From multiple award-winning author Daryl Gregory comes a madcap adventure following two friends on a cross-country bus tour through the mind-boggling glitches in their simulated world as they grapple with love, family, secrets, and the very nature of reality in a simulation.

JP and Dulin have been the best of friends for decades. When JP finds out his cancer has aggressively returned, Dulin decides it’s the perfect time for one last a week-long bus tour of North America’s Impossibles, the physics-defying glitches and geographic miracles that started cropping up seven years earlier—right after the Announcement that revealed our world to be merely a digital simulacrum. The outing, courtesy of Canterbury Trails Tours, promises the trip of a (not completely real) lifetime in a (not completely deluxe) coach.

Their fellow passengers are 21st-century pilgrims, each of them on the tour for their own reasons. There’s a nun hunting for an absent God, a pregnant influencer determined to make her child too famous to be deleted, a crew of horny octogenarians living each day like it’s their last, and a professor on the run from leather-clad sociopaths who take The Matrix as scripture. Each stop on this trip is stranger than the last—a Tunnel outside of time, a zero gravity Geyser, the compound of motivational-speaking avatar—with everyone barreling toward the tour’s iconic final stop Ghost City, where unbeknownst to our travelers the answer to who is running the simulation may await.

When We Were Real is a tour-de-force and exploration of what really matters, even in an artificial world.

Thanks to the publisher for the advance galley of this book. All thoughts are my own.

I was intrigued by the summary of this one, and I have to say, it lived up to all of my expectations. I found it to be a creative blend of road trip comedy, existential sci-fi, and a heartfelt character study that will have you questioning what is real and what isn’t. The book is over 400 pages long, but it moves quickly and never feels bloated.

Imagine if, one day, we woke up and learned that we are basically living in a storyline straight out of “The Sims” – except we’re not controlling the game – we are the Sims. That’s exactly what happens in this book. One day, every person on Earth receives a message confirming that their reality is artificial. When this happens, people are left reeling. Some commit suicide, some go crazy with conspiracy theories, and others get deeply introspective and philosophical. Soon, glitches begin appearing across the globe – geographic impossibilities that defy physics, like gravity-reversing geysers, upside-down tornadoes, and time-warping tunnels. These anomalies become the new “must-see” stops on sightseeing tours, and that is where we meet our cast of quirky characters.

We spend most of our time with JP and Dulin, lifelong best friends. JP has just learned that his cancer has returned, and this time, he’s not going through more surgery or treatment. Dulin, unwilling to let JP slip quietly away, insists they take a once-in-a-lifetime tour across North America with Canterbury Trails Tours. The two men and several other travelers board a slightly ramshackle bus headed toward Ghost City – the supposed glitch that may hold the answer to who, or what, is running the simulation.

The cast of characters on this tour are all absolutely wonderful. There are a couple of nuns – one seasoned searching for God and a newer nun in training who can’t believe the older one even doubts God’s existence (despite knowing they’re in a simulation). There’s also a rabbi, a heavily pregnant influencer hellbent on making her unborn child famous, a newly married gay couple from Amsterdam on their honeymoon, a “truther” and his son who are starting a podcast with the intent to “prove” the government is lying about the whole simulation thing, and a foursome of horny octogenarians embracing the YOLO spirit of a world that’s no longer pretending to make sense. There’s even a professor on the run from a cult that worships The Matrix as gospel. The variety of characters adds richness and levity, and while I occasionally wished some of them – like the aforementioned elderly crew or the gay couple – got a little more page time, every character felt distinct and memorable.

I mentioned “The Sims” earlier, and it’s easy to draw a parallel here to playing that game. Anyone who’s spent as many hours crafting their own simulated worlds as I have, only to abandon them on a whim or burn them down in a fit of boredom, will recognize the terrifying freedom of the creator – and the vulnerability of the created. What if we are merely a simulation living inside a simulation? Lots of questions come up while reading this book, and for someone like me who often wonders about this stuff, I spent much time thinking about these things even after setting the book down. Many of my thoughts and questions mirrored the characters’ thoughts: If it is a simulation, why do we still age? Why do we get sick or die? If this is a simulation, what’s the point of suffering? And if we/they aren’t “real,” does that make our experiences meaningless?

I need to be clear that I never found the novel to be nihilistic. On the contrary, it’s deeply invested in exploring what it means to be human – simulated or not. The story argues that our connections, our feelings, and our decisions still matter. In the book’s artificial world, the search for meaning feels even more urgent. Whether it’s love, friendship, God, fame, or simply a sense of closure – each character on that bus is chasing something real. And by the end of the book, you might find yourself believing, as they do, that reality is less about what’s true and more about what we choose to hold onto.

Overall, I found this book to be funny, strange, emotionally resonant, and wildly creative. I had a really good time reading it and will likely revisit it in the future. It’s a love letter to friendship, to stories, and to the idea that even if we’re just code in a machine, we still need to live like we matter. It’ll also make you think twice about neglecting your sims or treating them poorly the next time you play the game.