Publishers Weekly
04/08/2024
In Stephens’s dramatic dystopian debut, set in 2060, fiancées Noa and Maggie each try to find their place in another woman’s powerful wellness empire. WellCorp, the company run by tech and wellness guru Emmett Neal, provides at-home sanctuary “nests.” Now, Emmett has extended her reach with WellPods, which float in the Pacific Ocean and provide their solo passengers with two months to “regroup in unencumbered isolation and then be, effectively, reborn.” Maggie, a 25-year-old artist, was among the first to sign up for a WellPod voyage, hoping to find a way forward with Noa, a 38-year-old coder for WellCorp. The two were inseparable at first, but after Noa received a dream job at the company, they began to drift apart. Far away in the ocean, Maggie now enjoys her regimented days of AI therapy and machine-made meals, while back at WellCorp, Noa begins to doubt the integrity of the pods thanks to a damning magazine exposé, an approaching storm, and a culture of corporate secrecy. She fights to reunite with Maggie despite the pain each caused the other before Maggie’s departure. Though the ending feels contrived, Stephens deserves praise for seamlessly interweaving a chilling tech dystopia, a corporate thriller, and a rocky romance. It’s a heart-pumping ride. Agent: Claire Friedman, InkWell Management. (June)
From the Publisher
[D]ramatic dystopian debut...seamlessly interweaving a chilling tech dystopia, a corporate thriller, and a rocky romance. It’s a heart-pumping ride.” —Publishers Weekly
“Stephens' debut novel is dystopia at its best... You’re Safe Here is a brilliant book which explores several themes at once, never losing a beat while doing so.” —Booklist
“Leslie Stephens delivers a debut with a punch: a near-future, Silicon Valley psychological thriller that takes the wellness industry to its dystopian extreme. You’re Safe Here forces us to reexamine the costs of love, safety, and reality in a world where climate chaos has battered the land and biotechnology has pervaded every crevice of human life. And get ready for a ride, because even in a future where Big Tech has made secrets a luxury of the obscenely rich, Leslie Stephens serves up twists on twists on twists, building to an ending that no amount of AI-powered computing could ever hope to predict.” —Nick Fuller Googins, author of THE GREAT TRANSITION
"Leslie Stephens’s near-future debut is a thrilling ride that explores what happens when we trust the tech industry with our wellbeing. Toggling between the experiences of the tech’s creators and users, You’re Safe Here is both an intimate character study during ecological crisis and a complex and deliciously readable jigsaw puzzle, fast-paced and full of surprises." —Katie M. Flynn, author of ISLAND RULE and THE COMPANIONS
"Breathtaking, unique, and urgently prescient. This queer literary sci-fi thriller asks vital questions about what it means to be human in the face of unprecedented technological advancement. Stephens' attention to detail is second to none, rendering a thoroughly believable near-future world floating on a sea of red flags." —Georgia Clark, author of ISLAND TIME
"This wildly imaginative speculative thriller kept me guessing from the first page to the last. Full of spooky technology and even spookier mommy issues, it's a sapphic rollercoaster that takes you to places you'll never expect." —Gabrielle Korn, author of YOURS FOR THE TAKING
"Leslie Stephens' debut is a gripping and unsettling novel that deftly combines elements of thriller, satire, and relationship drama. The near future of You're Safe Here is a fully realized place, one that feels close enough to touch—and far enough to fear. A pitch-perfect exploration of the creeping terror of a fully optimized life." —Jessie Gaynor, author of THE GLOW
"Part psychological thriller and part wry social commentary, You’re Safe Here is a fresh and timely debut that deftly explores the potential—and betrayals—of a world bursting with unbound technological innovation. The complicated, yearning women in the novel navigate a treacherous landscape, all while coming to terms with their own ambitions and desires, ultimately forcing readers to ask themselves: What does safety mean to me? How far would I go to achieve it? With deliciously paced storytelling sprinkled with secrets galore, Leslie Stephens’s debut promises to guide you through uncertain waters with grace and authority." —Thao Thai, author of BANYAN MOON, a #ReadwithJenna pick
Kirkus Reviews
2024-03-23
In the near future, the world is run by WellCorp but all is far from well.
Stephens’ debut begins in “Zone 874, Pacific Ocean, 29 Days Post-Launch,” where we find one of our two heroines, Maggie, alone and afloat in a vessel called a WellPod, which is about to serve her a so-called latte made of mushrooms and root vegetables. "When Maggie could see the brown sludge that coated the bottom of the mug, she placed it back on the coaster, triggering its descent into the table at the same time her gratitude journal slid out from a lower compartment.” A passion for worldbuilding continues to drive this story of Lenses, Devices, Injectibles, Pohvees, WellNests, EarDrums, and much, much more as we go landside and meet Maggie’s live-in partner, Noa, who works at WellCorp’s Malibu campus, where she and Maggie have been assigned a high-tech apartment. With wildfires, earthquakes, and drought having wiped out most of the rest of California, volunteering for a Pod voyage was Maggie’s only option for getting out of town—and she really needs a break to figure out what to do about her unexpected pregnancy. Oops. In chapters dated by number of days pre- and post-launch, a complicated story unfolds. One has to do with corporate malfeasance and whistleblowing at WellCorp—were the Pods really ready to launch, and is there a major storm underway? Others involve infidelities and betrayals both past and present. It’s hard to keep up with which scary threat you’re supposed to be worrying about and which characters you’re rooting for—and the constant explanations and exposition dry up the juice. The novel is happiest when preparing and serving futuristic meals. “The hatch of her NutriStation opened and Maggie reached inside for her plate. The diagram projected through her Lens mapped out the baked coconut bacon, sun-yellow cherry tomatoes cooked in lab-grown avocado oil and coated in ancient grains aside tempeh topped with a dollop of collagen- and protein-fortified macadamia nut labneh.” Sounds better than the latte, anyway.
For connoisseurs of speculative fiction who enjoy detailed worldbuilding.
