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This sci-fi debut is a quietly brilliant look at a disturbing future

The premise of Grace Chan’s debut novel – that you can choose to upload yourself to a virtual reality – might sound dated, but this is a stunning big‑picture look at what might lie ahead for us, says Emily H. Wilson

By Emily Wilson

21 May 2025

Digital generated image of young woman standing on entrance of multicoloured portal door. Metaverse concept. — Would you leave a world wilting under a deadly sun for a digital utopia?
Andriy Onufriyenko/Getty Images

Grace Chan (Verve Books (UK, out now; US, 23 September))

Science fiction that features characters who spend more time in virtual reality than in real life, whether via electrodes stuck into the backs of their necks or some kind of gloop-filled tank, isn’t exactly a new thing.

In fact, picking up Grace Chan’s Every Version of You, I worried that the premise of the novel – some young people in the future having to decide whether to permanently…

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