The Choice - Clare Wade

Description

Imagine a world where...

Everything you ate was monitored by the government.

Every step you took was counted.

Your children were weighed every day at school.

Neighbours reported on neighbours and no one was safe from judgement.

Sugar was illegal, and baking was a crime.

Imagine if that world was here... What would you do?

Toe the line or fight for your freedom...

Review

This is a novel set in England in a dystopian future where Sugar is a Class A substance and possession of it can get you into a lot of trouble. You may end up in the shame box which is a glass cube in a public place.

We meet Olivia who used to be a baker before baking was banned seven years previously. For this reason Olivia is extremely hurt by the sugar ban and the surrender of all of her cake making equipment. She tries her best to do everything the government (headed up by Mother Mason) requires of her and her family.

There is some veiled humour in the book, such as when Olivia bakes a Mother Mason approved bake which her son describes as a cake in public. Olivia is distraught that she will be reported for them eating cake when it was in fact an approved "bake".

The book started out well but then for me it dragged on and I lost a bit of interest in it. I was also thinking it wasn't a bad thing that sugar was banned and that people had to exercise, worse things could happen to you. Thankfully about a third of the way through the book Olivia finds her inner fight and the plot took a very different turn. I was actually scared for Olivia on a couple of occasions and just as surprised as she was when she got arrested.

Other than Olivia I didn't think that the characters were fully developed and we don't really get to know them. Towards the end I really did feel Olivia's pain and it did start a little train of though it my head of what if.....

I'm giving this book four out of five stars. My thanks to netgalley for the ARC to review.

Comments

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