“Deep down everyone in this purgatory knew they’ve been conned, but they were all too scared to make a peep.”
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Hoo boy, Orange City will twist your melon! I would say this book is 1984 if Tyler Durden had learned advertising from Black Buck. Our main characters are all people who are living in a dystopian city separate from the rest of the world. The leader “The Man” is a megalomaniac who is trying to build a utopia in the vision of Stalin, a project that has begun to go awry. He has also begun to alter his body in the creepiest of ways to build his confidence and power. He has the citizens of this city under his control as he has rescued them from less than ideal circumstances in the real world and they are essentially indentured servants. We follow a small group of them who surround our star, Graham. He’s a nobody that has undergone lots of abuse in his life and is just trying to find a stable piece of ground upon which to build his life.
When he is offered an assignment to test some new sodas for an advertising campaign, he quickly finds himself in over his head. The sodas are the newest plan for The Man to have more control over his city. The addiction is instant and the impacts on the individual are sweeping. The more Graham consumes, the more he begins to question just how grateful he should be to be living in the City. The immersive power of advertising reminded me of the insanity of the recent hit Black Buck and made for an enjoyable page turner.
Thanks to Blackthorn Book Tours for a copy of this novel. All opinions above are my own.
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