"The Might of Names in Writing and in Real Life,” by Ethel Rohan, Writer’s Digest
“It's fascinating, and edifying, this determining power of naming and not naming.”
Island Rule review, Kirkus Reviews
“A compelling exercise in worldbuilding and genre blending that toggles among the recent past, present, and near future.”
"Women of the Word: New Fiction From Rita Bullwinkel, Katie M. Flynn, Ethel Rohan and Jane Smiley" in Nob Hill Gazette
“The title story channels a more directly political Joan Didion as her protagonist gets lost on the San Diego freeway and then caught in a traffic jam after a bomb is discovered near the border wall. Flynn has been compared to the likes of Jennifer Egan and Karen Russell, but her voice is unmistakably original..”
Island Rule review, Publishers Weekly
“Flynn (The Companions) blends realism and fantasy for a diffuse collection that probes the limits of democracy.”
“Uncannily surreal: Katie M. Flynn’s novel is set in a San Francisco under quarantine” in the San Francisco Chronicle
“Katie M. Flynn thought she was writing about a future dystopia, but the future is nearer than she had imagined.”
“Your Quarantine Reader” in the New York Times
“The narrative, which unfolds from the perspective of eight characters, wrestles with the question of what separates humans from intelligent machines.”
Interview with Christian A. Coleman in Lightspeed Magazine
“What interests me most about outbreaks are the peaks of near hysteria and valleys of near ambivalence that we tend to vacillate between in the weeks and months following these kinds of events.”
“‘The Companions’ poses urgent questions about the way we live now” in the San Francisco Chronicle
“‘The Companions’ is an urgent and heartfelt exploration, not just of what it means to be alive now, but of how we might prepare for what’s coming.”
“Talking with Katie M. Flynn,” an Interview with Heather Scott Partington in Alta Magazine
“Sci-fi novel The Companions is set in a post-pandemic California where survivors are in quarantine and the consciousnesses of the deceased are the intellectual property of a tech company.”
“Seven Books About Navigating a Post-Pandemic World” in Electric Literature
“As the pandemic subsides, questions of mortality are understandably present but the technology also raises questions about the fundamental nature of identity/self and humanity.”
“8 Pandemic-Themed Books to Read Amid Coronavirus” in The Hollywood Reporter
“Flynn's dystopian story explores the idea of a pandemic-ravaged world, coincidentally published amid the coronavirus. “
“Stringing Together Consciousness”: An Interview with Clancy McGilligan in Split Lip Magazine
“In writing The Companions, it was important to me to show the technology’s influence from a variety of points of view—using first person to present the oblique angles of individual perspectives in an overwhelming sea of information (and misinformation)—and across years, to consider both what it means to be a companion and what it means to be a human living with companions and then without them, to have for a time the possibility of eternal life and then to see it taken away.”