The most frightening thing about Alma Katsu’s Incarnate isn’t the deepfake technology, the violence, or even the possibility that an artificial person might become more real to the world than the person who created her. It’s the realization that the world social media creates around us may already be an illusion—and that we are remarkably willing to believe it is real.
Incarnate is Katsu’s modern reimagining of The Picture of Dorian Gray, transplanted from the world of decadent Victorian society into the age of influencers, deepfakes, and artificial intelligence. Dorothy Wagner has spent her life wanting to be seen. When she takes a job with a brilliant visual effects artist whose company is developing cutting-edge deepfake technology, she discovers a way to turn that desire for recognition into something much bigger. In secret, she uses her employer’s technology to create Isabella, an impossibly beautiful girl who takes social media by storm.
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