Meredith Costain

Representation: Black character

6/10, this was my first realistic book of 2023 and I was hoping to enjoy this after reading one that turned out to be a snorefest last year but this just wasn't an improvement since I found some issues in this and I doubt I would pick this one up again, where do I even begin. The main character Catalina Parkes Perez otherwise known as Cata is forced to move from Western Australia to the Parliament House in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory; at first it looked interesting but it soon deteriorated from there. She acts spoiled and stubborn at first but she develops her character and the climate change message was so overt it felt like it was shoved in my face. The "PM" is such a tyrant (because she locked the entire child population down just because of the Agitators), I was actually rooting for the opposition. There was a plot point about the Agitators but it felt so dragged and unnecessary and they might've been part of the group against Cata's mother. There was only one joke in this book and that was about the Queen at the time when this was written being asked for 'modern furniture' but it fell flat. In the end the Prime Minister regains control of Parliament and that ends it on a high note.… (más)

This is the novelisation of the series and it shows with some rather stilted dialog between the characters and some episodic "cliff hanger" chapters that fizzle out in the first pages of the following one. The story has an interesting enough premise, Cat is the daughter of single mother, immigrant PM of Australia who has just moved from her home town Perth to Canberra and must cope with being the PMs daughter and all the BS that comes with that as well as coping with a new school, making friends, new house, etc. Then there is the political intrigue thrown in on top - underhanded tactics by other pols towards her Mum, activist groups protesting and staging incidents that disrupt PM events and also real terrorist threats. The plot is all there BUT the friendship between the teenagers is not authentic and reads false - very strained conversations and the attempt at Romance (oh please). The series "All Fall Down" is much, much better if you want teenagers running around with political intrigue on top.… (más)