In the near future, lab-grown sex dolls are the pleasure toy of choice in this disturbing and provocative short story from Lauren Beukes, the bestselling author of The Shining Girls.
Actor and sex worker Nats is experienced at putting on a show. However, her new gig supplying intimate whispers for growgirls takes her to a place darker and lonelier than she could have ever imagined. The lab-grown dolls can respond to pleasure or pain; their synthetic heads contain only the simplest AI to prevent any pesky robo sex doll uprisings. But just because growgirls don't have a brain, doesn't mean they don't have a voice...
Ungirls is part of Disorder, a collection of six short stories of living nightmares, chilling visions, and uncanny imagination that explore a world losing its balance in terrifying ways. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single disorienting sitting.
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[The recording booth has always been somewhere Nats can disappear]***
(Amazon Original Stories, 27 June 2019, ebook, 57 pages, borrowed from @AmazonKindle, Prime Reading)
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Beukes is a fantastic writer and her novels The Shining Girls and Broken Monsters are among my favourite books of all time. I had high hopes for this and was not disappointed. This is not a spooky or creepy story but felt painfully plausible and real. It made my flesh crawl. The story focuses on what happens when a woman who was the voice actor for headless, flesh and blood sex dolls is exposed and her life spirals more and more out of control. The story is split into short chapters, some of which are from sex chat rooms. I thought this was a nice touch. This could have been an episode of Black Mirror.
