The Companions by Katie M. Flynn

In a near future world where concerns about an outbreak keep many restricted to their homes, technology has evolved to allow for the downloading of a person's consciousness in the immediate moments after death. For those people, life continues beyond death as companions.

They're owned by the corporation that "made them" and leased to customers for various uses. Most remember who they are and some even remember their own deaths. This is the case with Lilac, a girl who died in high school and now seeks to find the people she once called friends.

The Companions had so much promise. The premise is a fun one and the introduction of Lilac in the very beginning of the story could have been a great set up for a near future sci fi mystery. Unfortunately, that's not what this book is.

Chapters alternate between a variety of narrators including Lilac, and unfortunately we don't get to really follow her story. At least not in a way that would reveal much about her as a whole.

We're also never given an explanation about the virus that plagues this near future world. And we never get a glimpse at the company that's created the companions either. In fact, the story moves from perspective to perspective so frequently that it soon becomes clear there's no real narrative to follow at all.

It's hard for me to actually pin down what the plot of this book is. A warning of what could come if this kind of technology is ever invented, certainly. An analysis of our culture and it's response to death?

In the end the book lacks too much in terms of plot for me to say that I got much out of it at all.

As much as I truly hate to write a negative review, The Companions was a real disappointment.