A review by anjumstar
Amongst the Liberal Elite: The Road Trip Exploring Societal Inequities Solidified by Trump (Resist) by Elly Lonon

3.0

While I found a lot of the anxious rants that Alex went on highly relatable, this book was, in many ways, untouchably over the top. I understand heightened dialogue in fiction being a thing, but as a very liberal person myself among almost exclusively radical liberal folk, I've never, ever heard anyone spout stuff like the things these two characters did. Yeah, the jokes using various liberal people and things in the place of God were funny, and effective despite the fact that I can't imagine someone actually speaking like that. But the way the characters rattled off every supposed climate-minded purchase/decision they were making in everyday conversation felt hollow. Especially since so many of these things are much more complicated than they seem from a climate perspective. Of course, with Alex and Michael being the only 2 real verbal characters, there exists no one to call them out when they're being overly simplistic, and I can get that as kind of a snapshot, slice of life conceit of the book, but it was off-putting to me as a real liberal person trying to navigate these decisions myself. The characters were interestingly critical of each other, but not very critical of themselves outside of Alex feeling like she wasn't doing enough, which, of course, we all feel that way and it was very relatable. But yeah, I don't know, if I saw their instagram page I'd probably gag with how performative it all seemed. There were moments I enjoyed but I'm not sure exactly what we were meant to get out of this book. The characters didn't seem sure either, so maybe that was the point. I did enjoy it, don't get me wrong. But I'd be hesitant about recommending it to someone else.