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rzahradnik's review
5.0
Janet Stilson’s debut science fiction novel “The Juice” is a shocking thrill-ride through a dark near-future in which media is controlled by government and people’s dreams are invaded by that same media. Mega corps—maybe just a little more mega than we have now—dominate news and entertainment, injecting political messages into “dreamisodes” over which subscribers believe they have control. They’re wrong. Charisma comes out of bottle—a needle really—and creates superpowered humans who can drive millions to do evil on a global scale. Only three people, unknown to each other, can end the media-tech tyranny. As Stilson is a veteran media journalist, she brings frightening realism to a future that could be heading our way. Sci-fi mystery, romance and the cautionary tale we need right now, “The Juice” is for fans of “Neuromancer,” “Snow Crash” and other novels of dystopian worlds.
bclubbetty's review
3.0
Not a bad story, really interesting concept but the language got on my nerves, found myself skim reading the second half just to find out what happened.... full review ro follow
mbearz12's review
4.0
Overall, I felt this book was entertaining and explored some interesting themes and ideas. It was a new and creative take on a dystopian society novel, and it really benefitted from the author's personal experience in the media industry. I also liked how the story progressed from the point of view of several different characters and we slowly got to see how they were related.
That being said, I felt the pace was a little rushed with too many things going on that were not explained, and the writing style was a little awkward at times. Some events happened abruptly without much context and at times it felt like the plot was being pushed along too quickly. There were so many interesting themes and questions to explore that I wish the author had turned it into 2 or 3 books instead. And lastly, this may just be personal preference, but I did not particularly like the random teenager-y words like "amaz" and "ridic" that were getting thrown around as I found them a little distracting.
I still enjoyed this book and would be interested in reading other books by this author.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this ebook for free through a Goodreads giveaway.
Spoiler
It also touched on a wide array of themes like personal data surveillance, racism and geopolitics, subliminal messaging by government / industry, wealth inequality, gene editing and political intrigue that felt quite relevant to our current day.That being said, I felt the pace was a little rushed with too many things going on that were not explained, and the writing style was a little awkward at times. Some events happened abruptly without much context and at times it felt like the plot was being pushed along too quickly. There were so many interesting themes and questions to explore that I wish the author had turned it into 2 or 3 books instead. And lastly, this may just be personal preference, but I did not particularly like the random teenager-y words like "amaz" and "ridic" that were getting thrown around as I found them a little distracting.
I still enjoyed this book and would be interested in reading other books by this author.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this ebook for free through a Goodreads giveaway.
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