Wanted to like this book but wasnt feeling it at all.

Very intriguing, but, unfortunately, not very well-written.

Think Galactic discussion notes: http://positronchicago.blogspot.com/2016/03/think-galactic-elysium.html ( )

Definitely interesting. Weird, in a good way. Kind of gimmicky, but in a good way. I would definitely recommend it to someone looking for something different in their scifi. Looking forward to reading more from Jennifer! ( )

The blurb says this is ambitious. It doesn't say whether it achieves those ambitions, and I'd say it doesn't, just circles around them, forgiven by conceit from actually saying anything but Adrian misses Antoine. The computer bits would have sucked in the 70s. ( )

Elysium is a standalone science fiction novel by Jennifer Marie Brissett. It’s a short, fast read and it held my interest from start to finish.

In the first chapter, we meet Adrianne and Antoine, a couple whose relationship seems to be ending. There are also some slightly weird things, things that only Adrianne sees. In the second chapter, we meet Adrian and Antoine. Everything is different, and yet it’s really not. I don’t think I can say anything else about the story without spoiling the fun for potential readers.

It’s actually clear from the beginning what’s going on, at least in a general sense, but how and why remains a mystery for a while. The story was kind of repetitive, yet it didn’t annoy me. I enjoyed catching the connections. Admittedly many of them would have been impossible to miss, but there were also some things I thought were more subtle and I enjoyed noticing those. At the end of the book, there’s a brief section that explains the inspiration for the story. I didn’t catch that at all on my own, so I enjoyed the explanation.

This wasn’t a perfect book, but it held my interest very well. It engaged my brain and I enjoyed reading it. Some aspects seemed a little unclear. Several times while writing this review, I started to write about something I thought didn’t make sense, but then an answer came to me immediately afterward. So I kind of feel like there were plot holes, but they keep moving or something. :) I’m writing this within an hour of finishing the book, so after I’ve had more time to let it settle I may either come up with some real holes or else the story will solidify into something more substantial in my mind.

I have a couple more comments that need to go in the spoiler tags:
One of the less obvious connections I enjoyed was how the number 177 was referenced a few times in the book. 177 is the decimal equivalent of the binary number 10110001.

The first chapter seemed a bit discordant with the rest. Obviously Antoine/Antoinette leaving Adrian/Adrianne in some manner was one of the consistent themes in all the stories, but I think in most (all?) of the other stories, it wasn’t a willing choice. He/she was sick, or gets killed, or disappears, or something. In the first chapter, it appears he's about to make a choice to leave Adrianne. ( )