--- title: Hum: 100 Must-Read Books of 2024 description: Find out why "Hum" is on TIME's list of the must-read books of the year. canonical: https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172881/hum/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-11-13T13:03:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-03T00:42:18.928Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: 'Hum' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2024 og:description: Here's why it made the list og:url: https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172881/hum/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb94c5f8e099ff8ff/698a8d0216d88474d4c440d0/Hum-Helen-Phillips.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 'Hum' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2024 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Hum' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2024 twitter:description: Here's why it made the list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb94c5f8e099ff8ff/698a8d0216d88474d4c440d0/Hum-Helen-Phillips.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Nov 13, 2024 # Hum by [Annabel Gutterman](/author/annabel-gutterman/) ## Annabel Gutterman Senior Editor  In her latest unsettling thriller, Helen Phillips conjures a terrifying near future crippled by climate change where AI bots called “hums” have infiltrated every aspect of modern life. The novel begins as May, a young mother who just lost her job to artificial intelligence, undergoes an experimental surgery in exchange for some much-needed cash. With her earnings, she takes her family on a trip to the Botanical Garden, one of the only places in New York still lush with trees and grass. But May’s dream of a vacation quickly turns into a nightmare when unforeseen danger is thrown her way. Phillips examines the intersection of technology and humanity in this quietly unnerving story about the lengths a mother will go to protect her children. **Buy Now:** _Hum_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9781668008836 "undefined") | [Amazon](https://amzn.to/3NVgI22 "undefined") | [Barnes & Noble](https://fave.co/48Hd5X1 "undefined") These are independent reviews of the products mentioned, but TIME receives a commission when purchases are made through affiliate links at no additional cost to the purchaser. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172881/hum/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172881/hum/"},"headline":"Hum","datePublished":"2024-11-13T13:03:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T00:42:18.928Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172881/hum/","keywords":["Books","E-Commerce","list","franchise"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb94c5f8e099ff8ff/698a8d0216d88474d4c440d0/Hum-Helen-Phillips.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Annabel Gutterman","jobTitle":"Senior Editor","url":"https://time.com/author/annabel-gutterman/"}],"creator":"Annabel Gutterman","articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb94c5f8e099ff8ff/698a8d0216d88474d4c440d0/Hum-Helen-Phillips.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2024/7172881/hum/","name":"Hum"}}]}] ```