Bonding | Mariel Franklin

Mariel Franklin’s debut novel Bonding, is a harsh and sometimes funny satire of the tech world and those who work in it. The book's protaganist is Mary, a thirtysomething woman living in London, who loses her job at a lifestyle app and is hired shortly after by her college girlfriend, Lara. Lara is the founder of the new dating app, Openr. The new kid on the already saturated dating app market, which has been positioned as a market disruptor and promotes a very open and progressive attitude to modern sexuality. 

Meanwhile, Mary meets Tom, a marketing executive for a new pharmaceutical medication called Eudaxa, which is being heralded as the pill to end unhappiness. The novel's plot follows the planning and eventual launch of Eudaxa into the world, alongside the intimacy and connection that has grown between Tom and Mary. The novel has a fast pace and moves quickly between the main themes: data, big pharma, connectivity, ageing, societal change; what people want, love and how the internet has altered everything, forever.

The book is full of generalities with regards to modernity, and it's focus on the hyper-contemporary world of tech, apps, data collection and marketing makes the reader feel a little alienated at times. All of the characters are simultaneously enfolded within, and critical of, the digital system that they work in and centre their lives around. The dramatic ending of the novel outlines the author's vision of how online movements can manifest in violence, something we see in the real world on a daily basis.

I found this book confusing. I was waiting for the story to take off and go somewhere more insteresing, but it remained on a quites shallow, dull level. I felt like Franklin didn't use the obvious potential the themes of the book presented, to go deeper and make more of an impact. A slightly disappointing but very well written first novel.