The Sudden Appearance of Hope

By: Claire North

Narrated by: Gillian Burke

The World Fantasy Award-winning thriller about a girl no one can remember, from the acclaimed author of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August and 84K.

My name is Hope Arden, and you won't know who I am. But we've met before -- a thousand times.

It started when I was sixteen years old. A father forgetting to drive me to school. A mother setting the table for three, not four. A friend who looks at me and sees a stranger.

No matter what I do, the words I say, the crimes I commit, you will never remember who I am.

That makes my life difficult. It also makes me dangerous.

The Sudden Appearance of Hope is a riveting and heartbreaking exploration of identity and existence, about a forgotten girl whose story will stay with you forever.

Critic reviews

"Beautifully written, with a protagonist who is both tragic and heroic, the novel is remarkably powerful and deeply memorable, the latest in a string of terrific books from this newly emerged star in the genre-blending universe."
—Booklist (starred review)

"The experience of sitting with it, sinking into it, aching along with Hope as her loneliness shapes and breaks her, was wonderful, painful and moving."
—NPR

"North has established a reputation for tense, dense, science fiction/fantasy-inflected thrillers that defy facile explanations... Simultaneously a tense conspiracy caper, a haunting meditation on loneliness and a brutally cynical examination of modern media... Well-paced, brilliant and balanced."—New York Times

"[T]his is an inquiry into modern human existence. Philosophical questions are threaded through the electrifying plot. Even the protagonist's darkness alias is "why." Reminiscent of William Gibson's best work, North leads us into a brilliant world of elite but mindless humans, and shines a sharp light on what a rare gift it is to be able to think for oneself and what the consequences of it are."—RT Book Reviews

"Startlingly original"—Independent (UK)

"North isn't here to lecture you or rehash tired debates. Instead, she's produced something that feels at the same time absent and necessary: Smart, compelling fiction about this future that asks us to outsource ever-larger chunks of our selves to the cloud."
—Tech Insider

"This is a book which is incredibly compelling, and incredibly heartbreaking at times. I could not put it down."
—The Forest of Books

Struggled to get through this

This book lashed in the beginning bit then started to get more interesting. And then lagged, and lagged, and... finally around Ch 70I didn't care about what happened anymore. I raced to the end, and was not rewarded. Better luck next time!

great story but not my favorite author.

The extemporaneous details get tiresome, boring, and hault what could be a great narrative. Maybe there was something lost between reading a physical book and the audiobook, but much of the time I found myself zoning out or skipping ahead to something interesting and meaningful to the story. The themes on lonliness never seemed to really strike me and the main character was cold and bitter and struggling with lonliness and isolation, but I never seemed to care. was that the point? Maybe I need a book club.....

Perfection

A perfect exemplification of the human concept of perfection vs being who you are. Hope is Perfect.

Can be a bit slow

4 out of 5 stars for story pacing. 5 out of 5 stars for creativity. I keep expecting Claire North's new books to capture me the way her first Harry August book did. While a new and creative idea is offered here, it was only a good story and not one that I will continue to treasure like the above named book.

Genius, but I feel like I've read it before

I love the author. I devour all the books from her that I read. Love her writing and the way she tells story.
I just feel it follows the same story structure from The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. It's almost the same journey, the same pitfalls and the same thrills.
I couldn't predict exactly what would happen next, but I could definitely predict what I would feel next every time something was about to happen, as I read so much of her books before.
I still would really recommend the reading.