A corrosive work of speculative fiction that may put readers even more on edge than they already are.
In former presidential candidate Yang’s first novel, doomsday looms for American democracy in the months leading up to the 2024 election.
No one is safe in America anymore. The latest victims of violence include a female Supreme Court justice shot to death in Washington, D.C., and a Democratic state senator gunned down in Michigan. At the Republican convention in Milwaukee, fighting between anarchists and the Proud Boys leaves three dead and 17 wounded. The only hope for turning things around is underdog third-party candidate Cooper Sherman, a charismatic, straight-talking billionaire running on the “Unfuck America” ticket. Never mind those sex clubs he once frequented. “Scandal is no longer a barrier to a candidate’s success,” according to his campaign manager, Mikey Ricci. “It's a requirement.” And with the Joint Chiefs of Staff poised to seize power in the increasingly likely event that the election goes off the rails, there are graver concerns than a candidate’s peccadilloes. Not that evidence of the secret plot will be reported in the New York Times. “They'll find reasons not to run it,” thinks the tip-line supervisor who discovered evidence of the plot. Though the novel has the markings of satire, details—including candidates hiring “selfie consultants” and Kim Kardashian conferring with Matthew McConaughey about his “gun-responsibility social media strategy”—are too believable to laugh at. Yang says Marche “did the heavy lifting writing this novel” and that the “stories and recollections” of Zach Graumann, Yang’s campaign manager, “form the backbone of this book.” While their collective contributions don’t cut very deep, their zinging broadsides make for lively and unsettling reading.
A corrosive work of speculative fiction that may put readers even more on edge than they already are.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781636141503
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Akashic
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fun read. Terrorists make great Clancy fodder.
Evildoers plan attacks from America to India, and Jack Ryan Jr. is a prime target.
In Washington state, a man and his family are murdered, and President Jack Ryan learns it is another Poseidon Spear incident. Three retired members of that counterterrorism group have been killed now, and the U.S. government suspects a mole in its midst. Meanwhile, the Umayyad Revolutionary Council believes it has a holy and wholly anti-American mission. Against this backdrop, Jack Ryan Jr., and his fiancée, Lisanne Robertson, visit Delhi, India, to attend the wedding of Srini Rai, the brilliant surgeon who attached Lisanne’s prosthetic left arm. Lisanne had lost her arm in Tom Clancy Shadow of the Dragon (2020). Jack and Lisanne are both operators working for the Campus, a covert group that executes secret presidential directives. A wedding is a happy occasion, and the engaged American couple intend the trip as a vacation. Jack and Lisanne will attend a sangeet, an elaborate pre-wedding party. But it isn’t long before they survive a suicide bomb attack. As with all Clancy novels, there’s plenty of action on a global scale. In simultaneous strikes, terrorists plan to contaminate America’s Western water supply with radioactive waste from Washington’s Hanford nuclear power plant, blow up a spectacular new bridge in Kashmir, and kill the evil Ryan—or Junior, at least. It will be At-Takwir, the end of days. There is an appealing mix of Indian culture, high-speed action, and the rich lode of details that characterizes the whole series. And in the background lingers the question on several characters’ minds: Have Jack and Lisanne set their own wedding date?
A fun read. Terrorists make great Clancy fodder.Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9780593718032
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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