"Hum: A Novel" | Reviewed by Chris Stuckenschneider

A mother makes a supreme sacrifice that changes her life in “Hum” by Helen Phillips, a dystopian novel that grabs you by the throat and won’t let go.

May, the mother of two, undergoes a procedure to alter her face, a hum injecting needles at various points along her nose, cheeks and eyes. All the while, the AI speaks gently and calmly to May, assuring her and managing her discomfort with pain medication.

May’s goal in having this procedure is to supplement the family’s income, having recently lost her technology job, the money offered is hard to pass up. Her husband Jem is a photographer and works sporadically. He constantly reminds May they must stop living beyond their means, but May falls victim to ads that pop up on her phone and are piped into her woom, an egg-shaped pod on a stand, “a capsule of solitude” providing “automatic meditation…to soothe…and reset yourself.”

Jem also has a woom, as do the couple’s children Lu, age 8, and Sy, who’s 6. For entertainment and safety Lu and Sy also have bunnies, which are attached to their wrists by Velcro. The bunnies track the children and provide continuous entertainment, scenes of nature projected onto the walls of the units, to May’s consternation.

May longs for the past when forests were leafy green and not burning in the distance, spoiling the air with a hazy smoke. Society’s reliance on devices is a thorn in May’s side. She finds her husband’s attraction to his phone bothersome and wishes she were that “magnetic,” yet May, too, succumbs as she tries to fill the void that dogs her.

Shortly after her procedure, May makes an impetuous decision to use a large portion of the money she’s made to treat her husband and children to a 3-night, 4-day stay at The Botanical Garden, an oasis with woods, rock formations and a waterfall, a natural setting, one their children have never experienced.

Anticipation of the adventure temporarily numbs the choice May’s made to “sell her face,” the change in her appearance, though subtle, garnering unwelcome reactions from her family. As a result of her procedure, May is no longer able to be identified electronically, which proves to be problematic—then leads to a tragic fallout.

Though readers sense an ominous hitch is in the offing for May and her family, the conclusion isn’t easy to foresee, yet it makes complete sense. “Hum” might be set in the future, but this cautionary tale rings alarmingly true. The novel’s theme is timely, reminiscent of today’s social media pressure to rate and “like” places and people, as we do our best to avoid unwanted ads that pop up on the Internet, and feel annoyed at having our whereabouts tracked with cunning accuracy.

“Hum” is completely immersive from first graph to last and is a marvelous book for discussion. At 263 pages it can easily be finished in a day.

Buy the Book.