Preview

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Hum

By: Helen Phillips
Narrated by: Ariel Blake
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $14.99

Buy for $14.99

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

Named Most Anticipated by Goodreads, LitHub, and Book Riot, this “tense dystopian thriller” (TIME) captures an urgent and unflinching portrayal of a woman’s fight for her family’s security in a world shaped by global warming and rapid technological progress.

In a city addled by climate change and populated by intelligent robots called “hums,” May loses her job to artificial intelligence. In a desperate bid to resolve her family’s debt and secure their future for another few months, she becomes a guinea pig in an experiment that alters her face so it cannot be recognized by surveillance.

Seeking some reprieve from her recent hardships and from her family’s addiction to their devices, she splurges on passes that allow them three nights’ respite inside the Botanical Garden: a rare green refuge where forests, streams, and animals flourish. But her insistence that her son, daughter, and husband leave their devices at home proves far more fraught than she anticipated, and the lush beauty of the Botanical Garden is not the balm she hoped it would be. When her children come under threat, May is forced to put her trust in a hum of uncertain motives as she works to restore the life of her family.

Written in taut, urgent prose, Hum is a work of speculative fiction that unflinchingly explores marriage, motherhood, and selfhood in a world compromised by global warming and dizzying technological advancement, a world of both dystopian and utopian possibilities. As New York Times bestselling author Jeff VanderMeer says, “Helen Phillips, in typical bravura fashion, has found a way to make visible uncomfortable truths about our present by interrogating the near-future.”

©2024 Helen Phillips (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Interview: "Hum" asks what we can lose and what we can gain in an AI world

'...and it's going to be interesting and fraught to see how we come out on the other side of this, if there is even another side.'
-0.00
  • Hum
  • '...and it's going to be interesting and fraught to see how we come out on the other side of this, if there is even another side.'

What listeners say about Hum

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    6
  • 4 Stars
    6
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    5
  • 1 Stars
    4
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    12
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 3 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    5
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    6

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Hopelessly Sad

The book had its thought-provoking moments, but there were no truly bright experiences, no levity. The relationship between the main character and her spouse made so sense and displayed neither consistency nor development. I think I was expected to like the kids. I didn’t. Overall, I felt quiet desperation—somewhat on behalf of the characters and somewhat for the story to end.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Bleh

I kept wanting this to build into something great. It never did. It fell so short that at the end it was so unsatisfying and then felt like such a waste

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Disappointing

I was so looking forward to this book. I pre-ordered it and avidly awaited its arrival in my library.
As it turned out, the book was thoroughly disappointing. It was more a prolix short story than a novel.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Why Literary "Speculative Fiction" Doesn't Work

I've come to some conclusions about those who write "literary speculative fiction."
1. Perish the thought that they write "science fiction."
2. If everybody under the sun can't wait for the book to come out, avoid it.
3. There must be annoying children in the novel, which, if you don't have any, convince you never to have any of your own.
4. It's an excuse to not follow the standards of most genres: world building, character development, having a plot...
5. It's a reason to be vague and ambiguous (though the only thing I liked about this book was the last hour and the totally ambiguous ending--sometimes it works, but I suspect it will frustrate most people.
6. It's about the idea, which may or may not be clear, not the execution. This book had too many ideas, some more successfully executed than others.
7. Most writers can't pull it off. This is a good example.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

The worse of the worse

I don’t know what anyone was thinking when recording this novel, it is a work of junk fiction. It is worthwhile of trash.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful