Very interesting concept, but the execution fell a little bit flat for me. ( )

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts and opinions are my own.

First of all, the synopsis is a little misleading. It did not feel like a "Putin-esque near-future", but they did mention Russia and cyberattacks a few times. If this was supposed to be satirical, it needed more oomph. For example, the president is super shady and tortures teens by bursting their eardrums with excessively loud music. She also asks civilians to take up arms and hunt down innocent people on their own. Those people felt empowered and easily justified their actions with no evidence. Oh, and she rhymes everything she says to the public, but I have absolutely no idea why. I don't even know if the characters noticed.

After about seventy percent, I started skimming through to the end. It just became a tad too ridiculous and unbelievable for me. The previously mentioned ear drums, the lack of adulting from parents and teachers (they just went along with teenage shenanigans and barely questioned anything), and the way everything just sort of fell into place made me lose interest in the story. I also have no idea how the president managed to stay in power.

I liked the concept for the story, and I was curious how their portable lie detector would work. However, even that is only vaguely explained. The reader is supposed to believe something is possible just because someone says it is, but I want the facts to back it up. If you want me to believe something, make me believe it with the writing. They somehow ended up with two rings and used facial recognition, but I have no idea how it worked. It's set in the future, so some of the technology they were using and referencing wasn't familiar to me.

I would have enjoyed more details about their initial escape, but that was over way too quickly. The characters body-shame themselves quite often, and even one of the adults makes fun of a girl for being overweight. The author mentions her being carried multiple times, and not because she's weak or tired. It's implied that she's slowing them down because she's too heavy and slow to keep up.

Some of the characters formed instant attachments to people, and in the end I just couldn't do it anymore. It's hard to explain exactly how I felt... there was just something off about the entire story. It didn't flow together or hold my attention, and I can't get lost in a book that I don't believe in.

Originally posted at Do You Dog-ear? on July 24, 2018. ( )

Literary Merit: Good
Characterization: Very good
Recommendations: Yes
Reading Level: upper middle school, high school

A group of teenagers take on a corrupt government using the lie detector device they created, making everyone wonder if the truth can really solve all the world problems.

Very interesting and entertaining read. You felt for the characters and wanted to see them succeed and have everything work out. You also wanted to see the good guys win and have truth be all that we need to make a better world. ( )

I received an ARC of this novel from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Future Will Be B.S. Free is an astoundingly timely tale set in a near-future, post-war, dystopian America where news outlets have been reduced to propaganda machines for the government, the economy and public education have tanked, and the government itself is of questionable merit (sound familiar?). Sick of living in poverty under the thumb of corrupt police officers, a group of gifted teens develop a new technology that makes it impossible to get away with telling a lie. But this new-found tech comes at a cost, and this group of friends is left questioning if absolute truth is really worth the casualties along the way. This fast-paced, thought-provoking YA novel is engaging, unpredictable, and eerily plausible. ( )

The best Sci Fi books have me saying "This could really happen!" throughout the story. I said these words many times in "The Future will be BS Free". The book takes a problem we currently have--that politicians and wealthy businessmen benefit and profit from lying--and has some teenagers working on a way to solve the problem. Before the story begins Russia has ruined the US economy by hacking our banks. That was my biggest This could really happen. There are some down-sides to complete honesty and the author does a good job of pointing this out. I had a lot of fun reading this book and comparing it to our current news. ( )