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What Kind of Paradise: A Novel
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A teenage girl breaks free from her father’s world of isolation to discover that her whole life is a lie in this “absorbing and well-crafted” (The Washington Post) novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Things and Watch Me Disappear.
“A mesmerizing blend of coming-of-age and psychological suspense, set against the birth of the internet age.”—People
The first thing you have to understand is that my father was my entire world.
Growing up in an isolated cabin in Montana in the mid-1990s, Jane knows only the world that she and her father live in: the woodstove that heats their home, the vegetable garden where they try to eke out a subsistence, the books of nineteenth-century philosophy that her father gives her to read in lieu of going to school. Her father is elusive about their pasts, giving Jane little beyond the facts that they once lived in the Bay Area and that her mother died in a car accident, the crash propelling him to move Jane off the grid to raise her in a Waldenesque utopia.
As Jane becomes a teenager she starts pushing against the boundaries of her restricted world. She begs to accompany her father on his occasional trips away from the cabin. But when Jane realizes that her devotion to her father has made her an accomplice to a horrific crime, she flees Montana to the only place she knows to look for answers about her mysterious past, and her mother’s death: San Francisco. It is a city in the midst of a seismic change, where her quest to understand herself will force her to reckon with both the possibilities and the perils of the fledgling internet, and where she will come to question everything she values.
In this sweeping, suspenseful novel from bestselling author Janelle Brown, we see a young woman on a quest to understand how we come to know ourselves. It is a bold and unforgettable story about parents and children; nature and technology; innocence and knowledge; the losses of our past and our dreams for the future.
“A mesmerizing blend of coming-of-age and psychological suspense, set against the birth of the internet age.”—People
The first thing you have to understand is that my father was my entire world.
Growing up in an isolated cabin in Montana in the mid-1990s, Jane knows only the world that she and her father live in: the woodstove that heats their home, the vegetable garden where they try to eke out a subsistence, the books of nineteenth-century philosophy that her father gives her to read in lieu of going to school. Her father is elusive about their pasts, giving Jane little beyond the facts that they once lived in the Bay Area and that her mother died in a car accident, the crash propelling him to move Jane off the grid to raise her in a Waldenesque utopia.
As Jane becomes a teenager she starts pushing against the boundaries of her restricted world. She begs to accompany her father on his occasional trips away from the cabin. But when Jane realizes that her devotion to her father has made her an accomplice to a horrific crime, she flees Montana to the only place she knows to look for answers about her mysterious past, and her mother’s death: San Francisco. It is a city in the midst of a seismic change, where her quest to understand herself will force her to reckon with both the possibilities and the perils of the fledgling internet, and where she will come to question everything she values.
In this sweeping, suspenseful novel from bestselling author Janelle Brown, we see a young woman on a quest to understand how we come to know ourselves. It is a bold and unforgettable story about parents and children; nature and technology; innocence and knowledge; the losses of our past and our dreams for the future.
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Community Reviews
thenextgoodbook.com
What’s it about?
It is the mid-1990s, and Jane is seventeen years old and living in a remote cabin in the Montana wilderness with just her father for company. Her mother died when she was young, and she knows no other life. But her father often disappears for days at a time, and she is starting to question their existence. One day, he returns home with a computer and a modem, opening her mind up to the outside world. There is no going back.
What did it make me think about?
The choices we make individually and as a community.
Should I read it?
Very rarely do I read a book that I think almost all readers will enjoy- but Janelle Brown’s What Kind of Paradise is one of those books. I would say it’s a beach read, a coming-of-age story, a suspense thriller, and a family drama – a little bit of everything. It will also make a great book club book. So many themes to talk about!
I remember reading Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Rifka Brunt (another thoughtful book if you haven’t read it), and that story taking me back to the mid-1980s and how fearful people were of the whole AIDS epidemic. As we move forward, it is so easy to forget the mindset of an entire generation at a particular time in the past. What Kind of Paradise takes us back to the beginning of the computer age and the different mindsets about what was coming. “I flipped it open and scanned some of the writer’s predictions. An economic boom due to the new technological breakthroughs will enable everyone to join the middle class, so that there are no more working poor. The proliferation of new media will allow truth to disseminate in new ways, through new voices, bringing an end to widespread ignorance. A rise in liberalism due to a connected global citizenry will usher in the New Enlightenment and the end of fascism and authoritarianism.” It makes you wonder what we are getting wrong next. And I haven’t even touched on all of her father’s decisions….
It was a tad predictable, but still a really enjoyable, thought-provoking read. Lots to talk about in this one!
Quote-
“Never underestimate the power of love to lead you down the path toward willful blindness. Faith in the people you adore doesn’t disappear slowly, with each tiny disappointment; instead, it collapses all at once, like the final snowfall that triggers an avalanche when the weight suddenly becomes too much to bear. I was nearing the tipping point, but I hadn’t quite arrived yet.”
What’s it about?
It is the mid-1990s, and Jane is seventeen years old and living in a remote cabin in the Montana wilderness with just her father for company. Her mother died when she was young, and she knows no other life. But her father often disappears for days at a time, and she is starting to question their existence. One day, he returns home with a computer and a modem, opening her mind up to the outside world. There is no going back.
What did it make me think about?
The choices we make individually and as a community.
Should I read it?
Very rarely do I read a book that I think almost all readers will enjoy- but Janelle Brown’s What Kind of Paradise is one of those books. I would say it’s a beach read, a coming-of-age story, a suspense thriller, and a family drama – a little bit of everything. It will also make a great book club book. So many themes to talk about!
I remember reading Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Rifka Brunt (another thoughtful book if you haven’t read it), and that story taking me back to the mid-1980s and how fearful people were of the whole AIDS epidemic. As we move forward, it is so easy to forget the mindset of an entire generation at a particular time in the past. What Kind of Paradise takes us back to the beginning of the computer age and the different mindsets about what was coming. “I flipped it open and scanned some of the writer’s predictions. An economic boom due to the new technological breakthroughs will enable everyone to join the middle class, so that there are no more working poor. The proliferation of new media will allow truth to disseminate in new ways, through new voices, bringing an end to widespread ignorance. A rise in liberalism due to a connected global citizenry will usher in the New Enlightenment and the end of fascism and authoritarianism.” It makes you wonder what we are getting wrong next. And I haven’t even touched on all of her father’s decisions….
It was a tad predictable, but still a really enjoyable, thought-provoking read. Lots to talk about in this one!
Quote-
“Never underestimate the power of love to lead you down the path toward willful blindness. Faith in the people you adore doesn’t disappear slowly, with each tiny disappointment; instead, it collapses all at once, like the final snowfall that triggers an avalanche when the weight suddenly becomes too much to bear. I was nearing the tipping point, but I hadn’t quite arrived yet.”
Well-written. Makes me think about the mid-90’s and how deep we’ve all fallen into the hole of the internet.
Paradise was a slow paced, yet, gripping read! I enjoyed this entire unique plot with bold characters. The big boom! The introduction of the internet had the world in a frenzy! Access and information at our fingertips was the best thing since sliced bread.
Jane and her father were techies who lived off the grid in the desolate woods of Montana and fully prepared to burn off at the first hint of a threat. The older Jane becomes, the more she learns that her existence has been a complete lie and her dad is more sinister than he seems.
I loved the remote atmosphere, the 90s era before cameras were everywhere capturing everything. This made all of the heinous crimes seem even more believable!
This gave me a more cold and calculating version of “These Silent Woods”. I was completely engrossed in the story, storytelling and narration performance. I really can’t explain the story in much more detail because I wouldn’t do it justice.
I recommend this if you’re looking for a read with heavy suspense and twists that will pull you in 100% and never let up.
Great bookclub question:
“But consider this: I was barely eighteen and just experiencing the real world for the first time. I was like a baby fawn, taking my first wobbly steps into the world. I still couldn’t see past my own feet. Decide for yourself whether that’s a valid excuse.”
This gripping story is based on the mathematics prodigy Ted Kaczynski. Its plot mirrors Kaczynski’s reclusive, primitive lifestyle in a small Montana cabin, his war on technology, and the domestic terrorism that arose from his misguided belief that eliminating the titans would stop the forward march of industry.
Though only a fledgling science at the time, Saul Williams was one of a handful with minds bright enough to imagine “future-forward stuff” like neural networks and AI algorithms. At the Peninsula Research Institute, they modeled doomsday scenarios, instances where computers controlled vital aspects of modern life—the power grid, economy, warfare—and it all went wrong. The scenarios were not far fetched, Saul knew, and his need to distance himself from this future world drove him to escape it with his daughter Jane. She spent her childhood in isolation, homeschooled on Marx and Nietzsche, trained to flee the feds, not sure exactly what they stood for.
Jane idolized her father, which made it difficult for her to seek personal freedom once she had a taste for what was out there. She convinces him to allow her to go along on one of his mysterious trips, hoping to slip away and seek a different future. She had no idea what she was getting into and will find herself on the run with no experience in the basics of life outside of the isolated Montana bubble.
Brown’s industry expertise comes to bear in creating a realistic world, the history of computing, and the cast of characters who played a leading role. Nail biting and moving at the same time, this is a book that resonates.
“That’s how the computers will end up in charge someday, because we’ve forgotten that we need to be afraid of them.”
Many thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Random House and NetGalley for providing this e-galley. #WhatKindofParadise #NetGalley
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