Book Review: Girlfriend on Mars by Deborah Willis

Posted on by Karissa
Girlfriend on Mars – Deborah Willis (Hamish Hamilton, 2023)

Amber Kivinen has been accepted as a contestant for the ambitious MarsNow program. One of 24 selected from hundreds of applicants, Amber will participate in a reality TV Program to pick two finalists who will launch into space and be the first man and woman on Mars. Voted in by the viewers, naturally.

Amber is launched into immediate fame as a fan favourite to win, particularly when paired with the handsome Adam, another favourite contestant. The one person who really isn’t a fan at all is Amber’s longterm boyfriend, Kevin, left back home in Vancouver in their shared apartment.

Amber and Kevin have been together since high school They moved from Thunder Bay to Vancouver together and together they started their home hydroponics business of growing weed in their overheated rental. Amber is driven to compete and to reach Mars while Kevin cannot bring himself to leave the couch.

The story alternates between Kevin’s first person perspective and an up close third person narrative following Amber. Steadily, Willis unveils the history of these two individuals, both shared and separate. Amber was a competitive gymnast, destined for the Olympics until an injury changed the course of her life. growing up with an angry and religious father has made Amber eager to please and anxious to prove herself. Kevin’s loss of his mother and their complicated relationship has left him clinging to Amber for guidance.

Girlfriend on Mars is smart, funny, and engaging. It skewers much of our modern culture, particularly reality television and consumerism. MarsNow is owned by billionaire, Geoff Task who serves as a clear reference to such real life figures as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. Amber and Kevin are politically charged characters, young people eager to enact change but steadily realizing how powerless they are in the face of global policy and people like Task. The relationships between the characters feel honest and true, even when they are in over the top situations like going to Mars.

Unknown's avatar

Published by Karissa

17 thoughts on “Book Review: Girlfriend on Mars by Deborah Willis”

  1. Ha, just read Anne’s review of this too – it sound like fun! I reckon we should send Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos to Mars, one-way tickets, of course. That would improve life on Earth dramatically… 😉

    1. Those guys are so eager to explore space and yet are not volunteering to be the ones in the space craft! There was some fun skewering of those types of billionaires in this book!

  3. I love this book – I thought it was so smart. I’ looking forward to going back and reading some of her short stories at some point.

    1. I think you’d like it! It feels very much for an audience of our generation – lots of the focus and concerns that the characters have felt very familiar.

  5. I really enjoyed this book too – I loved the commentary around consumerism, global policy, etc. She struck a nice balance between getting too serious, and pointing out the absurdity of it all.

    1. I completely agree! And I loved how Vancouver it felt. At one point Kevin mentions a park that I used to live near. The characters felt very much like real people I would know.

  6. It’s really funny that in my inbox, I had Anne’s review and then yours, back to back, of this same book. One thing Anne wrote that cracked me up is the boyfriend basically protested by saying he wasn’t going to leave the apartment. All I could think was, “Uhhh, aren’t you already doing that??” LOL.

    1. We couldn’t have done that better if we coordinated it! It is a funny part of the novel that Kevin acts like he’s staging this protest by staying in the apartment but it’s also exactly what he wants to do most.

    3. What’s amazing though is how sympathetic and likeable Willis still manages to make him. In real life, he’d be someone I’d have no patience for but on the page we see where he has more depth.

Leave a reply to louloureads Cancel reply