The Unseen World
He has schooled her, taken her to the lab with him, directed her activities and education I the way he sees fit. Her only friends the others at the lab including When David begins to lose his memory, his daughter Ada tries to tell herself it is just a byproduct of the stress he is under at the lab. Her only friends the others at the lab including a wonderful woman and fellow worker of her dads, Diana Liston.
It is the changes in Ada's life after his diagnosis and the secrets that then come to the forefront that are the bones of this wonderful novel. The combination of the personal, emotional and a life spent developing mental processes I found intriguing.
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This is a novel with a slowly unfolding reveal, and it was Ada and her story that kept me reading. Who was her father? Could the answers be found in the virtual world he was working on in secret? I found it all fascinating. Loved the characters, admired how Ada handled herself and just loved Diana Liston, who takes Ada in when her father can no longer care for her.
The last chapter was just so perfect and actually gave me chills. I loved her first novel Heft and this was another very enjoyable read. In tone and discovery it was reminiscent of Tell the Wolves I'm home. View all 20 comments. Ah, love, it is a many splendored thing. This is a literary and emotionally-powerful read, a cerebral page turner that straddles multiple genres, yet the narrative never becomes bogged down in its aspirations. It was a deeply affecting novel as an examination of family, identity and memory, but it was also captivating in its examination of technology and the advent of artificial intelligence.
Characters are precisely drawn and its elegant prose weaves all of the elements into a gripping tale. Ada Sibelius is quite possibly one of my favorite characters this year. I felt every moment she permeated the book, understood every emotion and observed every nuance just as she did. I am too far from the growing years to fully inhabit a coming of age story, yet this quiet, brainy child had me from the opening scene. I never lost this sense of connection with this special child.
And the last chapter simply gutted me, not due to any revelations as I would never spoil this for anyone, but due to its synchronicity which addresses the infinity of time and the powerful impact of its significance. I cannot recommend this enough, I thank my GR friend Taryn for writing such an effusive review which pushed me to read another science-y book I might not otherwise have tackled. And while there are more eloquent reviews about this book than mine, I still wanted to take a moment to gush about its beauty and encourage others to take a chance on this emotional, creative, heart wrenching and also warming story.
View all 46 comments. For Ada Sibelius, the center of her universe was her scientist father, David. He raised her on his own, homeschooling her, and every day he took her with him to his job, where he directed a computer science lab at the Boston Institute of Technology. David treated Ada like an adult, encouraging her to learn as much about the lab's work as she could, interact with his employees and graduate students, and develop her own theories about the work he was doing, trying to create a computer truly capabl For Ada Sibelius, the center of her universe was her scientist father, David.
David treated Ada like an adult, encouraging her to learn as much about the lab's work as she could, interact with his employees and graduate students, and develop her own theories about the work he was doing, trying to create a computer truly capable of social interaction with humans. But as much as she loves every minute spent with her father, both in the lab and on the trips they take each year, at times Ada wishes she were a "normal" year-old, with friends and perhaps even a boy to be interested in her.
As that longing grows, David's mind starts to fail, and it isn't long before Ada must move in with David's most trusted employee and her three sons, and go to a "real" school for the first time in her life. She doesn't know how to act or what to do, and most of all, she misses her father and her days in the lab.
As if the teenage years weren't awkward enough for Ada, it suddenly comes to light that David might not have been who he said he was.
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What do you do when everything you've been taught, everything you believe about your life and the way you were raised is called into question? What does that mean for who you are, and how do you figure out what is true and what isn't? Ada must try and make sense of all of this upheaval in her life, while still struggling with her father's declining health. Ada is determined to uncover the truth about her father's identity.
Spanning from the s to the distant future, as well as reaching back into the s and s, The Unseen World follows Ada well into adulthood, as she tries to understand the mysteries her father left behind, and how that affected their relationship and her ability to connect with others. The book also follows David's work, starting from a primitive system on an early computer into the sophisticated gadgetry of the future.
This is a beautifully written, poignant book, about a young woman whose life is utterly turned upside down when everything she had believed in is called into question. It's a book about identity—where and when it matters and does not—and about the sacrifices some people made in order to live "normal" lives. It's also a book about the unknown and the unsaid, and how both transform us when we least expect it. While at times the book gets into a little more detail around computer science and virtual reality than I would have liked, at its core, it's a moving, well-told story.
Ada is a special character and you really feel her heart while reading this book, and I found David pretty fascinating as well. The shifting of time periods was a little distracting to the flow of the story, but I still couldn't stop reading it, because I wanted to know where Liz Moore would take her characters.
And of course, sap that I am, there was more than one occasion where I found myself a little teary-eyed.
The Unseen World — Liz Moore
She didn't disappoint, creating another memorable, emotional, wonderful book worth reading. Thanks for making this available!
See all of my reviews at http: View all 14 comments. Fifty pages from the end I thought I had my review formulated. I was going to suggest Liz Moore had used the wrong voice to tell this story. I thought it should have been told in the first person and not the third to sharpen its focus and avoid awkward POV shifts. However the very clever epilogue shredded my argument and made me re-think my entire reading of the novel. In other words she produces a tremendously clever trick at the end of this novel.
All of a sudden I began to understand why this Fifty pages from the end I thought I had my review formulated. He and she share an unconventional relationship. Ada is brainy and helps out with the project. Eventually, dementia taking a more crippling hold of him, David, the father, gives Ada a floppy disc containing some code which will take Ada decades to decrypt and will contain the explanation as to why David has told his daughter nothing but a pack of lies. This novel rather rambles for the first pages or so.
My feeling is at least fifty pages could have been edited out to make it much tighter and more focused. However there does come a point when it becomes hugely enjoyable. My other reservation concerned the prose. It was bland and functional, as if written by a computer programme. Again the epilogue forced me to eat my words. View all 29 comments. Not only that, for a mystery book, the story was thoroughly predictable right from the beginning because the author dropped gigantic hints that made me successfully predicted how the majority of the story will unfold.
I was hoping to be proven wrong, but nope, I was right. Finally, the pacing was a mess especially in the first half of the book. The first sentence of the blurb stated: This, in my opinion, is extremely dumb. Sure it eventually became one of the main plots, but The Unseen World is more of a family drama story rather than mystery. Besides, why would you put the blurb as something that happened only after you reached the halfway mark?
The Unseen World
This is why I try to not read any blurb but for this one, it was only a glimpse, how did it end up like this? It was only a glimpse, it was only a glimpse. I know my review for this book sounds really negative, other than the reasons I stated above it could also be because contemporary is totally outside of my comfort read and in general, one of my most disliked genres. View all 16 comments. A phenomenal book about a young girl's quest to discover her beloved father's secret past, The Unseen World slayed me so hard that I have to give it my first five-star rating for a full-length work of fiction in over a year.
The story follows Ada Sibelius, an observant and shy prodigy raised by her brilliant and quirky father David, who leads a computer science lab in s-Boston. Though awkward and uncouth, David always provides Ada with his company and his intelligence, so much so that by age A phenomenal book about a young girl's quest to discover her beloved father's secret past, The Unseen World slayed me so hard that I have to give it my first five-star rating for a full-length work of fiction in over a year.
Though awkward and uncouth, David always provides Ada with his company and his intelligence, so much so that by age 12, she contributes to his research alongside his graduate students and other faculty. However, their relationship unravels when David's fight with Alzheimer's disease intensifies. As Ada moves in with Liston, David's long-term friend and research partner, she also starts to search for insights surrounding David's obtuse past - and in this search, Ada realizes she must come to terms with how little she knows about her father, even though she thought that he gave her his entire world.
I did not expect to love The Unseen World as much as I did, even after the first pages. On the surface, this book seems like it has a lot to do with technology, as well as the confusion surrounding David's past. And it does delve into both of those things, which will appeal to science fiction and mystery fans. But through reading about and growing up with Ada - smart, loyal, and oh-so-human Ada - we get to connect with all the characters in The Unseen World in deep, profound, and unexpected ways. And these connections fuel the magic of this mesmerizing novel.
This book's most powerful theme that shook me to my core: Though wrapped in a thrilling plot, Ada's most vulnerable moments of human connection stood out as The Unseen World 's highlights. Several passages made me gasp aloud, and my heart ached for these three-dimensional characters and their feelings toward one another - Ada's complicated and ultimately redemptive relationship with David, her unique, unnameable, and unmeasurably loving relationship with Liston, and her hot-and-cold relationship with Gregory that proves the power and influence of time.
Through these bonds, Liz Moore shows how we all hurt the people we care about the most - but we also heal them, in ways we may not realize until many years have passed. Over the course of pages, Moore's characters walked their way into my heart, and I feel so grateful that she gave them the depth, the weaknesses and the strengths, and the tenacity to do so.
Overall, recommended to those who want a slow-burning, splendid work of fiction that emphasizes the importance of friends and family, technology, and coming-of-age. Such a compassionate book that reminds me of the heart-wrenching work Tell the Wolves I'm Home. Certain scenes toward the end of the book, such as view spoiler [when Ada cries in Liston's arms for the first time, when Ada sobs after Liston dies, when Ada hears David say "I'm sorry" through ELIXIR, and many more hide spoiler ] still make my heart squeeze up just thinking about them.
Try this one out in , friends. View all 9 comments. This is a coming-of-age novel unlike any I can readily recall. Yesterday morning, after finishing it, I was ready to say 3. The novel did not affect me with a strong emotional reaction such as utter sadness upon finishing a few novels. This novel impacted me in ways that are much more subtle and rather more profound.
Please bear with me in my too-lengthy explanation of this bold st Ada Sibelius. Please bear with me in my too-lengthy explanation of this bold statement. This morning, I say 4. My primary barometers on a novel's quality are whether it will follow me, has it evoked contemplation of some pressing issue in my world, whether I've been transported into another world in the reading, whether I've connected with at least one character in some way, positively or negatively, and Borges' test of aesthetic emotions mentioned below.
On all counts, I'd say definitely yes. Moreover, if I was pushed to say the 50 pages I would have cut, I'd be hard-pressed to point to any parts I now believe were unnecessary to the final resolution and what I got from reading the novel. This has been described by some as a mystery, but the mystery part is not that difficult. While that mystery certainly was the motor that drove the book from beginning to end, I didn't see it as a huge revelation in the bigger picture, particularly not in today's world.
If you seek a book of mystery, you'll likely be disappointed and find this book too slow. Much has been made of the novel earlier this summer, The Girls , and how it was that many women connected with the year-old female protagonist being thrown into an odd environment. The protagonist, Ada Sibelius, here is 14 for most of the novel and is thrown not into a fire of curiosity as was Evie in The Girls, but into several fires of which she played no part in starting. I connected much more with her , found her nuances much deeper, as well as having considerably more empathy for her fears, the betrayals she's suffered, and her utter lack of trust now in anyone in the world along with her significant losses.
While it's true I'm male, the author Liz Moore has most definitely been a year-old girl. Ada grew up with her single dad, David Sibelius, a socially awkward computer scientist, being "home schooled" before home schooling had been approved in MA at his computer lab on the campus of a fictional MIT here called Boston Institute of Techn. She was born to a surrogate mother and raised by David. But dad's mind starts to go to the point he ultimately has to be taken to a home for Alzheimer's patients.
Before he's lost all of his mental faculties, he gives Ada what should be the key to decode a text document explaining his past. Yet she cannot figure out how to decode it for many years. Before long, she learns that his name was not David Sibelius. That disclosure is a big part of the book, because it sets Ada adrift at a time when she's already having a tough time adapting to the unknowns of a Catholic school after being home schooled all her life, and now this: So, Ada's having to attempt to discover David's secret world.
Another unseen world is David's brain slowly deteriorating from Alzheimer's, with his inability to recall the language of which he was so aware in building ELIXIR, and he then starts to have a Midwestern U. The book is told mostly 3d person from Ada's POV, from early s Boston fast forward to San Francisco and back to the s and 50s to discover facts about David, ending in Boston and going beyond in the last chapter, the Epilogue, which is told from a completely unique POV.
I'll leave out discussion here of computer science and virtual reality, except to say that Liz Moore does a great job of breaking it down in terms that made sense. In addition to the theme of rapidly changing technology, the book fully explores what it means to be a parent and to give your child a surname; the trust we blindly give our parents as children until we are betrayed in some way, big or small; the cycle of life, escape, love of family, what is your family does it include a good family friend who raises you from 14 to 18? The thing I took away from it most was identifying with as fully developed a character as I can recall in recent memory, Ada Sibelius, a year-old girl who was thrown into a tailspin by a double-whammy: Seeing her grow into a fully-realized woman as she works her way through to resolutions in her complex life was most satisfying.
Big brained, intense, abstract thinkers who live in their heads but who come out to play with the ideas of others and play with others who love creating, analyzing, puzzling over, observing and sharing ideas - that's the life of Ada Sibelius, daughter of eccentric genius David. She is geeky, homeschooled, socially stunted and just slightly aware of her unusual situation. Ada is confronted by an enormous puzzle, among David's cohorts who are cryptographers, mathematicians, code solve Think brainy.
Ada is confronted by an enormous puzzle, among David's cohorts who are cryptographers, mathematicians, code solvers and computer programmers- given to her by David - but which becomes dwarfed by problems caused by David's declining memory. Where are his credentials? Is he registered as her parent? What was his true history?
This is a richly textured story, whose finely drawn characters tug at the heart strings while Ada and her peers take on the complications of growing up, as complex people in difficult situations. It is a story of legacy, of family, of unorthodox bonds which only time and maturity explain.
It is about connecting - the ways we understand possible, its importance and the magic those connections create. I took in The Unseen World in two big gulps. Character driven, tender, fast paced in its human mystery, magical in its technological puzzles and love notes View all 17 comments. There were pages upon pages of tech speak that bored me, and I found multiple inconsistencies in the writing that bugged me to no end ex. The characters are meant to be these eccentric weirdos, and Ada is "a prodigy" according to the synopsis, but I would never have chosen to describe her that way. And while David is definitely unconventional, there wasn't much more to him other than "he is smart and he likes computers and doesn't care much for his daughter" yet for some reason Ada is obsessed with him.
The other main draw for the book was Ada trying to "solve the mystery of her father's past" which ended up being hugely underwhelming. I was really expecting to love this book because it gave me major " Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close meets The Goldfinch " vibes throughout the book, but I just never connected to the plot of which there isn't much or the characters. I feel like in a book like this, you really need to connect to the characters and their story in order to enjoy the book, since it's not a book heavy in plot.
Sadly, a book that didn't work for me. However, it has many, MANY great reviews, so please do give it a try if it sounds interesting to you. Just be prepared for an extremely slow book, that has pretty bland characters and a rather disappointing ending. View all 4 comments. Wonderfully touching story that really grabbed a hold of me with unique characters and it's slow and steady unveiling of past secrets and lies Ada Sibelius came to be through the assistance of a surrogate mother named Birdie, and was then raised by David-her quirky Scientist Father in the early 70's.
Ada is essentially raised in the science lab that David oversees. She is home-schooled, so her only interaction and other human contact outside of her Father comes from the lab associates, who be Wonderfully touching story that really grabbed a hold of me with unique characters and it's slow and steady unveiling of past secrets and lies She is home-schooled, so her only interaction and other human contact outside of her Father comes from the lab associates, who become an extension of her family.
Ada is happy in her small world, for it's the only world she knows. But deep inside she knows she's missing something. Something she craves, but is yet still unable to identify. When David's memory starts to fail and he is officially diagnosed with Alzheimer's, Ada's world now 14 turns upside down.
The Unseen World has ratings and reviews. Ada Sibelius is raised by David, her brilliant, eccentric, socially inept single father, who direct. The Unseen World: A Novel and millions of other books are available for instant access. The Unseen World: A Novel Paperback – June 13, Ada Sibelius is raised by David, her brilliant, eccentric, socially inept single father, who directs a computer science lab in s-era.
In a moment of clarity, David tells Ada that she is going to find out somethings about his past that he hasn't told anyone. He gives her a disk with a coded message for her to solve. Even with the help of the other lab associates, the code remains a mystery for many years to come. The story starts with Ada being a young child and provides wonderful backstory about her life with David. Soon the story flashes forward, and Ada is now a woman in her 30's. With the rest of the book flashing forward and back, David's life and secrets soon become unraveled and everything comes full circle.
I absolutely loved this story-from the heartbreaking effects David's Alzheimer's has on Ada to the wonderful Liston and family who take Ada in when David is no longer able to care for her. My only complaint would be that the ending was just a tad too 'perfect'. Like enjoying your last piece of chocolate and savoring it ever so slowly, this story drew me in just as slowly-I was completely surprised at how much I cared about these characters. Liz Moore-I am your newest fan, and look forward to my next read by you.
View all 6 comments. This book was completely captivating. I need to buy more own copy so I can force everyone I know to read it now. Watch my full review: This is a beautiful, profound book that requires a deep level of commitment and investment from the reader. It's a slow burn, there's not a lot of dialogue, and it's pages long. But it's the kind of book that makes you feel like you're in good hands, the kind that will reward you both emotionally and cerebrally if you take the plunge.
I went into it knowing very little, and I had no idea what to expect. How deep would the artificial intelligence aspects of it go? Who were these characters? Th This is a beautiful, profound book that requires a deep level of commitment and investment from the reader. This vague sense of mystery and wonder begins in the first pages and builds steadily through to the end.
At its core, The Unseen World is a coming-of-age story about Ada, the strange, thoughtful, brilliant daughter of David Sibelius, a computer scientist at a prestigious university lab in the s. Ada spends the formative years of her life in the lab with David and his colleagues, where she comes to share her father's love for mathematics, cryptology and puzzle-solving. When David suddenly falls ill, Ada's peaceful world is upended. On top of that, she begins to suspect that David has been harboring secrets, and will spend the next couple decades of her life trying to decode the mysteries of his life.
The Unseen World is a fully realized novel about one family's legacy, but more than that, it's about what it means to be human: By the time I reached the final pages, I was completely blown away and devastated by how it had all come together — like one of David's and Ada's puzzles. Every piece of it made sense, every piece of it was an essential part of the whole. View all 5 comments.
I needed distance in order to clearly see the masterfully-drawn, tremendously human characters in this moving story that stretched far into the past and well into the future. I loved everything about Ada view spoiler [though I kind of expected her to be a robot hide spoiler ] and everything about Liston view spoiler [her death brought my only tears reading this book hide spoiler ] and their relationship. Overall, this unique story set in my favorite place was quite an achievement. For now, 4 stars. View all 10 comments. It has been a long time since a book captivated me from beginning to end, but that is exactly what happened with this book.
The story follows Ada Sibelius who is raised and homeschooled by a single father, David, who is a brilliant scientist. Liz Moore perfectly captures the experience of growing up and realizing that the way you imagined the world around you was not what you thought it was. Born in , Ada Sibelius is a twelve-year-old prodigy, and the daughter of an enigmatic, scientific genius, David Sibelius.
David is director of a prestigious computer science laboratory in Boston that gathers the best minds in the field.
For twelve years it w Born in , Ada Sibelius is a twelve-year-old prodigy, and the daughter of an enigmatic, scientific genius, David Sibelius. For twelve years it was just David, Ada and the lab. David and the Steiner Lab provided Ada all the security, love, and knowledge she thought she needed. Occasionally, she wished for a peer group, to socialize with other kids, but they were only fleeting desires. Suddenly thrust into a conventional social network, Ada attempts to navigate in a new, uncertain world.
How to harness and express herself in new codes of conduct and engagement with others? Questions of identity, both literal and figurative, consume Ada and permeate the story. The answers, she reasons, are hidden in a patchy web of history. Her life was once so cloistered, and now her ties are loose and her bonds tenuous. What gives us the substance of who we are; in other words, what makes us human? This book probes the nature, nurture, and future of our identity.
The pace is unflinchingly steady despite the structure of chronological leaps. The past, present, and future were uniformly revelatory. I was directly caught up in the story, and rapt by its graceful poise and tensile symmetry. Not one detail is indulgent or unqualified, and the spotless prose is lean, sinuous, and even cabalistic at times. Moore masterfully stood aside from her writing; the words were a doorway to the plot and characters.
Ada could have walked off the pages and breathed on her own, so authentic was her characterization. She will go down as one of my favorite female characters of this century. The multi-genre approach will appeal to mainstream and literary readers alike, as it cross-sectioned both without sacrifice.
Definitely on my most lauded books of the year. View all 8 comments. I listened to this on audio. Mose Richards as Frederick Richards. Wait, Is Mary Poppins a Witch? Share this Rating Title: Mysteries of the Unseen World 7. Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Learn more More Like This. The Secret Rules of Modern Living: Algorithms TV Movie Under Our Skin 2: In Pursuit of Silence A film about our relationship with silence and the impact of noise on our lives.
Edit Cast Credited cast: Narrator voice Rest of cast listed alphabetically: Apartment Resident Elizabeth Donner Apartment Resident Strahlia Durr IR Girl Shelby Farrell Apartment Resident Jaqueline Fleming Apartment Resident Ernie Hucke Apartment Resident Melo Matus Apartment Resident Johnathan McRae Apartment Resident Jesse Moore Apartment Resident Lisa Mackel Smith Edit Details Official Sites: Add the first question.