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Synopsis
No woman will have Ben without a proper bachelor{u2019}s suit ... and the tailor refuses to make him one. Back from war with a nameless enemy, he{u2019}s just discovered that his mother is dead and that his family home has been reassigned by the state. As if that isn{u2019}t enough, he must now find a wife, or he{u2019}ll be made a civil servant and given a permanent spot in one of the city{u2019}s oppressive factories. Meanwhile, Meeks, a foreigner who lives in the park and imagines he{u2019}s a member of the police, is hunted by the overzealous Brothers of Mercy. Meeks{u2019}s survival depends on his peculiar friendship with a police captain{u2014}but will that be enough to prevent his execution at the annual Independence Day celebration? A dark satire rendered with all the slapstick humor of a Buster Keaton film, Julia Holmes{u2019}s debut novel evokes the strange charm of a Haruki Murakami novel in a dystopic setting reminiscent of Margaret Atwood{u2019}s The Handmaid{u2019}s Tale. Meeks portrays a world at once hilarious and disquieting, in which frustrated revolutionaries and hopeful youths suffer alongside the lost and the condemned, just for a chance at the permanent bliss of marriage and a slice of sugar-frosted Independence Day cake.
Is Meeks appropriate for my child?
Suitable for most readers 16 and up.
This darkly satirical dystopian fantasy features state oppression, forced marriage, execution threats, and absurdist violence in the vein of Kafka. The tone is bleakly comic but deals with adult themes of totalitarianism and loss.
What to know going in
This book has moderate violence, no sexual content, and mild language. Content notes include death of parent, political violence, and execution (see the full list above).
Who'll love this
Teens interested in weird, unsettling dystopias with dark humor and social commentary will find this compelling.