When the SWAT team gives the all-clear and Logan Ramsay steps into the basement, he has no idea that everything’s about to change. Then there’s the hiss of aerosol. The explosion. The shrapnel punctures his hazmat gear. Logan wakes up to find himself in a hospital bed, attended by doctors in their own hazmat suits, his wife and daughter looking on from behind the glass. The doctors say he’s been infected by a virus–one designed not to make him sick, but to modify his very genetic structure.
Upgrade is Blake Crouch’s latest novel. It revolves around Logan Ramsay an agent from the Gene Protection Agency (GPA). The story takes place in an undetermined future. A future where the GPA has outlawed all gene editing and gene modification, so it tracks the development and use of all genetic research to prevent it from being used against humanity.
In this world, private and university-based research has been banned, so scientists who insist on following this line of research are forced to work illegally.
The book starts with Logan in the process of raiding an illegal lab when an explosion exposes him to a gene-modifying virus.
When Logan wakes up from the accident, he realizes that something is different in his body. His memory, cognition, and overall intelligence seem to have drastically improved. Under suspicion of having self-injected the gene-modifying virus and facing imprisonment, Logan sets out to look for answers.
I have read several of Blake Crouch’s books, but I have to admit that this one just didn’t do it for me. It is a very fast-paced thriller and the premise is interesting, however, the techno-jargon felt a little overdone and could potentially turn off some readers.
Upgrade is scheduled to be published on July 12th, 2022. I want to thank Ballantine Books and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Format: Kindle- Advanced Reader’s Copy
ASIN: B09R21165T
Source: Netgalley
Rating: 3 stars
Genre: Sci-Fi, Thriller
Practical, unassuming Jane Shoringfield has done the calculations, and decided that the most secure path forward is this: a husband, in a marriage of convenience, who will allow her to remain independent and occupied with meaningful work. Her first choice, the dashing but reclusive doctor Augustine Lawrence, agrees to her proposal with only one condition: that she must never visit Lindridge Hall, his crumbling family manor outside of town.Yet on their wedding night, an accident strands her at his door in a pitch-black rainstorm, and she finds him changed. Gone is the bold, courageous surgeon, and in his place is a terrified, paranoid man—one who cannot tell reality from nightmare, and fears Jane is an apparition, come to haunt him. By morning, Augustine is himself again, but Jane knows something is deeply wrong at Lindridge Hall, and with the man she has so hastily bound her safety to.
Newlyweds Brooklyn and Derek are enjoying the final days of their honeymoon in Paris. As they’re browsing the book stalls along the Seine, Brooklyn finds the perfect gift for Derek, a first edition James Bond novel, The Spy Who Loved Me. When they bump into Ned, an old friend from Derek’s spy days, Brooklyn shows him her latest treasure. Once they’re back home in San Francisco, they visit a spy shop Ned mentioned. The owner begs them to let him display the book Brooklyn found in Paris as part of the shop’s first anniversary celebration. Before they agree, Derek makes sure the security is up to snuff—turns out, the unassuming book is worth a great deal more than sentimental value. Soon after, Derek is dismayed when he receives a mysterious letter from Paris announcing Ned’s death. Then late one night, someone is killed inside the spy shop. Are the murders connected to Brooklyn’s rare, pricey book? Is there something even more sinister afoot? Brooklyn and the spy who loves her will have to delve into the darkest parts of Derek’s past to unmask an enemy who’s been waiting for the chance to destroy everything they hold dear.
Shortly after the birth of her twins, Lauren is recovering in the hospital when she hears a woman singing an eerie song. Concerned that the woman will wake up her twins, Laura approaches her and asks her to stop singing. The woman, dressed in ragged and dirty clothes seems to be singing to her own baby twins. When Lauren approaches her, the woman presents Lauren with an offer–her dirty and filthy creatures, for Lauren’s own sweet, perfect babies. When Lauren refuses, the crazed woman attempts to steal the babies away. Fearing for her life and for the lives of her twins, Lauren hides in the bathroom and calls the police. When the police arrive, there are no signs of an intruder in the hospital. Nurses and doctors deny the presence of an intruder and everyone turns to Lauren questioning her sanity. Could she be having some sort of post-natal psychosis?
A Wondrous Bookshelf 