*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.
I did NOT intend this to be so damn relatable to the real world right now just… UGH!
In a techno-authoritarian China, three young rebels meet at a protest: Maggie, Andy, and Olivia. As things spiral, Maggie becomes more violent and after a failed attack, the three are separated; Maggie is in prison, Olivia flees to Taiwan, and Andy just tries to get through his life. Fast forward to 2035, society is even more restrictive prompting a series of events that bring the three on a crash course to reuniting.
This is certainly not an uplifting read but I feel a lot of the more mainstream fictional discourse around standing up against oppression is romanticized in a way. Like in Star Wars, The Matrix, or The Hunger Games; there is a sense of glory and heroism to the story but this is dirty, crude, bloody, and just depressing. Fighting the system changes people and not in the best of ways. The 2035 setting is fictional but the real-life events this book references ground the book into grim reality. 5 out of 5.
