I’ve seen this described as an Inception AU with the serial numbers filed off, which was honestly why I gave it a chance, but unless there’s some identifiable fanon I’m missing, it’s really just trope-adjacent: Sunil, an eerily talented fuckup, is protected by a supercompetent American soldier who is, on the inside, at least as much of a hot mess. Here, Sunil’s talent is the preternatural ability to tell whether someone is telling the truth—actually, it’s worse than that, which he only partially hides: he can assess the truth value of any statement, regardless of whether anyone in the room knows the answer. But he’s, uniquely, never been able to tell if Adam is lying. The military only knows about the lie detector part, which is how he acquired a bunch of his trauma: he was sent to Afghanistan and watched a whole bunch of people get tortured; the interrogators didn’t want to hear that their victims didn’t know anything. Anyway, this is all backstory to the main plot, which is that an American government contractor’s experiment with a psychoactive substance goes very wrong, leading victims to manifest objects that then make them catatonic with a kind of horrific nostalgia. Sunil might be the only one who can figure it out, but will he and Adam ever admit their feelings for each other? (This is why it feels so fannish: lots of mutual pining and wordlessness, and we mostly have to take on faith that they are MFEO. To be absolutely clear, I am fine with this!) ( )

Ultimately despite all the bells and whistles this is a homosexual love story.. On the surface the novel is about a substance called prophet that when it enters a person forces them to be nostalgic to the point of bringing back items from their past (in particular old toys). The two main characters Adam and Rao are working with this substance and Rao has the ability to drain people of prophet and it seems to have no effect on him. As stated, a sexual tension grows between Adam and Rao. ( )

And my reading for 2024 was going so well! Great concept - a sinister chemical that induces 'nostalgia' and causes people to create physical replicas of beloved possessions - but the writing is only good for inducing narcolepsy. And the main characters are themselves stock fan fiction fodder - fill in the blanks, any 'odd couple' works - I tried swapping Rao and Rubenstein out for Kirk and Spock, but I was still deathly bored by the interminable deep and meaningfuls and started skipping whole 'empty' chapters. Also, Rao's habit of calling Adam 'love', which is either a posh term of endearment or a colloquial pet name for women and children, was deeply irritating.

I can well sympathise with all the DNFs and only wish I hadn't wasted so much of my own time ploughing through to the end. ( )

Ugh. Where to begin? The main idea that what makes you nostalgic can be your downfall, seemed quite unique and interesting. Now, the execution of said idea -aka the whole book!- is an utter disaster.
The plot constantly rambles around the attraction between the two main characters, Adam and Rao, and it tends to get quite boring. None of them are likeable, as it gets too repetitive.
As we get near the end, it is disgracefully stretched and overly complicated, to the point that makes me wonder if the writers were paid by the page or what.
This book is a hard pass for me. What a waste of time!
Maybe it is my fault for not having checked, the authors’ bio (both of them!) and realising that they both refer to themselves as “they.” Yeah. Cancel me if you must, but I do not participate in other peoples delusions. I tend to stay away, as I should’ve done with this book. ( )

decent ( )