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Siri, Who Am I? by Sam TschidaPublished by Quirk Books on January 12, 2021
Age Group & Genres: Adult, Contemporary
Format: eBook
Source: Library
Mia might look like a Millennial but she was born yesterday. Emerging from a coma with short-term amnesia after an accident, Mia can't remember her own name until the Siri assistant on her iPhone provides it. Based on her cool hairstyle (undercut with glamorous waves), dress (Prada), and signature lipstick (Chanel), she senses she's wealthy, but the only way to know for sure is to retrace her steps once she leaves the hospital. Using Instagram and Uber, she arrives at the pink duplex she calls home in posts but finds Max, a cute, off-duty postdoc supplementing his income with a house-sitting gig. He tells her the house belongs to JP, a billionaire with a chocolate empire. A few texts later, JP confirms her wildest dreams: they're in love, Mia is living the good life, and he'll be back that weekend.
But as Mia and Max work backward through her Instagram and across Los Angeles to learn more about her, they discover a surprising truth behind her perfect Instagram feed, and evidence that her head wound was no accident. Who was Mia before she woke up in that hospital? And is it too late for her to rewrite her story?
I feel like with every book that involves influencer culture I just get burned and all around disappointed, and Siri, Who Am I? is no exception. This one just sounded so good from the synopsis??? Joke’s on me, I guess, because this turned out to be a no bueno. (Or maybe I just walked in expecting more. The more likely scenario.)
Tschida’s novel is light and funny, but it wasn’t enough to get me through finishing the novel even if I wanted to know what happened to Mia, who wakes up from the hospital with no memory of who she is and how she ended up there in the first place. All she has is her phone and the information there to piece everything together, which isn’t much to base off either because she covered up her tracks (or maybe someone did it to cover their tracks? Who knows?). We’re kind of on that same journey and curiosity as Mia – we know just as much as what she knows and what she finds out.
I actually liked Mia’s voice starting out – she’s someone who is snarky and at times annoying, and sometimes I felt the footnotes weren’t necessary (at times distracting), but she was also someone who sounded fun and adventurous as well. (But I mean… you wake up in a hospital with no memory but your phone, I guess it’s kind of fun if you’re an adventurous soul wanting to piece together what happened and who you are.)
But as the novel progressed, her voice felt obnoxious and while I felt bad for her, she just came across as someone with a privileged, elitist lifestyle (which… considering influencer culture and the novel being set in California, maybe the privileged, elitist lifestyle isn’t exactly a lie) that at a certain point I felt she had whatever happened coming for her. She also made a lot of bad decisions that didn’t really make sense, and she wasn’t the only one.
Why Siri, Who Am I? just didn’t work out for me
When she first wakes up, she meets Brenda, who knows she’s vegetarian just by looking at her. By looking at her. What? How even—? I don’t think I’m going to say more on this, but if anyone knows the answer to this, please let me know.
When she arrives at what she thinks is her house based on an Instagram photo, she just waddles into the house casually as though she owns it. She meets Max, the house sitter, who is kind of sort of suspicious about her owning the place because he actually knows the owner. But… he lets her stay. Okay, so I guess what the owner doesn’t know won’t hurt them if that’s Max’s vibe, so I’ll let this one slide a little as well since maybe he just didn’t want to toss her onto the streets casually (kind of cruel, honestly).
After seeing a post that doesn’t look familiar go up, Mia gets suspicious of her Instagram account possibly being hacked. She reports her account, but she doesn’t do anything else. She’s completely fine with this and even says something like, “Well, I guess the hacker and I will have to share the account.” What. For someone who appears high profile, I think my jaw dropped a little that she would allow this and is even okay with this? Although, the thought of her allowing that to happen because she’s hoping doing nothing won’t rise any suspicion definitely popped up in my head, so I let this one slide.
She parks in a handicapped spot because she thinks she’ll find herself faster. What??? Someone make this make sense. No matter how many times I read that scene or think about that scene, it just doesn’t make sense at all. How does one find themselves parking in a handicapped spot?
When Max was trying to talk some sense into Mia about meeting a person who DMs her, he doesn’t want her meeting them because “they might be some shady importer and exporter from China.” I know a lot of things are made from China, but please, for the love of god, stop with the whole, “It must be China because a lot of things are ‘Made in China.’” The statement was just completely unnecessary to the story and it could’ve been worded differently to get the point across.
But what topped it off is Mia assuming, “I might be a slut” because she may or may not have been involved with a married older man, which may have led her to land in the hospital. Can we not with the slut-shaming, even if it’s subtle? I know Mia is trying to figure out why and how she ended up in the hospital, but like the above, it wasn’t necessary and could’ve been worded differently to get the point across.
Overall Thoughts
I think ultimately what this comes down to is my personal taste, my current reading mood and that I’m not exactly the right audience for Tschida’s novel. If you’re looking for a light contemporary read that is very much not realistic (especially when it comes to making decisions), you might enjoy Siri, Who Am I? But if you’re looking for something a little more realistic or an actual mystery, this probably isn’t for you.
Sophia started blogging in February 2012 for the hell of it and is surprisingly still around. She has a GIF for nearly everything, probably listens to too much K-Pop and is generally in an existential crisis of sorts (she's trying her best). More of her bookish reviews and K-Pop Roundups can be found at The Arts STL.
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Roberta R. says
This sounds so wrong and weird on multiple levels. Like YA of old ages, still trying to figure itself out.
Sumedha says
Oh noo, the synopsis sounded good to me too but everything you mentioned in your review is a no for me too. Unfortunate.
Kristina says
aww such a bugger that you didnt liked this one – the cover is so pretty, and it’s one id wanna read too.
yikes to the unnecesarry mean comments.. just- why 🙃
Greg says
Aw that’s too bad. I agree the premise is kinda fun (why do I always fall for memory loss issues?) but I can see where this would be frustrating. The vegetarian thing (how does THAT even work), the Instagram hack thing… hmm. The China thing too… yikes. Yeah, bummer about this one. 🙁
Kal @ Reader Voracious says
This is literally the longest review that I’ve ever seen you write Soph. Are you Soph? Or have you been replaced by a Pod Person?
Sorry this didn’t work for you but lovely & balanced review!
Sophia says
I think I’m a pod person. Real Soph doesn’t read normally read 15+ books a month.
(Also I’ve definitely written longer reviews! It’s very rare though. 😅)