Who do you kill? Set in a near-future America, an America that has borne two terms of a Trump Presidency and is now in the first term of Donald's daughter as president, Frank Brill, a retired small-town newspaper editor, lives in a world where the populist policies Trump is currently so keen to pursue have been a reality for some years and are getting even more extreme - an erosion of abortion rights, less and less gun control, xenophobic immigration policies.
Frank, a good man, has just been given a terminal diagnosis. Rather than compile a bucket list of all the things he's ever wanted to do in his life, he instead has at the ready his 'fuck-it list'. Because Frank has had to endure more than his fair share of personal misfortune. And he has the names of those who are to blame for all of the tragedies that have befallen him.
But eventually, as he becomes more accustomed to dishing out cold revenge and the stakes get higher and higher and with a rogue county sheriff on his tail, there only remains one name left at the bottom of his fuck-it list.
Part political satire, part compulsive thriller, The F*ck-it List is John Niven at his coruscating best.
***
['I see.' Frank repeated]***
(@WmHeinemann, 26 March 2020, 400 pages, ebook, copy from @WmHeinemann via # NetGalley and voluntarily reviewed, #BlogTour 18 April via #RandomThingsTours)
***
***
I'd never heard of the author before so had no idea what to expect. I decided to take part in the tour because the title of the book made me laugh and the blurb made me want to read the book. Those are two very good reasons to pick up a book. I loved this book. I have a soft spot for satire and this made me laugh a lot. Don't get me wrong, the subject matter is pretty dark and far from funny at times but the send up of a future America where Trump has been in power for two terms and Ivanka is now in power is entirely plausible and made me laugh at times as much as I found it unsettling as well. Uncomfortable laughter? Anyway, this is a dark, dazzling book, a satirical thriller that hits every spot and ticks all of the boxes. Sheer genius! I need to read everything Niven has written like now!
