Hum

May undergoes radical facial surgery to evade the facial recognition software used by the ubiquitous robots known as hums. She uses the settlement money from the procedure to take her family on a vacation to the Wooster Botanical Garden, one of the last remaining slivers of natural greenery in a city choked by air pollution and invasive surveillance. When her children vanish during the trip, she must navigate a landscape of artificial intelligence and ecological collapse to find them. The story centers on her specific struggle to maintain maternal connection while her domestic life is mediated by digital devices and autonomous machines.

Readers who follow speculative fiction regarding technology and parenting will find a detailed portrait of life under total digital observation. The book provides a look at how artificial intelligence reshapes privacy, employment, and human intimacy. People interested in ecological disasters read this to see a projection of how economic inequality dictates access to clean air and nature. The reader walks away with a specific perspective on the tension between the convenience of automated assistance and the loss of individual autonomy in a data-driven world.