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Plastic

By: Scott Guild
Narrated by: Jorjeana Marie, Will Damron
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Publisher's summary

For fans of Interior Chinatown and American War, a surreal, hilarious, and sneakily profound debut novel that casts our current climate of gun violence and environmental destruction in a surprising new mold.

"A stunningly brilliant novel. One of those books that will follow you around, into your dreams and your daily life. You have never read anything like it."Elizabeth McCracken, author of The Hero of This Book

Erin is a plastic girl living in a plastic world. Every day she eats a breakfast of boiled chicken, then conveys her articulated body to Tablet Town, where she sells other figurines Smartbodies: wearable tech that allows full physical immersion in a virtual world, a refuge from real life’s brutal wars, oppressive governmental monitoring, and omnipresent eco-terrorist insurgency. If you cut her, she will not bleed—but she and her fellow figurines can still be cracked or blown apart by gunfire or bombs, or crumble away from nuclear fallout. Erin, who's lost her father, sister, and the love of her life, certainly knows plenty about death.

An attack at her place of work brings Erin another too-intimate experience, but it also brings her Jacob: a blind figurine whom she comforts in the aftermath, and with whom she feels an almost instant connection. For the first time in years, Erin begins to experience hope—hope that until now she's only gleaned from watching her favorite TV show, the surrealist retro sitcom “Nuclear Family.” Exploring the wild wonders of the virtual reality landscape together, it seems that possibly, slowly, Erin and Jacob may have a chance at healing from their trauma. But then secrets from Erin's family's past begin to invade her carefully constructed reality, and cracks in the facade she's constructed around her life threaten to reveal everything vulnerable beneath.

Both a crypto-comedic dystopian fantasy and a deadly serious dissection of our own farcical pre-apocalypse, Scott Guild’s debut novel is an achingly beautiful, disarmingly welcoming, and fabulously inventive look at the hollow core of modern American society—and a guide to how we might reanimate all its broken plastic pieces.

©2024 Scott Guild (P)2024 Random House Audio
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Critic reviews

“A dark and entertaining saga about a postapocalyptic world populated by plastic figurines, dominated by inescapable advertising, in thrall to virtual reality and fearful of increasing acts of eco-terrorism as well as government clampdowns. . . . Plastic is that rarest of publishing experiences.” —Stuart Miller, Los Angeles Times

“In Plastic, the collision of figurines and the apocalypse is timely, coming as it does on the heels of Barbenheimer. It’s a weird, sometimes puzzling and complicated book, to be sure, but an affecting one with way more depth and humanity than its title would let on.” —Maren Longbella, Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Plastic is one of the most strangely tender and tenderly strange books I've ever read. Scott Guild's language is transportive, and his attention to the characters peopling his unique world is deeply moving. This book is the real deal: fresh, utterly its own, full of both humor and pathos, and so utterly human (plastic skin aside)." —Ilana Masad, author of All My Mother’s Lovers

What listeners say about Plastic

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This book really made me think

I enjoyed the world building from the author. It was really creative and clever. I wanted to keep reading, just to find out how it all came together. I was not disappointed.

I also enjoyed the readers. Especially the female reader. She had a depth and warmth that was very likable.

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A book that really sticks with you

This book is fascinating, the story and characters draw you in, the world feels very near to our own. It’s incredibly dystopian and sad with moments of joy along the way.

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Unique

Everything in this book is unexpected. So far off and close to the real world. The background music was also nice.

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Revolutionary

Reading plastic, for me was much the same as the first time I read 1984. Only with plastic I didn’t realize how important of a book it would turn out to be. A truly masterful work of experimental fiction. I only hope they don’t ruin it with a bland tv show.

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