I’m surprised that this book has got so many good reviews, it really doesn’t deserve them.
The whole world is changed overnight into a dystopian caste system that virtually everyone seems to accept without much question simply because they get a free house and a job. Even though they all know that as soon as they can’t do their job they’re either euthanised or thrown into the walled off lawless slums to be at the mercy of cruel and evil, gangs.
It basically takes a bunch of dystopian themes and throws them together for the sake of a story, but it doesn’t really hold together as a story. There just seems to be this acceptance that everyone in the whole world just accepted this system and goes along with it because they all clamour to be high spenders. Like everyone would just give up social care, social security, pensions, etc., just so they can have a free house, be a slave and strive to be a high spender.
The book spends most of its time telling us how horrible and cruel the new system is with our protagonist and her husband not doing very well, only for the last small part of the book to find a bizarre way to allow them and their few friends to live happily ever after — The End!
Basically, it’s just about passable, and it’s just about readable, but not much else can be said. If you’re looking for a good dystopian story then your time and money will be better spent on something else.
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