Ply – Hernan Diaz

Published By: Picador
Pages: 464
Released On: 24/09/2026

Centuries from now, an orphan adrift in an American city grows up to become a pincher. Stealing electricity from the grid to power the downtown music scene she adores is a risky occupation, and the city she moves through is dangerous.

Someone is following her. Soon, the pincher is drawn into a paranoid maze where her closest friends and even her own identity are put into question – all while following a thread leading to an extraordinary scientific experiment that could change the fabric of reality itself.

*****

Thanks to NetGalley and Picador for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.

I had this on pre-order but was forced to cancel it so I was excited when I was sent an e-arc.

Sci-fi type books are generally not my thing, and it’s at least 100 pages above my preferred page count, and if I’m honest, I didn’t 100% understand the synopsis. But it sounded so appealing and the cover was beautiful (yes I do judge a book by its cover – sue me).

I only have one of Hernan’s books – Trust – but I haven’t read it yet. But I know it’s an historical book set in the 1920s. But I’ve always associated him with historical fiction, so it seemed odd to find he’s gone in the opposite direction and given us something futuristic.

There is a lot of backstory to this, and world building, to get through before you can lose yourself in the actual story. I would have preferred if it had been drip fed throughout the book rather than in one go at the start because it starts to feel like a mammoth task to remember it all. And if I’m honest, for the most part, whilst the world building was interesting, it took over and it was hard to find what the story was. And there was all this build up to what was quite a let-down ending.

I think the political and societal commentary was interesting, and the idea of a dystopian future that sadly doesn’t feel quite so fictional these days was managed well and was thought provoking.

My main issue with it, and I think it causes all the other issues, is the length. I needed it to be shorter overall, more concise, the world building either made shorter or spread out, and the main crux of the story to become obvious earlier, because as it is, it feels like hard work.

I had pre-ordered this but I’m quite glad I was able to cancel it because it was rather disappointing for all the hype. I think Trust will be more my thing.