed young woman with a decidedly difficult path and I just love almost every move she made. Pragmatic, but not without emotion, even succumbing to it on occasion, I caught myself visibly smiling at certain parts, wiping tears at others.

Well done!

[Lynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a hard read during the pandemic, but super poignant and weirdly prescient. I think the best part of this book (and its most unique aspect in this genre as far as I'm concerned) was it's focus on how a plague can still be the least terrifying thing going on. The horror at the center of this book is not a disease, it's the disease within us and our systems-- an unjust government that doesn't adequately support children and unhoused folks, a fucked up carceral system, a society falling over itself to prop up capitalism and inequality, a deep utilitarian ethic in response to emergency unconstrained by any sort of other principles. Honestly, the reason this is 4* and not 5* is because I found the ending to be a bit weak and thought the book would have been stronger if it had cut off sooner.

[Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

I made it half way through then started sprint-reading chunks to see if it was worth continuing.
It wasn't.
The story is basically "the last of us".

A cryptic teen takes care of her mute sister in this apocalyptic virus story. She is good at math and science - the author never let's us forget it.
There is some secret or twist to the girl's backstory that we do not get any answers to even 120 pages in. did she start the virus? why is the kid sister not talking? is the cart lady her mom?
maybe if you finish the book you will gain some shred of backstory.

In lui of plot we get awkward banter as lukewarm as the synthetic coffee everyone in the story drinks.

I got the impression the author is a scientist who doesn't have many female friends and thus doesn't know how to write the friendships, but no she's a creative writing professor...

[ea · Rating 2 out of 5]

A YA novel about the apocalypse being brought about by a various contagious virus. Wouldn’t’ve been my cup of tea as a YA pre-COVID and is so much less so my cup of tea now. Still, I pushed myself to finish because the author teaches in my program.

[Dora Prieto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredible and breathless. It felt like a masterclass on writing an action-packed story, and it takes place in just over two days. Probably shouldn't have read this pandemic dystopia set in Vancouver while having COVID, but it was well-worth it.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting and sad. I’m still not sure what happened in the end

[Rae · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn’t get through it. It felt pretentious, like it was trying too hard to be relevant and cool. It sounded so good.