Strong Female Reads book club discussion

Thread for discussing the second Strong Female Reads book, The Peripheral by William Gibson

I am so glad I decided to read this book - thank you Kate and Deborah for suggesting it!
I'd never heard of the book before and from the blurb it wasn't the kind of thing I would usually buy, but I really enjoyed it. I loved the short, pacy chapters that kept me going for hours on end, and the way Gibson doesn't 'info-dump' at all, instead letting you figure it out as you go along.

Flynne is a great Strong Female Lead too. She doesn't flinch in the face of danger and she's not afraid to make difficult decisions, but she's multi-dimensional; she is empathetic and clearly loves her family and friends. It's not often you see a SFL allowed to be both tough and caring, and I found that refreshing, especially in a book written by a man.
Lowbeer is another great female character, in a different way to Flynne. (view spoiler)[We don't really get to see beyond the tough James Bond-esque exterior until Flynne's discovery about Griff, at which point the mask slips a little. I loved Lowbeer even more in that moment, andI don't think it felt at all tokenistic. (hide spoiler)]

The ending wasn't was I expected though, and it let me down a little. (view spoiler)[I thought it was too 'happy families', that Flynne and Wilf get new partners in their own timeline and never really address their obvious feelings for each other (beyond a few lines that Wilf says to Rainey). I'm not annoyed that Flynne ended up with Tommy, whom I liked a lot, just that I would have liked a scene between her and Wilf where they acknowledge that it wouldn't have worked and that they need to be with other people. (hide spoiler)]

I also wanted to know more about Flynne's friends, like Shaylene and Macon backstories, and a bit more about the war that messed up Conner and Burton. (Also, did anyone else read Macon and Edward as a couple, or was that just my imagination?)

What did you all think?

I am 62% of the way through and I think I've gotten my head around this- but I think when I finish I may have to come back and re-read this (after a little break!)

The last quarter ties up a lot of the loose ends - keep going!

Are you finished now Kristine? What did you think of it in the end?

Yep all finished but to be honest I think I'm only a little less confused than at the beginning! I really liked the characters and yep I definitely read the relationship between Macon and Edward as being a couple. I liked that it was all subtle so it was nothing out of the ordinary.

The lead character was great- there was no conversation or premise in the book that men and women belong to certain stereotypes in day to day life or jobs. There were no tropes as such.

I have to say that I was disappointed by there being a love story between lead character from the past and lead from the future- however saying that I was pleasantly surprised that the male character took on the stereotypical female traits when it came to emotions etc. In relation to that. (By the way I am always disappointed by love stories these days as it feels like people push them into the story for no reason other than something to do!)

I feel like this is going to be my new wuthering heights- a book that baffled me when I first read it but I love it and keep going back and learning new things.

P.S. sorry for lack of details and character names- I seem to have an inability to retain that kind of information and/or explain it adequately afterwards!