I remember thoroughly enjoying ‘The girl before’ and ‘believe me’ by JP Delaney, so when I was preapproved on Netgalley for his new book, The Perfect Wife I eagerly clicked the download button and picked up my kindle.
If Im honest I enjoyed this a little less than the previous two books, mainly because I had to reread the last chapter and even now I dont think Im 100% clear on what happened. ( Im on some medication at the moment that is known to give you brain fog which might explain it).
“There’s something I have to explain, my love,” he says, taking your hand in his. “That wasn’t a dream. It was an upload.”
This is the story of a tech genius, who has his own business in silicon valley, a nerd, geek and genius in one who hires an artist to help with the advances his company is striving to make. He manages to woo her and they get married, but when she disappeared five years ago he became the main suspect. Was he jealous? did he do it? surely not.
Enter Abby, the Cobot, or companion robot. Shes (its) been given intelligence and a personality by using old messages, voicemails and a social media profiles. She could be mistaken for the real Abby if you didnt know better. This is where we start the story with her waking / booting up.
The background story is about their son, Danny who has a rare form of autism that means he needs constant care. Sian the carer is currently working round the clock to give Danny what he needs, but with the Abbybot home will she still be needed?
The story is interesting, its one that feels very realistic when you look at how technology is developing at such a fast pace, and despite the technical topic of the story its written without jargon so its easily understandable.
The story made me think of the TV Humans, a similar theory giving artificial intelligence everything it needs to be human – but this had moments of feeling creepy due to the reactions of everyone around Abby.
The perfect wife is due out on August 8th.
One More Chapter 