Status Updates From Hum

+/- I had fun asking myself Q's theorizing but I'm not sure that I had enough even nuanced info to make my guesses, so reddit was more the fun part and the book itself kind of felt unfinished or it was doing too much in the background buttt on the + side, my closing remarks were way longer than the plot summary and that ratio can't be ignored (good thing!)

3.5 round to 4 cuz it was engaging and I had fun theorizing

-I wish May’s reasoning for wanting to disconnect was more concrete as it seemed she was the only one who thought this way (we only see her family so for her microcosm, she's the outlier) so I would’ve like a little reasoning behind it that didn’t come from extrapolating my own onto her
-many mentions of nudity of the children, bathroom scenes, the sex was particularly uncomfortable
-dragged a bit

+ads were spot on, absolutely unbearable in the most relatable way
+the near-future felt a little too near!
+quick and anxiety-inducing
-lack of descriptive world created detachment (on purpose? Idk) but it just made it difficult to be immersed
-why were Gem and May married? I don’t think they spoke to each other more than 5x in the whole book
-ending was pretty abrupt

Are hums capable of empathy? Now, this is a Q I can get behind but I think there was too much focus on the mundane (I understand the necessity, but I don’t need to hear about bathroom trips) for this to have been the intended hypothetical Q. As for my answer, I don’t think they are. They are made to attune to people’s needs but it does not come from a desire to ease their pain or prove they mirror their suffering

Idk if it loops, it really could be that all hums are connected so the one that did her surgery has the same info as this hum that recounts it, and May could be just rewatching that now without a twitch, either hum-manufactured or she never twitched and is unreliable

Was the cancelling of May plot devised by Hums to get them to wear rabbit devices? Or just simple commentary on skewed for clickbait news we have?

The ending: did the hum alter the video from the procedure proving it can lie to May? Or is May possibly a hum based off her own experiences they built the hums data and that’s why the kids kept calling her creepy? Or is it really just as simple as we were reading the hum’s advocating portrait of May from the eyes of the Bureau that will empathize with her and ultimately absolve her?

It sketches MC and submits it to bureau. She is absolved. She is encouraged by everyone to go view it and absolve herself. It is a recording of her getting the procedure done and not flinching (opening line is her trying not flinch during)

They spend time in a blanket fort and Hum sings song from horsies go ‘round cuz Hum was there when they made it up (proof all hums are connected); Hum said if ppl saw their family up close they would feel the affection and gives MC some encouraging words that are seamlessly spoken but are quotes from a book. Simulated empathy

The Hum asks for info from their phones and wooms and says tmw have a normal regular day, it says wants to help them; May thinks it's a test from the Bureau

The kids really really like the Hum

Visits friend Nova who has new baby

Gem tries to get injured by Hum for insurance money but it barely scratched him and claim was denied

Hum comes back to stay for dinner, an audition to prove they are fit parents

She calls clinic to undo surgery (Idky since her face is near the same and it didn't cause the issue)

it may cause permanent scarring and she would have to pay them back, she finds out that the test subjects are used to train the cameras not avoid them

The Hum from gardens w videos leaked comes to their apt, saying that it was not on purpose, that when MC consented to a emergency search those videos became public

The videos leaked, She went viral, sleeping on vacation w untraceable face that ripped trackers off kids then lost them, for some reason husband Gem isn’t in the videos (someone targeted May?)

She gets call from bureau that she’s being investigated for child neglect

They keep mentioning game “horsies go ‘round” but never elaborate. They head home after the weekend and the rabbit wooms are back on the kids

She has 4000+ emails waiting for her, way too many

Randos chiding her for being stupid and losing her kids, being too good for woom bunnies, family concerned and distraught

May encounters a Hum, it tracks their faces across hidden cams in the gardens, they went into forest, then out a service door behind the waterfall, bought candy at a gas station and 27 min ago Sy cried asking why their mom ripped the wooms off their wrist switch

They reunite via Hum and the kids are mad at her but hug the dad, she has to give saliva sample to get custody of kids from Hum without facial recognition

Sad that this experience of seeing nature is paywalled

May and Gem fall asleep by the waterfall, when they wake up they can only find the kids’ shoes, without the woom they can’t track them but she’s relieved because they’re technically in a hotel experience so what could go wrong?

Gem says he snuck in his phone so he’ll go call for help

MC rips them off (assuming she’s going to go off grid they can’t be wearing those anymore, but im not sure the husband knows of this plan cuz he wants to bring his woom to the garden)

She watches his woom history and its him flying

Otw to gardens and without their wooms, the family is useless cant track bus, husband cant find west

When at their cabin for the weekend MC takes in greenery, the freshness, the quiet

Buys tix for family to botanical garden along w accompanied survival kits that come with them, quite a luxury in their world to see greenery

Wooms are devices on the wrist (vr escapism, camera, children can talk to and MC can track their location) Kids share their days’ troubles w the rabbits of the woom instead of her but eventually Sy screams cuz a scary ad won’t stop playing