Social media. Avatars. Influencers. AI. It’s everywhere these days, and although some of it does add something good to the world, most of it just makes things worse. (Especially influencers and AI). With that in mind, it’s no surprise that horror stories about them have started coming out. And one of those stories is the novel we are here to talk about today. What’s more, this novel is brought to you by Alma Katsu, who is a retired government intelligence and technology expert. So, you know she knows what she’s talking about.
Incarnate follows Dorothy, a talented computer programmer and VFX artist who has been hampered all her life by the knowledge that she isn’t one of the pretty and popular girls. While working for an up-and-coming VFX company in LA, she decides to create an avatar that is everything she isn’t: Isabella. Beautiful, charismatic, and almost impossible to tell that she is made entirely from pixels. When Dorothy starts posting pictures and videos of Isabella to social media, someone approaches her online and offers to make Isabella the biggest thing on social media. And from there, things take on a terrifying life of their own.
To put it mildly, this is a relatable novel. We’ve all seen before how things happen on the internet and take on a life of their own. One little mistake or decision, and suddenly a phenomenon occurs, with everyone and their cousin having an opinion and insisting the rest of the world heed it, no matter what. Things spiral out of control, and in the end, entire lives can be irrevocably changed. And I’ve noticed that with Alma Katsu’s horror stories, she focuses less on the fantastical or the monster, and more on how people react to the situations that happen to include the fantastical or the monster. So, between all that and her background, as well as meticulous research, it’s no wonder she wrote such a compelling story set in the world of social media, deepfakes, and internet culture.
I also found Dorothy to be a very relatable character. Despite the decisions she makes and the consequences of those decisions, I sympathize with her. She’s been wounded by the online world before, but she can’t leave it behind because that’s where her talents and passions lie. That’s something we can all understand to a degree. And her decision to create Isabella (who in my mind was portrayed by actress Aubrey Plaza) comes from a desire to create something meaningful and that will give her the attention she’s always wanted, rather than the attention she’s been given. For many creatives, that’s something we experience on a day-to-day basis.
I do have one complaint, and that’s that we only get so much information on whoever or whatever offered Dorothy the deal in the first place. And while I understand why we don’t see more of them (do we see all the factors that cause a viral trend or sensation at play IRL?), there’s clearly a mythology there I would have liked explored a bit more.
Nevertheless, Incarnate by Alma Katsu is a beautifully-written story with characters you can empathize with and a story that’s extremely relevant to us in the here and now. Plus, those last hundred pages or so really surprised me! On a scale of 1 to 5, I award this novel a well-deserved 4. Unplug from the Internet for a while, sit back with a copy, and dive right in. You won’t regret it.
Also, stay away from AI and random strangers whose identity you can’t verify offering to promote you or your work. Just saying.
