Book Review of Girlfriend on Mars by Deborah Willis

 

Name of Book: Girlfriend on Mars

Author: Deborah Willis 

ISBN: 978-0-393-28591-8

Publisher: W.W. Norton 

Type of book: Canada, realistic science fiction, plants, marijuana, liberal values, religion, fight or flight or give up response, climate crisis, 2010s?, Mars, reality TV, cannabis, long term relationship rut, unhealed trauma, religion 

Year it was published: 2023 

Summary:

Amber Kivinen is moving to Mars. Or at least, she will be if she wins a chance to join MarsNow. She and twenty-three reality TV contestants from around the world—including a hunky Israeli soldier, an endearing fellow Canadian, and an assortment of science nerds and wannabe influencers—are competing for two seats on the first human-led mission to Mars, sponsored by billionaire Geoff Task. Meanwhile Kevin, Amber’s boyfriend of fourteen years, was content going nowhere until Amber left him—and their hydroponic weed business—behind. As he tends to the plants growing in their absurdly overpriced Vancouver basement apartment, Kevin tunes in to find out why the love of his life is so determined to leave the planet with somebody else.

An audaciously original debut from an “immensely talented writer” (Emily St. John Mandel), Girlfriend on Mars is at once a satirical indictment of our pursuit of fame and wealth amidst environmental crisis, and an exploration of humanity’s deepest longing, greatest quest, and most enduring cliché: love.

Characters:

Main characters are Amber and Kevin. Amber comes from a religious family where she has extremely complex and damaging relationship with her parents as well as faith. She is athletic, a go-getter, and doesn't like to sit still and do nothing. She is also extremely intelligent and isn't afraid to express her views and to try to make a world a better place. Wanting to break the rut her relationship hit, she decides to audition to become one of the two people who will fly off to Mars. Kevin is Amber's complete polar opposite: he is extremely loyal, snarky, tends to judge a lot, a navel-gazer, and seems to suffer from untreated depression and childhood trauma. The secondary characters would be Adam who is the male version of Amber as well as Bronwyn who is a better fit for Kevin and few others such as Pichu, Marcus, the millionaire Geoff Trask, Slick Nick, etc. 

Theme:

What will one make of the given environment?

Plot:

The story is written in first person narrative in Kevin's point of view, and third person narrative in Amber's point of view, and it begins before the show starts, introducing the readers to Kevin and Amber, an unlikely couple who have been together since they were seventeen years of age. Their relationship is definitely going through a slog and Amber, tired of navel gazing, decides to break monotony by making a difference and auditioning by traveling to Mars, While Amber's chapters are expansive and populated by numerous characters as well as places, Kevin's chapters are very limited to his apartment, the marijuana plants he sees as his children and only a few characters populate these chapters. There is also a strange sense of connection towards the end between the two points of view. 

Author Information:
(From goodreads)

Deborah Willis is a writer based in Calgary, Alberta. Her first book, Vanishing and Other Stories, was shortlisted for Canada's Governor General’s Award for fiction, named one of The Globe and Mail’s top 100 books of the year, and recommended by NPR as one of the best books of 2010. Her second book, The Dark and Other Love Stories, was longlisted for the 2017 Giller Prize, won the Georges Bugnet Award for best work of fiction published in Alberta, and was named one of the best books of the year by The Globe and Mail, the CBC public broadcaster, and Chatelaine Magazine. Her fiction and non-fiction has appeared in The Walrus, The Virginia Quarterly, The Iowa Review, Lucky Peach, and Zoetrope.

Opinion:

Wow, there is certainly a lot  to unpack when it comes to this novel because not only does it focus on the whole reality tv situation, but it also focuses on the two extreme responses in face of eventual crisis as well as a social commentary on consumerism, values, relationships, climate crisis, and the big one: religion and faith. First of all its not a novel that preaches christianity, but it does explore the faith a human has towards themselves and to each other. What I definitely found fascinating the symbolism in names that the author uses, and the link I might have picked up between Amber and her boyfriend Kevin (Amber's last name sounds a lot like Kevin's name...) While a good and fast paced story, I do feel that more focus on one or two points  would have strongly benefitted it. Also, one of the secondary characters didn't get a proper ending in my opinion. 

This was given for review

4 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)