by Peter Watts

This was my second time reading Blindsight, the first was as an audiobook. I'm not sure what drew me back - I think I saw someone mention the vampire-thing online, which I remembered. And I remembered it being somehow about consciousness in general, but I couldn't remember the specifics. I've been enjoying rereading fiction I read a long time ago lately so I picked it up.

I definitely feel some connection with Siri Keaton. I can remember at times trying to decipher middle school social behavior and adjust my own actions to fit. And somewhere in that was the sense that "I'm smart. This is a puzzle I can figure out". But having that layer of analysis running all the time can be a hindrance, and can pull you out of sync with yourself. I had totally forgotten that some of Siri's relation stuff hit emotionally close to home for me. The trap of getting caught up trying to understand and enact the social rules of a situation rather than showing up genuinely definitely resonated.