Siri, Who Am I?

Mia might look like a Millennial but she was born yesterday. Emerging from a coma with short-term amnesia after an accident, Mia can't remember her own name until the Siri assistant on her iPhone provides it. Based on her cool hairstyle (undercut with glamorous waves), dress (Prada), and signature lipstick (Chanel), she senses she's wealthy, but the only way to know for sure is to retrace her steps once she leaves the hospital. Using Instagram and Uber, she arrives at the pink duplex she calls home in posts but finds Max, a cute, off-duty postdoc supplementing his income with a house-sitting gig. He tells her the house belongs to JP, a billionaire with a chocolate empire. A few texts later, JP confirms her wildest dreams: they're in love, Mia is living the good life, and he'll be back that weekend.

But as Mia and Max work backward through her Instagram and across Los Angeles to learn more about her, they discover a surprising truth behind her perfect Instagram feed, and evidence that her head wound was no accident. Who was Mia before she woke up in that hospital? And is it too late for her to rewrite her story?

After reading the synopsis for Siri, Who Am I? I was so intrigued and excited to check it out.

I thought this started out well! I was interested in the mysteries of who Mia was and how she wound up in the hospital, and I really liked the character’s voice and use of footnotes. I also thought she was funny and was eager to read more of this quirky book.

But soon the things I liked in the early chapters stopped being fun and wound up annoying me. And while there were parts of the story I did enjoy (Mia’s journey to figure out who she is; Max and his neuroscience; her friendship with View Spoiler » Crystal « Hide Spoiler), the parts that I didn’t like (Kobra; JP; the pacing; View Spoiler »the way Mia seemed simultaneously interested in finding out who she was but then not doing anything that would move that actually help her out and she kept making bad decisions « Hide Spoiler) overshadowed everything else.

I feel very mixed about this one because I did like it quite a bit at first, but the more I read, the more grating I found Mia’s voice and the more annoying I thought the characters were. I also thought that part of what drew me into the story – what happened that led to Mia being hospitalized and View Spoiler » who did it to her « Hide Spoiler – got bumped into the background as the story went on.

But I’ve mentioned before that I don’t always think books are as funny as they are supposed to be (I don’t think humour always translates well for me from the written page), so I just might not be the right audience for this book.