Today it's my turn on the BlogTour Tipping Point by Michelle Cook.
Michelle lives in Worcestershire, UK, with her husband Daniel, their two young children, and a cat called Lyra Belacqua. By day, she works for the NHS, a job which she has almost as much passion for as fiction.
Her first joyful steps into creative writing were at the age of ten, when the teacher read out her short story in class. A slapstick tale of two talking kangaroos breaking out of a zoo, the work was sadly lost to history. Still, Michelle never forgot the buzz of others enjoying her words.
More recently, she has had several flash pieces published, was long-listed for the Cambridge 2020 prize for flash fiction, and placed first in the February 2020 Writers’ Forum competition with her short story The Truth About Cherry House. Tipping Point is her debut novel. Connect with Michelle Cook via https://linktr.ee/michellecookwriter
Follow @CookieM72 on Twitter, on Facebook, on Instagram, on Goodreads, on BookBub, Visit michellecookauthor, Buy Tipping Point
About the book
A tale of loss, manipulation, and the search for the truth. What would you risk to turn back the tide?
Essie Glass might have been a typical eighteen-year-old – had life not dealt her an early blow. Struggling to come to terms with the loss of her family in a terrorist attack, and left with nothing, Essie’s not kidding herself about her world. She wants change, and she’ll be honest about it, whatever the cost. From behind her keyboard, that is…
After all, this is England, 2035. Earth’s climate continues its accelerating collapse. A powerful elite controls the disaster-weary population with propaganda, intimidation, and constant surveillance.
By all appearances, Alex Langford is a respected local businessman – until Essie discovers that he’s a murderous conspirator who’d see the planet die for his fortune. When their paths collide, Essie must decide: how much is she really willing to pay for her honesty?
Her choices, and the events she sets in motion, pit her against both enemies and supposed friends as she risks more than just her life to thwart them. Will she succeed in revealing the truth? And will she survive?
Essie is consumed by survivor's guilt, which makes her susceptible to predators, vigilante causes and anything in general really. Being the only survivor of her family makes her seek acceptance, love and also some understanding of what has happened to her. It makes her doubt herself and her friends at times. Then again are her friends really who they say they are or is she just a vulnerable young adult trying to find her place in a society in the year 2035 that determines every thought and word you say.
Overall I thought it was a really good premise and read. It's a futuristic dystopian thriller with Orwellian overtones and the dangers of climate change. It's a read that fits in both the YA sub-genre and upwards.
Cook takes 21st century fears and turns them into reality, but also incorporates the paranoia, the doubt and the inevitable conspiracy theories. All of which go along with any kind of disaster or change, regardless of whether man-made or not. At this point I do have to say that allowing for an implication or belief of global corporations and or government involvement in something of global proportions does play into the misguided paranoia of many. Fiction you say? I knew it - they will shout.
But you know what they say about paranoia - it isn't paranoia when they really are out to get you. I'll be interested to see whether Cook takes this story or futuristic society forward and if so hope that it gets fleshed out more, gives the characters more depth and it's less flighty.
I enjoyed the Big Brother state ideas combined with the smallest wave of insurgence starting to create bigger waves, better resistance infrastructures, and yet simultaneously the complete chaos caused by the police state and complete surveillance. One wonders if this is a worrying look into our bleak future - 2035 is only fifteen years from now.
Buy Tipping Point at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: darkstroke / crooked cat; pub date 22 Sept. 2020. Buy at Amazon com.
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