This story really, really annoyed me. The prose was self-indulgent and samey, the characters were irritating, and the plot was weak.
I couldn't fathom why anyone would want to protest in favour of a new type of advertising. I mean there are plenty of perfectly reasonable and just causes to inspire you to take to the streets, but tree advertising is not one of them. Honestly, what would a protest even achieve? Unless this future exists in some socialist paradise were everything is controlled by the government, including advertising (which may have been hinted at by comments about legislation regarding advertising - legislation stating what, exactly?), there seems to be no point in protesting in favour of a new form of advertising. If it is actually better, then people will vote with their feet and adopt it.
That being said I was never convinced of its virtue. For one, I wasn't sure why anyone would want a tree on their shoulder. Those that would, aren't the type of people to be so enamoured with a product that they want to use the new body mod to advertise it. And only advertising one product? Surely that's a terrible use of advertising space? The fact that having a tree attached to you would be super inconvenient has already been mentioned, so I won't go over that again.
I was actually pretty confused, in part by the names, in part by the jumpy nature of the prose, and in part by the lack of decent characterisation, about who was who in this story. It was jarring that the story was told both in the third and first person, without any real explanation until towards the end. I had trouble sympathising with the protagonist because I wasn't actually sure who she was, apart from someone who really loves plants, i mean,
really loves them, especially jasmine, seriously, we get the damn point about jasmine, stop telling us in painfully prosaic language about sex with the damn jasmine.
The plot lacked any real conflict, especially when the dieing plants didn't seem to be much of an issue beyond leaving you with annoying deadwood and no more fuck-buddies. If people's lives, not just their sex lives, had been at risk, or if the main character and her connection with her Durian had been someone with which we could sympathise, maybe i might have cared, but as it was, there was nothing to really care about. That a cure would be found was pretty predictable, and there never seemed to be any real threat if one wasn't. I'm not sure anything changed by the end of th story. The good guys won, the evil cooperations were defeated (I'd have gotten away with it, if it weren't for you meddling kids), and no-one seemed to learn anything, least of all the main characters, who were exactly as dull and defined by their sex with trees as before.
Possibly my least favourite Escape Artist product to date.