Review: PopCo by Scarlett Thomas

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I love Scarlett Thomas and her books, but there's a definite quality scale thing going on. I absolutely adored The End of Mr Y, but then Our Tragic Universe didn't quite seem to meet the same standard. I liked it, but not as much. It's her style that just kind of works though - it doesn't matter what she's writing about, it always seems as though she's actually inside your head, and because of that, I will read anything she writes.

Plot summary: Alice Butler has been receiving some odd messages - all anonymous, all written in code. Are they from someone at PopCo, the profit-hungry corporation she works for? Or from Alice's long lost father? Or has someone else been on her trail? The solution, she is sure, will involve the code-breaking skills she learned from her grandparents and the key she's been wearing round her neck since she was ten. PopCo is a grown-up adventure of family secrets, puzzles, big business and the power of numbers.

Okay, so that's fairly helpful - Scarlett Thomas' books tend to ramble and go off on odd tangents, but there's always an over-riding theme. The End of Mr Y was science based, featuring quantum physics and general mind-fuckery, and Our Tragic Universe was a slightly more gentle foray into books and literature. Well, obviously it is, because it's a book, but it looks at the creative writing process and the storyline theories. PopCo is about code-breaking, as you've probably gathered, but there's also a heavy rant focus on anti-consumerism.

That's the kicker, really. It's start off really interesting, discussing Alberti code-wheels, Bletchley Park, unsolveable maths equations... etc. It's obvious that the story is going to be about ciphers and codes, which is great. But then somebody presses a button and it flips over into a slightly preachy rant about big companies and consumerism.

*bangs head on desk* I get it, I do. I completely understand why you might be concerned about product marketing or item quality, but that is not what this book is about. Well, it is. But it shouldn't be. So there! Scarlett Thomas' books touch on so many topics that I could happily deal with a brief interlude discussing why toy companies are bad, but this completely takes over the second half of the book. It's not subtle at all.

In fact, not much of PopCo is. This was written just before the two books mentioned above and it's kind of obvious. Her style is there and it's wonderful, on the whole. It's very.... real, I suppose. You're taken inside Alice's mind and it's as if she was one of us - she doesn't have ordered, logical, relevant thoughts like most first-person fictional perspectives. Instead, she goes off on tangents and reacts instantly to things the way we would. It's what attracts me to the author's books and in The End of Mr Y and Our Tragic Universe, it works perfectly.

Someone on the K table drops something and there's a sharp crashing sound and then cheers and clapping. I thought they were supposed to be cool? You'd think they'd have sent out a trend-spotter to find a more interesting way of responding to a crash in a pub/restaurant/cafeteria. 

I'm not saying it's 'bad' here, because it's not. I still love the tone and how you learn a great deal of things you never knew you never knew. It's just that she's slightly less subtle about inserting these facts and stories into the narrative, and it's especially obvious when it's discussing a moral issue. It comes across as very in-your-face (which is, ironically enough, the title of another of her books). There's a huge essay about Francis Stevenson, to the point where it may as well be non-fiction. It's just dumped into the middle of the book, with no introduction hinting at why it may be relevant.

She does get better at this in her later books and develops a much less forced method of introducing you to relevant factual information. And you do learn a lot! PopCo touches upon video game censorship, homeopathy, virtual reality, protest groups... there's an awful lot of research gone into this, as with her other novels.

The ending isn't great either. It further demonstrates how the code-breaking aspects got swept aside a little as it's very rushed. There's a huge unsolved code and a big mystery with lots of drama and intrigue... but then it goes away with an 'eh' moment at the end.

I've done That Thing where I rant about a book I actually kind of like. I know I give the impression that I hated PopCo, but I really didn't. I just resent being preached to quite a lot, especially when I'm not expecting it, and there were some moments where I made an attractive, screechy 'Urrrrrgh!' noise when I was told that people are saving the world by pouring Coke on their keyboards. Oh hey, I made the noise again...

The great style and prose does make this worth reading, although I'd really recommend starting with The End of Mr Y or Our Tragic Universe if you're new to Scarlett Thomas.

Read my review of Our Tragic Universe or visit Scarlett Thomas' website here.