SOLVED. Scifi, people join small hiveminds at adulthood. Vaguely suspect the plot was about someone killing hiveminds or destroying them by breaking the tech that linked them together, some kind of mystery like that. 99% sure was published post-2010. [s]

[Siavahda]

The book was adult scifi but the strangeness seemed limited to the hivemind thing; I don't remember any other flashy tech or advancements - the story was set in the future, but not a very distant one. I'm not sure that EVERYONE joined a hivemind, but I think it was growing more and more common; the hiveminds seemed to average out at ten people or so, and it was normal to 'lose' and 'gain' people, ie when bodies died or joined (although both were mourned and celebrated as appropriate). But joining a hivemind was considered a form of immortality, which was why many people were interested in it.

I think the book opened with one hivemind negotiating for or considering allowing a new person to join; the body the story opened with was possibly having a conversation, and the writing referred to other bodies by their original names - their Adam-body was doing x while their Susan-body was doing y, etc. But bodies were viewed mostly like limbs, I think. There might have been some mention of how different bodies were better at or needed different things, and definitely that they brought new things into the hivemind when they joined, like an appreciation for this artform or that food etc. I think joining a hivemind involved undergoing a surgery, which probably implanted some kind of chip in your brain to link you to the rest of the hivemind.

They definitely weren't called hiveminds, btw, but I have no memory of what they WERE called. I also don't remember much about the plot; I think it might have been some kind of murder mystery, with someone killing bodies or entire hiveminds or something like that. But that might be completely wrong.

I feel very certain that this was a book I read before 2018 and after 2010; I'm pretty sure it was newly published when I first read it, not an older classic or anything. I was reading it as an ebook, probably a Kindle book. It was in English and published in the USA. I want to say the author was a man, but I couldn't swear to it.

Help?

[Andy]

Paul Melko's Singularity's Ring Singularity's Ring has some similarities to this. In it, people form "pods" of 5 or so bodies sharing one mind.

[Siavahda]

Alas, it is definitely not that book! Although that is definitely going on my to-read list, because it sounds very interesting!

But the book I'm thinking of had a very contemporary feel - almost like magical realism, except with science fiction instead of magic.

[Siavahda]

I FOUND IT! Join I misremembered a bunch of details, which can't have helped. BUT OH WELL. Just so pleased this can stop driving me nuts!

[Andy]

Great. Sounds like a book I might look up for myself.