The Windup Girl

In a dystopic world where cities have been/are being swallowed by the ocean, genetic modifications/viruses and the sort have killed billions in many countries and destroyed ecosystems and large corporations that provide disease resistant strains of food and tech wield far too much power, this book focuses on happenings in Thailand.

The world building is great---lots of ideas that I hadn't run into before, so it was certainly fresh. It also gets points from me for not being based in the west. I think reading the short story (the calorie man) and the novelette (the yellow card man) that came before this one would perhaps have given me a clearer idea of the world---this one sort of assumes one is familiar with it.

It does start a little slow (again, maybe it took me longer to understand the scene because I hadn't read the earlier texts) but it picked up pace and held my attention quite quickly. Lots of things happen, different characters come together. Politics, hunger for power, rage, revenge, helplessness, but also kindness, friendship and loyalty. All in there.

Totally worth a read.

Content warning: the book includes graphic depictions of rape (that I'm not entirely certain were necessary in such detail)

The Windup Girl is set in Bangkok, Thailand, in the undefined future. The 'Expansion' is over, loss of fuels and plagues have caused empires to fall and countries to become isolated. Agricultural corporations rule the world, but some countries still exist, including the very proud Thai Kingdom.

Anderson Lake is a so-called calorie man from AgriGen, come to investigate why Thais are able to cultivate nightshades and other fruit again. His political machinations to get access to the Thai seedbanks ultimately cause political coups and counter-coups in Thailand. The story is told from different PoVs: Anderson, his Chinese employee Hock Seng, the Thai hero Jaidee and his second Kanya, and Emiko. The latter is the Windup Girl, a genetically engineered Japanese servant who got stranded in Bangkok and now works in a Bangkok sex club. She will play a surprising role in all of this.

I devoured the book within a day, loving the plot and the machinations, without ever loving the total package. All characters are very gray, no character is truly likable, and most of them get what they deserve. The book should come with a giant trigger warning, because the author does linger on descriptions of Emiko being abused in the club in every which way possible. It does explain her character development, but I found it too much to bear.

If it hadn't been for the detailed violations of poor Emiko, I probably would have rated this higher.

3 stars.