The Free People’s Village manages to balance a dystopia setting – which feels too similar to ours – and hope. Listening to this audiobook gave me chills as we witness this journey of rebellion and hope. Keep reading this book review of The Free People’s Village for my full thoughts.
Summary
In an alternate 2020 timeline, Al Gore won the 2000 election and declared a War on Climate Change rather than a War on Terror. For twenty years, Democrats have controlled all three branches of government, enacting carbon-cutting schemes that never made it to a vote in our world. Green infrastructure projects have transformed U.S. cities into lush paradises (for the wealthy, white neighborhoods, at least), and the Bureau of Carbon Regulation levies carbon taxes on every financial transaction.
English teacher by day, Maddie Ryan spends her nights and weekends as the rhythm guitarist of Bunny Bloodlust, a queer punk band living in a warehouse-turned-venue called “The Lab” in Houston’s Eighth Ward. When Maddie learns that the Eighth Ward is to be sacrificed for a new electromagnetic hyperway out to the wealthy, white suburbs, she joins “Save the Eighth,” a Black-led organizing movement fighting for the neighborhood. At first, she’s only focused on keeping her band together and getting closer to Red, their reckless and enigmatic lead guitarist. But working with Save the Eighth forces Maddie to reckon with the harm she has already done to the neighborhood—both as a resident of the gentrifying Lab and as a white teacher in a predominantly Black school.
When police respond to Save the Eighth protests with violence, the Lab becomes the epicenter of “The Free People’s Village”—an occupation that promises to be the birthplace of an anti-capitalist revolution. As the movement spreads across the U.S., Maddie dreams of a queer, liberated future with Red. But the Village is beset on all sides—by infighting, police brutality, corporate-owned media, and rising ecofascism. Maddie’s found family is increasingly at risk from state violence, and she must decide if she’s willing to sacrifice everything in pursuit of justice.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
The Free People’s Village feels so close to our reality. While that made listening hard at first, I fell into this world through the characters. Maddie’s story deconstructing her own privilege and her friends captivates you. It’s a story that embraces the importance of an individual’s actions. The ways we can start an avalanche as well as the power of us as a collective. It explores our pressure points, our mistakes, and our dreams. These characters, in their flaws and struggling fleeting ambition, take root.
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At times, it’s about this unlearning and education process. While it also paints the picture of a resistance movement, a realistic one, where not everyone has the same goals or outlooks. The intersectionality of both resistance and ambition. The Free People’s Village has been on my TBR for a while, and I’m so glad I finally listened to the audiobook. Sophie Amoss does a fabulous job at putting that flickering hope in our thoughts. With a reflective, almost ominous tone, The Free People’s Village is about the complexities of obligations, the importance of hope, and knowing we can make a difference.
Find The Free People’s Village on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.