WHEN WE WERE REAL by Daryl Gregory – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

When We Were Real by Daryl Gregory
Published by Saga Press on April 1 2025
Genres: Adult, Science fiction
Pages: 464
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: A kooky, feel-good road trip story set in a Matrix-like world, When We Were Real explores the meaning of life in a humorous, heartfelt way.

“Getting inebriated inside a sim was like turning yourself into a cartoon—and then turning on your cartoon television to watch the Simpsons watch Itchy and Scratchy.”

Not only does Daryl Gregory have one of those incredible imaginations you find now and then in speculative fiction, but he’s able to write successfully in many different genres. This time he takes on the digital world and computer simulations in When We Were Real, a quirky, weird and sometimes confusing story about what it means to be “real.” I enjoyed this a lot, although it didn’t completely work for me at times, mostly due to the length and the very long roster of characters. But overall I would recommend it to readers who like deep dives into philosophical questions about life and death. It’s also full of Gregory’s brand of witty, biting humor and lots of emotional moments as well.

It’s been seven years since the Announcement, when everyone on Earth learned that they were actually living in a simulation, leading fake, digital lives created by beings known as the Simulators. After a year of the Freak Out, as people tried to wrap their heads around their new reality, most people eventually just continued on with their lives, which to be honest didn’t change that much. The oddest things to come out of the Announcement were a bunch of glitches or anomalies in the system called Impossibles. Impossibles popped up all over the world, strange, “impossible” attractions that can be viewed via tour buses. In this story, we follow one such tour company called Canterbury Trails and the odd assortment of people on the tour.

Each person on the bus (or should I say “character”) is given a label as well as a name, which reinforces that “digital persona” idea. For example, we meet THE ENGINEER, a man named JP whose brain cancer was in remission but has just returned. JP is traveling with his best friend Dulin, THE COMIC BOOK WRITER. Aneeta is THE TOUR GUIDE and it’s her first solo job. Not only is she struggling to make sense of her instruction binder, but she’s quickly losing control of her tour group. Lisa Marie is THE INFLUENCER, a young pregnant woman determined to increase her followers with a blow-by-blow accounting of the tour, culminating in (if her plan goes right) the birth of her baby at the last stop. 

THE REALIST is a podcaster hoping to expose the truth of what the Simulators are up to, and THE REALIST’S SON Christopher is reluctantly recording his father’s antics. THE DRIVER is Agnes, who is concerned about the regular tour guide Peter and why he didn’t show up for this tour. We also meet a mysterious woman named Gillian (real name Margaret Schell) who appears to be on the run from someone and is anxious to get to Ghost City in order to complete a “hand off” of some kind. THE READER is an inconspicuous non binary person named Xing-Xing who does nothing but read the entire time—although they have some surprises in store for the reader later in the story.

There are even more characters on the tour, but I won’t go into details about the others. We get a multi-perspective story as the chapters shift among all the characters and we learn why they decided to join the tour and what their individual struggles are. When We Were Real is basically a road trip story, as the bus goes from Impossible to Impossible over the course of a week. Each character is nicely developed (even the ones I haven’t mentioned), and each one has slightly different beliefs about the digital world they’re living in, like whether or not death has meaning anymore (if the Simulators can reboot the system and start the simulation over, is death even a thing?)

We also get an intriguing thriller element in the form of Gillian/Margaret, who is on the run from a group called the Protagonists. Margaret is determined to keep her daughter and husband safe and must deliver something called a “tool box” to the right people. While I found Margaret’s story exciting and fast-paced, it was also confusing because her backstory is revealed in bits and pieces that were hard to make sense of as a whole.

Gregory’s humor is on point and was one of my favorite elements in the story. I especially loved the friendship between JP and Dulin, who have had decades to learn each other’s quirks and jokes, and they are so in tune with each other that they practically finish the other’s sentences. I also loved the references to modern literature that are sprinkled throughout the story. I spotted mentions of The Velveteen Rabbit, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Atlas Shrugged and more.

The author also gives readers lots to think about. If this is a simulation, how could Lisa Marie become pregnant? And even stranger, why is her labor so painful? And what about JP’s cancer? Why would the Simulators create a world where cancer exists? Is it even worth it to continue on, knowing that nothing is “real”?

And I have to give a brief mention to the Impossibles, the odd pit stops along the way that really do seem impossible! There’s the Antipode, a floating disc that is actually a window into the opposite side of the planet; the Tunnel, a mysterious black hole that goes from Kentucky to Utah in the blink of an eye. You can stay as long as you want in the Tunnel, but no time passes on the outside, so it’s as if you were only there for seconds. And my favorite was the flock of Hollow Sheep, impossibly soft but empty creatures who wander around but don’t really do anything. Maybe there’s an important metaphor there!

As for negatives, I found the 464 page book to be unnecessarily long. In addition, there are lots of tangents and side stories that slow down the pacing. I could have done without some of the characters as well, since twenty is a lot to keep track of. Finally, I was also hoping for more of an impactful ending that explained everything, but instead it left me feeling a bit underwhelmed.

Still, as a huge fan of the author, I’m so glad I read this book. When We Were Real is one of the most original science fiction books I’ve read so far this year.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.