{"id":10054,"date":"2024-01-25T21:59:23","date_gmt":"2024-01-26T01:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/?p=10054"},"modified":"2024-01-25T22:13:45","modified_gmt":"2024-01-26T02:13:45","slug":"book-review-outrage-level-10-by-lucy-leitner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/book-review-outrage-level-10-by-lucy-leitner\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Outrage: Level 10 by Lucy Leitner"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cover<\/a><\/p>\n

Outrage: Level 10 <\/em>by Lucy Leitner<\/p>\n

Blood Bound Publishing, 2021<\/p>\n

ISBN: 9781940250496<\/p>\n

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition<\/p>\n

Buy: Amazon.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Outrage Level 10<\/em> succeeds as both a thriller and a darkly humorous look at today\u2019s overly sensitive “cancel culture” society taken to extremes.\u00a0 It\u2019s an exciting story, and the setting will force readers to ask questions about where we are headed as a society, and what we would consider a “perfect\u2019” world.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a strange future that Alex Malone, ex-head breaker for the now-defunct Pittsburgh Penguins (a hockey team) and now a cop, lives in.\u00a0 There is no more government, just the Speaker, as the mouthpiece of the People; the Hammer, who is the People\u2019s enforcer and\u2026 that\u2019s it.\u00a0 It\u2019s all the will of the People in regards to policy, crime, and everything else, decided by popular vote of the citizens through their phones and various social applications.\u00a0 Almost all crime consists of someone offending someone else.\u00a0 Once it\u2019s been posted online, if the outrage meter hits high enough through people commenting, the offenders face the Hammer, who most likely will condemn the perpetrators to the mysterious Maze, from which almost no one returns.\u00a0 People do live much longer, since all diseases have been cured, or the causing substances banned, but is it worth the price?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That\u2019s the world of Alex, and as a cop, he\u2019s a member of an almost unnecessary profession (apparently “defund the police”\u00a0 REALLY took hold) since everything is by popular fiat, and everyone is policing each other.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t help that the few cops left are reviled by pretty much everyone.\u00a0\u00a0 Alex tries a new drug designed to treat his CTE, and the drug, through visions, pulls him into a mystery involving senior citizens disappearing from retirement homes.\u00a0 As Alex soon finds out, it\u2019s hard to solve a case that affects the few people left in power, and even harder when everyone is looking for an excuse, real or imagined, to take him down.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The plotline is an intriguing mystery and a tough nut to crack.\u00a0 Alex makes an excellent protagonist, and is sympathetic as a person who really has no value in a politically correct society.\u00a0 That is, until he remembers the old police motto, “to protect and serve”.\u00a0 In Leitner\u2019s world, protecting means eliminating anyone whom you disagree with, not helping for the common good.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Leitner”s vision of a world gone crazy provides the excellent story backdrop.\u00a0 She wisely keeps her own views out of it, instead using her razon-sharp humor to get the point across, without coming off as preachy.\u00a0 That\u2019s the mark of excellent satire; the ability to write without tipping your own hand to the readers.\u00a0 She\u2019s shown this skill in other works like Bad Vibrations<\/em>, and it\u2019s on full display here.\u00a0 Leitner has created a terrifying world, where people are condemned for accidentally serving the wrong food, since that can be seen as aggression or some sort of -ism.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bottom line: another excellent work from one of the smartest writers of dystopian satire today.\u00a0 Recommended.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Outrage: Level 10 by Lucy Leitner Blood Bound Publishing, 2021 ISBN: 9781940250496 Available: Paperback, Kindle edition Buy: Amazon.com   Outrage Level 10 succeeds as both a thriller and a darkly humorous look at today\u2019s overly sensitive “cancel culture” society taken to extremes.\u00a0 It\u2019s an exciting story, and the setting will force readers to ask questions<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5385,5547,3577,416,645,749,5198,5548,5546,448,3502],"class_list":["post-10054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-blood-bound-books","tag-cancel-culture","tag-democracy","tag-dystopian-fiction","tag-horror-book-reviews","tag-horror-books","tag-lucy-leitner","tag-outrage-level-10","tag-political-satire","tag-social-media","tag-thriller-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10054"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10058,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10054\/revisions\/10058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}