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Janet Ryan inhabits a new kind of America, a country ruled by fear. When her parents confide in Janet about their plans to flee to a place off the grid, she is dumbfounded. Her father explains how he helped the government keep its citizens confined in a variation of a "fifteen-minute city." But now he has reached the age of fifty-five, an age of redundancy where the only use the government has for you is as test subjects in a retirement community. While stunned by her parents' departure, Janet reunites with an old friend who tells her of an activist group that seeks to learn the unvarnished history of the United States. Janet agrees to meet with someone from the group and is soon off in uncharted territory, speaking to elders who live on a reservation, showing her a world she was unacquainted with. However, Janet is unaware that Homeland Security agents are aware of her atypical behavior and are making plans.
This gripping dystopian drama is set in an authoritarian state where the news is sensationalized, the past is redacted, and the air is lethal. Janet's intellectual awakening is arresting from the very beginning. Her character is infused with naivete, yet the people she meets on her journey, such as Rachel (aka Old Woman), disabuse her of her perceived innocence. There are fraught moments when Janet is judged for the sins of the past, and those moments allow her to look inward. Whereas Janet's enlightenment forms a compelling portion of the narrative, the semi-inconspicuous machinations of Homeland Security agents, suspicious of Janet's behavior, add a layer of intrigue and suspense to the story. This is an intelligent, deep, and affecting read that gives off 1984 vibes but adds a twenty-first-century touch that is disturbingly apt.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review