Flowers of Darkness

October 15, 2020
In near-future Paris, novelist Clarissa Katsef takes up residence in a new artists' commune located in a high-tech building that comes with its own artificial-intelligence virtual assistants (Clarissa calls hers Mrs. Dalloway, after the Virginia Woolf character, whose first name was also Clarissa). Soon, Clarissa, who is still emotionally shaky after leaving her husband, begins to feel as though she is being watched, suggesting that this artists' residence is not quite the idyllic setting its promoters had promised. De Rosnay's latest (following The Rain Watcher, 2018) is a fine novel, a thriller that sensitively explores paranoia, grief, and personal redemption. The writing is lush and visually evocative, and the story has a distinctly Ira Levin feel to it (there are thematic similarities to Levin's 1991 novel Sliver), although at no point does de Rosnay seem imitative of Levin. She's too good a writer for that, not when she has such a compelling voice of her own.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

December 21, 2020
Writer Clarissa Katsef, the protagonist of this intriguing if slow-moving near-future thriller from bestseller de Rosnay (The Rain Watcher), has spent 20 years with her second husband—until she discovers he’s been cheating on her. Luckily, she’s found the perfect refuge: a technologically advanced apartment complex in Paris that’s run by a mysterious organization called C.A.S.A. and is dedicated to giving artists an inexpensive, supposedly art-conducive environment, complete with an AI (which Clarissa names Mrs. Dalloway). Instead of feeling inspired, Clarissa begins to feel watched, tired, and creeped out by a neighbor’s suspicious disappearance. She’s also haunted by dreams of her first, stillborn child. And when a 19-year-old writer and fan reaches out and wants to meet for coffee, even this appears to be part of C.A.S.A.’s hidden agenda. However, when Clarissa and her beloved 14-year-old granddaughter begin to investigate her uneasy feelings about the technology and the neighbor’s disappearance, they can’t find much. Nearly plotless, this sensitive examination of relationships and the nature of privacy will appeal mainly to readers of literary fiction. Suspense fans may feel shortchanged.