What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown ~ a Review

by MK French

In the mid-1990s, Jane and her father lived in an isolated cabin in Montana, homesteading. Her father offers few clues about their pasts, saying that her mother's death in a car crash in the Bay Area led to their move. When Jane realizes she might be an accomplice to her father's crimes, she flees for San Francisco to look for answers. The city itself is in the middle of many changes, including the burgeoning Internet, leading Jane to question everything she values.

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June 2025; Random House; 978-0593449783
audio, ebook, print (368 pages); psychological thriller

Jane and her father were incredibly isolated, even by Montana standards, living off the grid and rarely going into the neighboring town. Her father raised her on philosophy, calculus, and paranoid isolationist theory, saying he was brilliant and prescient. He was essentially her entire world, until the flashes of the outside world in the form of TV and the nascent internet let her see how others lived and thought. Her father was essentially an anti-futurist, Luddite, and simply writing a zine or manifesto wasn't enough. He had to resort to bombs to get attention for his ideas and to try stemming the tide of computing and AI; we know full well how futile that can be.

Jane essentially grows up over the course of the novel. She initially defends and believes her father's opinion because it's all she knows. When questioned about that way of life by outsiders (her first friend, a chat room stranger), she grows to realize just how odd it is. The realization escalated until she made her separation, a bid for independence that luckily turned out well for her. She finds friends, gets a job and a place to stay, and makes it through without being assaulted. The outside world isn't the terrible place her father painted, but it's not a utopia either. She sees the shape of her father's plan eventually, then is torn between the duty to report him and the duty to protect him. Her life and decisions are ultimately her own, and we are with her as she comes to realize this. Neither life is a paradise, no matter what's promised. 

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Born and raised in New York City, M.K. French started writing stories when very young, dreaming of different worlds and places to visit. She always had an interest in folklore, fairy tales, and the macabre, which has definitely influenced her work. She currently lives in the Midwest with her husband, three young children, and a golden retriever. 

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