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They have neural implants and virtual reality (called "artificial reality" in the book), but still use loose change to pay at an office vending machine.

One of the characters gets frustrated when her newsfeed takes 10 seconds to return search results. That might have sounded futuristic in 1991, but it just sounds realistic to me.

Themes of family, the immigrant experience, and the complexities of activism and living our values in the real world.

I liked the black-and-white art, and I liked the writing and character development. In the end there isn't much of a story, more of a vignette of two young teen girls during a summer vacation -- a bit of boy drama, a bit of family drama, a bit of boredom, a bunch of friendship.

There were some very evocative, well-written parts to this novel. Also, some interesting glimpses of a future world, and some detailed character studies. But mostly there was a lot of weirdness that seemed to be trying too hard to be... profound? metaphorical? Not quite sure.

In the end, it didn't quite come together for me as a story.