You’re Safe Here

Does tech = trust?

You’re Safe Here is an imaginative and ambitious debut novel set in the near future of 2060. I’m familiar with the author, Leslie Stephens, from her time with the blog cupcakes and cashmere and her Substack newsletter, Morning Person. She’s always had a way with words, and I liked this climate fiction / sci-fi thriller / meditation on motherhood.

The novel is set in a changed California. Both US coasts were decimated by hurricanes, flooding, and wildfires. While the middle of the country fared better, life is definitely different. Climate change isn’t the main focus of You’re Safe Here but it’s a sobering aspect to an unsettling story. This is fiction rooted in real research and data, and it gets you thinking: 2060 isn’t that far away…

On the other hand, it’s a great time to be alive if you believe in the power of technology. The tech self-care industry helps people thrive and the ubiquitous WellCorp leads the way. Their corporate housing has next gen virtual helpers that go far beyond current capabilities. Health care, home care, everything can be personalized, organized and optimized. Emmie – named for WellCorp’s founder Emmett – is Alexa + your mother + your therapist all rolled into one.

The trade-off is what you give up in exchange, things like privacy and personal choice.

The plot of You’re Safe Here revolves around Maggie and her journey – to a retreat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and to her true self. The story progresses using alternating voices and timelines and tells the story of the interconnected Maggie, Emmett and Noa. Maggie is young and seemingly lost, drifting, searching for something. She’s had her share of loss so it’s understandable. As the novel moves forward, we get some backstories that help to round out the characters. I kept thinking how strange it’s going to be for young people in the year 2060 – living in a topsy-turvy world of incredible tech and crumbling nature.

The world Stephens created is inventive, scary, and mostly a turnoff to me – a person who came up with cassette tapes and VCRs vs. smart phones and the internet. Tiny cameras at your hairline recording and streaming your life? No thanks. Injectable healthcare that could be used against you? I’d think twice.

Maggie meets Noa and falls hard. Noa’s a WellCorp coder and soon they’re living together in the company housing. But Maggie’s still drifting and she applies for a spot on a WellPod. It’s their new product, a solo retreat in the Pacific: just you, the water, the Pod, and Emmie.

Emmett is a little Elizabeth Holmes mixed with a little Elon Musk. She starts out a bit cliche but by the end morphs into either a diabolical schemer or a protective mama bear, you choose.

As the story progresses we learn about Gamma, a grandmotherly figure who lived next door to Maggie and her adoptive parents. She was all analog and kept Maggie grounded with love, gardening and poetry.

There are some pretty and poignant moments in You’re Safe Here including this life lesson wrapped up in some Gamma gardening advice: She reminds Maggie to

enjoy a plant three times – beauty, smell and taste

Everyone in the novel has secrets that get tangled up and eventually revealed. There are twists, false flags and creepy moments with holograms and VR chairs. The story lagged a bit for me but then picked up speed and delivered an ending that will hit differently to different people. What unnerved me (in a good way) might not seem so crazy to someone else.

I love a novel that makes me think and You’re Safe Here delivers, thanks to Stephens’ curiosity and imagination. The technology that is simultaneously helpful and suffocating. A universal social media platform that came about when they all merged into one. The climate changed world where air travel and tourism are a luxury due to fuel costs, not to mention many sites are ravaged and closed (and relocated but I’ll leave that treat for you to discover). I trust that her depictions of the world 30+ years from now are as accurate as scientists predict because she’s always done her research. (David Wallace-Wells gets a mention in her acknowledgements – he wrote that scary 2017 article, An Uninhabitable Earth.)

You’re Safe Here is unique, thoughtful and fearless, and I’ve been thinking about it well after turning the last page. That’s a win in my book.