Bonding
a darkly addictive novel about love in the digital age, for fans of Cleopatra and Frankenstein
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3.3 • 3 Ratings
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
'I absolutely loved it' - Zadie Smith, author of White Teeth
'Fast, harsh, smart and fun' - Guardian
Electrifying and darkly funny, Mariel Franklin's debut Bonding is a uniquely modern story of sex, tech and freedom in the messy tangle of our digital age.
Mary is single, jobless, and on her way to Ibiza.
There, at a party, she meets Tom, a brilliant chemist on the verge of launching a new drug that claims to cure the anxieties of modern life.
Back in London after a heady trip, Mary begins going out with Tom and working for her sort-of-ex Lara, who has created innovative dating app designed to revolutionize the industry. As tech and pharma collide, she is forced to question what love and success mean in a world that is hurtling out of control.
'Genuinely thrilling deep-dive into the dystopian future in which we now live' – Saba Sams, author of Gunk
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Franklin's wry debut skewers the shifting social mores of late-stage capitalism. Mary, 32, is in a rut—recently fired from her dead-end London marketing job, she watches old episodes of Agatha Christie's Poirot in place of a social life. Seeking excitement, she flies to Ibiza, where she meets alluring but aloof 36-year-old pharmaceutical marketer Tom. Their early interactions are stilted, and Tom, a fellow Brit, dispenses withering comments about her passive demeanor (" ‘You're one of those people who never shares anything, aren't you?' he said. ‘You're a pervert. You like lurking' "). But as they continue partying together, their connection grows. Meanwhile, Mary hears from enigmatic Lara, 33, once her lover and friend, who ghosted her three years earlier. Lara, an artist turned entrepreneur, practically begs Mary to take a job at Openr, her new dating app for "open-minded singles and couples." Back in the U.K., Mary ignores her instincts in favor of a paycheck and takes the role. Her days intensify as she balances developing edgy content for Openr and supporting Tom's work on the pharmaceutical industry's first prescription psychedelic. Franklin grounds the novel with textured characterizations, particularly in the contrast between Lara and Tom and in Mary's conflicting feelings toward them. This smart novel has plenty of bite.
