“Goldilocks” by Laura Lam

March 27, 2021 6:14 PM

Have you read “Goldilocks“ by Laura Lam? If so, can you tell me a little about the ending?

I already have a hard time sometimes with tense space books, and this has a whole Handmaid’s Tale vibe layered over the top. What I want to know, if it’s possible to share without major spoilers, is, does this book have anything that could be remotely considered a happy ending? Or am I more likely to finish the book and just feel full of bleak despair? I understand this is fairly subjective, but I’m just trying to decide if I should continue with it or not. I’m not too far in, I just reached the point where they discover that there’s back up crew aboard in some kind of stasis, and one of them is the main character’s ex-husband. I certainly don’t mind a lot of tension and action, and even characters dying, but these days I’m mostly preferring to read books that have at least a tiny bit of uplift at the end.

posted by skycrashesdown to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

Although I haven't read the book (but I now plan to), here is an interesting review I found online (it mentions the book providing faith and catharsis, both of which are uplifting):
"There’s wonder and beauty and hope in there, which means that you keep reading because you, like Naomi, hope that things are going to get better. That doesn’t mean better is guaranteed, the story delivers challenge after challenge, and gives no promises that anyone will be protected. It’s adrenaline-inducing, but by the end I found myself following Naomi’s example, and having faith." "While this book wasn’t intended to be the novel of the pandemic, its themes reflect a lot of what is happening right now. But inbetween my marveling that Laura might actually be some kind of psychic, I felt like it was a catharsis of all the stress I’m currently feeling. It’s a fantastic book."
posted by SageTrail at 8:02 AM on March 28, 2021

I have read it, and I don't remember the ending in detail, but it is not an unhappy ending. When I get home I can reread it to see if I would call it happy.
posted by jeather at 8:24 AM on March 28, 2021

I skimmed the Goodreads reviews, and an April 2020, 2-star review from Readasaurus turned up; excerpt:

I honestly do not recommend reading this book during quarantine if you're already feeling sad, as it's like being slapped in the face with the Worst of Twitter: women being oppressed by an authoritarian government, plagues with a high death toll, a planet dying from global warming run rampant-- oh yes, it's all my worst fears, packed into a 300+ book. I'm especially disappointed because the summary made it sound so girl power-ish [...] even though the ending isn't quite as miserable as I feared it would be, it comes off as a pretty dismal hybrid of Silent Running, The Martian, and the beginning of Handmaid's Tale.
posted by Iris Gambol at 8:42 AM on March 28, 2021

I skimmed the end, and it's a sort of "if people work hard things get better but it's a lot of work" kind of thing. I'm going to stay with "not unhappy ending", because it depends on how you think of uplifting, but I could see people describing it as happy. For what it's worth, I did like the book.
posted by jeather at 10:28 AM on March 28, 2021

Hah, I was also just today trying to decide whether to finish this book!
posted by exceptinsects at 9:47 PM on March 30, 2021