Welcome to Dystopia 5

I was fortunate to get a review copy of Welcome To Dystopia from OR Books through NetGalley. It is a collection of 45 short stories based on the current world, with a main focus on the Trump administration. Since 45 reviews are quite a lot, I will be splitting this into 5 reviews each of 9 stories so this will be the last review in a series, you can read the first review here, the second one here, the third one here and the fourth one here.

One fell swoop by James Morrow

I quite enjoyed this story as it showed the republican point of view, which I felt was under represented in this anthology. However as I am not a republican, I also enjoyed how it all went wrong for them at the end.

BK Girls by TS Vale

I found this story a little confusing but think it was a version of the handmaid’s tale that takes place under an Islamic Extremists regime in America.

Isn’t Life Great by Don D’Ammassa

I loved this story as it was funny and easy going. I would love to see this world turned into a full length novel so that I can spend more time in this world.

The Men Will Be Hungry Afterwards by Ray Vukcevich

I wasn’t very sure what happened in this one, but I do know that the end was very alarming. This story features sexual assault.

The Road South by Madeleine E. Robins and Becca Caccavo

I quite liked this story, but unfortunately my proof was badly formatted so I found it hard to follow. I did however, like the characters.

Skippy’s Visit East by Michael Kandel

This story contained a lot of worldbuilding that was interwoven with the plot left me feeling confused. I was wondering if it was based on the Skippy tv show but wasn’t sure as I haven’t seen the show.

Designed for Your Safety by Elizabeth Bourne

I like this story a lot as it was clear and easy to understand. I liked how this was the start of things going wrong, so the world was not already in ruin.

Extreme Bedding by David Marusek

This was a weird story that I found easy to understand what was happening but found it quite hard to work out why. In this story a lot of people were labeled as terrorists, and I wondered if this was done in the same way that Trump has a habit of labeling of people of colour as terrorists as none of these ‘terrorists’ seemed to be scary or in any way threatening.