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Gamechanger (The Bounceback, #1)

L.X. Beckett

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Dec 04, 2020 thefourthvine rated it it was ok

Shelves: near-future, dystopia, apocalypse

Let's start with the good stuff: I really do like that authors are trying to imagine new ways we might live, ways to be human without destroying the planet or ourselves. And this is one such book.

Okay, that said, let's move on to what didn't work, which is: the entire rest of the novel!

So, first, while I do love to see a good "how we can live differently" book, ideally the answer wouldn't be "by creating a panopticon dystopia." Now, I don't know for sure that Beckett knew they were creating one, Let's start with the good stuff: I really do like that authors are trying to imagine new ways we might live, ways to be human without destroying the planet or ourselves. And this is one such book.

Okay, that said, let's move on to what didn't work, which is: the entire rest of the novel!

So, first, while I do love to see a good "how we can live differently" book, ideally the answer wouldn't be "by creating a panopticon dystopia." Now, I don't know for sure that Beckett knew they were creating one, but that is sure what they did. First and foremost, that panopticon thing: in this future world, every single word you say and move you make and thing you see goes on your transcript, which can be accessed by anyone at any time. That alone made my flesh crawl. And then the rest of this world is essentially "the internet, but with stricter moderation, but that's the entire world," which -- okay, we'll get to the worldbuilding problems in a second. In the meantime: oh god what an absolute fucking nightmare. This is indeed a dystopia, and the fact that everyone is cheerful doesn't change that.

So now let's talk about the worldbuilding. In this universe, we've been through the Setback (what we're doing right now, when everything tips over into apocalypse) and the Clawback (when people are forcibly moved into camps, plagues run rampant, the climate collapses). The book is written during the Bounceback, which is an attempted recovery from the apocalypse. And. After all of that, and despite the panopticon dystopia thing, nothing is actually different. This world is basically "memes and 2020 internet lingo and old fandom references as a culture" and I don't understand how it could be. Also, the author makes a ton of unwarranted assumptions about how humans work. A single example: according to this book, having your every move watched all the time and instant sentencing for any infraction will basically end violent crime. Do they ... not understand why humans commit violent crime? Do they think logic comes into it? (Are they aware that that has been tried before?) And everything is like that. D-, please try to meet some humans before you attempt worldbuilding again. Also, let's just say the political structure of this world is -- vague. There are countries? And a world government? And local authorities? And there is NO explanation of how any of this works together at ALL, or (despite the fact that our main character is a lawyer) how the law actually functions. Again: no.

And I'd like to highlight an especially terrible aspect of the worldbuilding. This is the whitest diverse future I've ever read, and boy, I've read some dillies. People are various shades of brown! That's it, that's the diversity. Oh, sure, we get a mention that Asian countries are the superpowers now, but is there any reckoning with racism? Is there even an acknowledgement that racism existed? Is there any explanation of where it went? No. Does the author acknowledge that their Reddit-inspired social currency (you get strokes for doing well and strikes for doing poorly, and anyone can give them at any time) would be unjustly rigged against specific groups of people? No. Also, Indigenous people -- stewards of the land in many places and EXACTLY who you would want leading your effort to repair the world -- just. Do not exist, apparently. And there's a lot of discussion of Catholicism and its special privileges, and one mention of the Amish, but zero mention of other religions, or how they fit into this weird new world order and what privileges they are accorded. (Also, and this will not surprise you: this book is ableist as all hell. There's a fun note that the father of the main character is no longer entitled to medical care because, uh, he has PTSD, had an episode, and self-harmed. Remember when I said this was a dystopia? YUP.) You get the feeling the author can really only see in shades of WASP.

Beyond that, this book is simultaneously trying to do WAY too much -- there's a plot twist, predictably, about every four chapters, and there are a LOT of chapters in this book, so eventually I was just laughing at the new ones -- and boring as hell. It just. Drags. On. Forever. And then, just when you think it cannot be any duller, you are forced to read a lengthy, play-by-play description of someone playing a video game, which is somehow even less entertaining than you would think it is. And yet it happens SEVERAL TIMES.

I'm going to sum up this review in a way both the author and the characters, despite their immense differences, would find #relatable. TL;DR: