It's a truly beautiful story of friendship, trust and love and it's most definitely highly recommended. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. We can spot correlations between certain genes and illnesses, and growing up in challenging circumstances and particular outcomes. Like so many of the best things, this is a novel that it is both deeply complex and beguilingly simple.

I loved the world Grothaus creates here, the machine populated near future of Tokyo and the small cafe our protagonist John finds. But with this, he’d also realise things about himself, and humanity as a whole, that he needed to hear. This is another thing, maybe the main thing, I loved: the first part of the novel is just John and Neotnia getting to know one another.While I'm not usually that into robots and AI, I really enjoyed how it was incorporated into the story here. In truth, this is a classic love story that throws together two unlikely people who find themselves made whole through relationship with each other, but it is also a lot more than that and it is that more which is I want to discuss but can’t. However, I do wish the author had used the term "vulva" rather than "vagina" as, from the sounds of it, the whole area is a smooth Barbie mound for Neotnia, and I'd argue that having no vulva is more of an issue than having no vagina, as penetration really isn't the be-all and end-all. Beautiful Shining People is a thought-provoking read, one that keeps you hooked as you delve deeper into its central mystery.

Apologies for the delay, but today I’m finally sharing my review for the mesmerising and unforgettable Beautiful Shining People. The story is underpinned by mystery and suspense, but it is so wonderfully textured and nuanced that it is also so much more. Time enough to get his ears waxed (yes, really), meet a girl, arouse the suspicions of a Sumo wrestler, get drunk, fall in love, discover his girlfriend’s not exactly what she seems and head off into the hills for answers. This is my first book by Michael but I will be going to read the rest of his work as I was blown away by the standard of writing, the brilliant characterisation and his ability to create a world that was instantly formed in my mind!

In terms of further reading, if you aren't ready to leave Japan, 1Q84: The Complete Trilogy by Haruki Murakami is a tour de force. His debut novel, EPIPHANY JONES, a story about sex trafficking among the Hollywood elite, was longlisted for the CWA New Blood Dagger Award and named one of the 25 “Most Irresistible Hollywood Novels” by Entertainment Weekly. I loved the insecurities we saw within the many characters in this book, from our main three characters, to Joe the older gentleman at the care facility, to "Father" and "Mother". This book explores these themes, about how the actions of one person can change the course of history.

Following the trail back to her "father", Neotnia learns that she was originally designed to address the shortage of young workers available to care for an ageing population, as well as the lack of intuition, flexibility, and compassion in existing bots that makes them unable to effectively assist frail, lonely elderly people. He’s selling it to Sony as there’s something wrong with his body and he would like to use some of the money to fix it. The atmosphere of bustling Tokyo was palpable and coupled with Grothaus' writing style a delight to read.Told from the perspective of John, a seventeen-year-old American who has been labelled technology's newest prodigy, the story begins with him landing in Japan in preparation for a business meeting with Sony. She finds out that she wasn't given these because, as an android originally designed purely to care for people, it was not envisaged that she would need them. Nor is it always the case that someone with a high number of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) will turn to crime and/or develop a severe mental illness - there are so many other factors, such as individual character, or having the right teacher/counsellor/friend/opportunity at the right time, that can alter their path. We see the world through the eyes of seventeen-year-old John, who is an American tech genius flown to Japan to sign a deal that will change his life.