In my opinion, we find it hard to accept that this life we have is all there is so we consolidate ourselves by creating an imaginary paradise where we cash in the rewards for following the 'rules'. And we often asked ourselves was that it after we die? We are always fascinated and troubled with the afterlife too.

I think humanity has always wanted to play god and nothing good has ever come out of that. But hey, as long as it keeps people from rioting, amirite. Even heaven isn't exempt from the lies it tries to enforce upon its subscribers. However, there's always a bug and shit things happen. All you need is to download the app and let the arbiters judge you for your sins. Heaven is a piece of software you could access when someone dies and so does hell. This isn't a far cry from the religions and cults that assumed the authority to call in the shots on who goes to heaven and who goes not. i've had enough crises of faith to have any real opinion about these things. but the main reason why i'm ultimately going to not rate this is because i truly do not know what to think. maybe the whole reason why it feels so open-ended and non-concrete is an allusion to that too, or i'm looking too much into it.

i have every reason to! i could put aside being a horrible snob about my hatred for utopian-dystopian because the whole idea of being so advanced and all-seeing and yet only finding out that despite all this is that no one actually really knows what happens after death is such a freakingly good concept. and then it's revealed that the plot twist is that heaven is not actually real? and everyone who is dead is just.in a simulation of paradise or not there? and in the end zoe just chooses to go where her father (or the digital copy of her dead father) is and leave the literal world behind.

she moves to the paris branch of her work and has a bad relationship with her mum and her dad died by suicide after they signed up for the heaven app. our protag zoe has a job where she essentially sees everyone's sins and accounts for whether they get into heaven or h-e-double hockey sticks. This has seriously good potential, but it turns out to be like your typical utopian-dystopian. which is kinda funny and absolutely terrifying if you think about it. it's well-written and i want the of the artist who designed the gorgeous cover, but the whole point of this story is that even the afterlife isn't safe from capitalism.

The Ones Who Look by Katharine Duckett