I really enjoyed the premise of this book. Boxes show up to every human being containing a string, and while it’s not necessarily a novel concept (a story device letting humans know when they will die), it is used in such a large worldwide scale that it zooms out of the individualistic approach to the societal reaction to such a phenomenon, and that’s where the book shines most. I found the public backlash against short stringers to be not only plausible, but unsettlingly familiar to our real world degrading political climate.

Where the book falls short, though, is it tries to toe this fine line between is knowing good or bad for most of the story, and gets distracted by focusing more on teasing us than telling a deep and insightful story. It also hinges heavily on dramatic irony to the point where wanting to see how a ironic situation would play out down the line was the only thing keeping me invested.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad book. It’s a novel scale of a common sci fi concept (knowing when you will die) and it tries to explore the complex dynamics of the effects such a string situation could have. It succeeds on the large scale, but it falls short when it comes to the individual stories. The characters and their logic and emotions feel tired; retread from all too common tropes.