Reviews with content warning for Drug abuse - The Free People's Village

The concept of the Free People's Village? Amazing. I love the idea of autonomous zones, especially ones that crop up in protest. Some of the aspects of the Village - including group meals, art builds, and horizontal organization - warmed my leftist heart to see illustrated on the page. I also really appreciated many of the anti-authoritarian & abolitionist sentiments shared by the character of Gestas. He reminded me of people I know & love in real life.

Beyond the aspects mentioned above, though, I did not enjoy this book. I tried to write a thorough review explaining all of the reasons why but I ran into the Instagram character limit. Thus, I present to you a list of qualms:

1. Maddie is irritatingly spineless and naive. She has nearly zero personality beyond being in love & being afraid.

2. Maddie constantly demands the emotional labor of people of color to assuage her fears and extreme naivete.

3. The love interest, Red, is sexy but super toxic. It seemed we were supposed to be rooting for xim & Maddie. I couldn't.

4. The structure of this book is uneven and jumbled. It's a journal but the jumps in time are often abrupt.

5. Everything in this novel is heavy-handed and over-explained. All of part 1, in which the characters are introduced in unnecessarily repetitive detail, could have been eliminated & the story would have been better for it.

6. Relatedly to the above, this is a New Adult story that relies on constantly telling versus showing. I know that Kern has a background in teaching, but I didn't enjoy feeling like one of their students.

7. Parallels & meta nods to our real-world timeline were made. They were cheesy and awkward.

Content Warnings

kleinekita's review against another edition

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challenging hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

hmknerr's review

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5.0

Content Warnings

bobbi's review

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challenging reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

cynicalplankton's review

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adventurous hopeful tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

rpompom's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I was looking forward to this book and feel like it did inspire complex thought and good discussions with others. I have not seen many books with a narrator sitting with shame, guilt, desire to change and support liberation while wrestling with their privilege as explicitly. I did feel like the narrator felt a bit young (than their supposed age) and a bit flat in their exploration, sitting with so much white guilt. I did enjoy that this was not a utopian novel - it sat within an alternate timeline of dystopia and wrestled with things we are currently fighting as well.

Content Warnings

alienguy's review

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challenging hopeful reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Content Warnings

decie's review

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adventurous challenging inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Content Warnings

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