The People's Republic of Love, by Heather Child
The Book
Synopsis:
Tamsin is an engineer who likes to remain firmly behind the scenes. But when her best friend gets caught up in a twisted, life-threatening reality show, she must follow Charlotte across the ocean to a place where there is no escaping the spotlight, the infamous People’s Republic of Love.
In this newly created country, ruled by whoever has the most online followers, Tamsin must build herself a sensational backstory, using any trick or scandalous lie she can. But she does not yet understand how this country works, with its intoxicating blend of power and popularity. It seems the Republic will give you everything you desire… if you hand over your whole self in return.
My Review
The People's Republic of Love is a sci-fi/dystopic thriller written by Heather Child, published by SRL Publishing. A prescient look at how social following can be leveraged as power and currency, mimicking nowadays celebrities in a dystopic vision, all enveloped in a well-paced thriller, gripping and thought-provoking.
After a bad experience as a child actress, Tamsin decided to avoid the spotlight and just work as a tunnel engineer; all until a magazine shoot makes her number of followers explode, putting her on the way to stardom.
Her best friend, Charlotte, a professional actress, has been picked for a reality in the People's Republic of Love, a country made for and by influencers where followers is the real currency; when Tamsin discovers that Charlotte is being victimised by her ex, she's persuaded by a mutual friend to ride the wave of her recent popularity and use it as the way to get invited to the Republic and save Charlotte. But Tamsin will also be seduced by what's happening there, finding more difficulties to save her friend that she expected.
The whole concept of the Republic ends up being relatively dystopic, as you can see how followers are directly translated into power, but also a concept that can prey on many people, even if they are not directly interested in it. The own Tamsin is a great example, as even if she only came back to the social game in order to save Charlotte, we can see how the mermaid chants attached to the country have the effect of deviating her of the plan she cautiously devised, threatening to keep her in what essentially is a gilded jail.
Alternating the POVs of Charlotte and Tamsin creates a nice contrast effect, between somebody that actively persecuted to be a star, that is hustling to maintain the status, and a person that tried to avoid becoming social until she needed it in order to save her friend.
The pacing is a bit slow at the start, and personally, I feel it would have worked a bit better if more of the narrative weight was shifted towards the final part; said that, in general I found it enjoyable.
The People's Republic of Love is a prescient and well-executed sci-fi thriller, a novel that examines what could happen if social media and celebrity fame were taken to the extreme; a great novel by Heather Child.
The Author/s
Heather Child
Heather Child is based in Bristol, and previously lived in the Midlands after studying at the University of Warwick. Alongside writing she has had an eclectic career in marketing and communications, working for various charities, with a particular interest in sustainability.
Her two novels are published by Orbit (Little, Brown). She is a prize-winning short story writer and her work has been widely published – find it in Mslexia, Under the Radar, various Storgy anthologies, HerCircle, the Bristol Post, the Big Issue and Notes from the Underground online.