ROSE/HOUSE by Arkady Martine

4 stars

This gripping sci-fi novela centers around an AI-controlled house created by a visionary architect Basit Deniau who is now dead and has locked away all his papers and much sought-after future designs in the house’s vault. Rose House sits in the desert and has been sealed off to the world, protected by the defenses of his uber-smart, sentient AI. Only one person can gain entry for a week a year based on Basit’s will: Dr. Selene Gisil, a former Basit mentee, who had denounced both him and his work as too dark.

One night, Rose House’s AI calls into the local police station to report a dead body in the house, based on mandatory AI reporting laws. But the AI refuses to open its door to the Detective Maritza Smith who’s investigating. Smith summons Selene back from Turkey where she’s been living to help open up the Rose House and to be questioned.

Selene enters Rose House and convinces the AI to allow Smith to come along – not as a person but as representing the police precinct as a thing (as no other persons can enter). Thus unfurls the dark mysteries of the house and it’s nanobots, told within a dream-like, labyrinth narrative that has you both questioning reality and haunted about how the dead body came to be in the house.

Thanks to Subterranean Press and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy.

Stacy DeBroff

Stacy DeBroff, founder and CEO of Mom Central.com and social and digital consultancy, Influence Central, is a social media strategist, attorney, and best-selling parenting author. A sought-after expert for national media, she trend-spots regularly with national brands and speaks frequently to national and international audiences on a wide range of subjects, including influencer marketing, social media, entrepreneurship, and consumer trends. A passionate cook, gardener, reader, and tennis player, she adores this new chapter of post-college-age parenting.