Genre:
Satire
Description:
“A
post-Brexit, post-Trump romp through the world of what-if...
“In
a world where democracy has been declared no longer fit for purpose,
a cohort of randomly-selected British Republic citizens receives
their call to serve in parliament. As the strangers gather to learn
their tasks for the next three years, the Cabinet Support Team tries
to fit jobs to skills—but Queenie can’t do nuffin’. Naturally
she becomes head of state. Together the new government muddles
through, tackling unrest on the streets and a spot of global
bioterrorism in addition to their own journeys of self-discovery.”
Author:
A
native of the UK, Carolyn has worked in a number of professions, from
psychologist to driving a semi-truck to an editor and proofreader.
Then there's this author thing too, with two non-fiction books to her
credit as well as contributing to several more. This book appears to
be her first published work of fiction.
Appraisal:
I'm
not sure where to start in trying to describe Queenie's
Teapot, even in picking a
genre. The premise is much like you'd expect from a dystopian novel,
a “what if” imagined to the ultimate, but things never get bad
enough to qualify as a dystopia. (Of course, the opposite of a
dystopia is a utopia, and that doesn't fit either.) The author
described it as satire, and that's not totally unreasonable.
At
least satire is reasonable other than the quibble that satire is
typically based on reality, but the world imagined here isn't reality
with the figureheads of government (heads of state, cabinet
ministers, etc.) picked semi-randomly by people working in the
background. Well, not reality unless you buy into some of the more
wild conspiracy theories floating around. I'll assume you don't.
Lack
of knowing how to describe the story didn't stop me from getting
drawn in. The protagonist, Queenie Mason, was likeable and made me
want her to succeed. (That's why she got picked as head of state, not
because of her name, although that couldn't have hurt.) The deeper
into the story I got, the more I understood the satire. I got the
point of the what if. Some of you might see it as a dystopia after
all. At a minimum it's a fun little political adventure and if you
want, it'll also get you thinking.
FYI:
Uses
UK spelling. Also, lots of UK slang and forms of expression.
Format/Typo
Issues:
No
significant issues
Rating:
***** Five Stars
Reviewed
by: BigAl
Approximate word count:
95-100,000 words
1 comment:
This one sounds fun.
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