Reviews with content warning for Suicidal thoughts - Poster Girl

I loved this look into a dystopian regime being overthrown by another government. Such an interesting thought process. The original corrupt government rewards citizens by paying/removing rewards via monitoring eye implants and reporting behaviors by citizens. When overthrown all citizens who supported the government are held in a secluded and guarded community for life. Including MC Sonya, who was the literal poster child for the deligation government. Now the new government is offering her her freedom in exchange for finding a missing person displaced my the deligation. She will find that the government she knew as a child wasn't as she thought it wasn't uncovering secrets and very uncomfortable information she didn't know she'd rather leave buried.

This is a slow burn and I couldn't put it down. Perfect for a dystopian weekend read. Highly recommend, and eerily relevant to the times.

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starrysteph's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Poster Girl is an uncomfortable portrait of guilt and identity.

We follow Sonya, the former teenage poster girl for an oppressive dystopian regime. She’s been living in a prison for the past 10 years alongside fellow members of the Delegation. But now, an old enemy visits her with an enticing offer: if she finds a missing child who was stolen by the old regime, she can earn her freedom.

Roth has great skill at building dystopian worlds; the society felt very adjacent to our current reality. The invasive tech & government surveillance aspect felt very believable.

The characterization was excellent. Sonya is a compelling morally gray protagonist - you’re angry with her and hopeful for her and yet a little hesitant to root for her. We don’t usually get dystopian lit from the point of view of a character with privilege & that benefited from the regime.

I also enjoyed that we’re dropping into this story 10 years after the revolution. The world has settled (although there are of course complications with the new leadership), and Sonya is an adult who has essentially been living in limbo - with space from her personal trauma and plenty of time to allow for reflection. She was fully indoctrinated and still lives in that bubble at the start of the story; it’s intriguing to watch her discover the ethical horrors of what she once accepted as truth.

One weakness for me was the romance aspect. It felt a bit tacked on & that thread didn’t seem to lead anywhere or add to the plot outside of a device for Sonya to yet again recognize her manipulation and recalibrate her sense of self.

Additionally, there was so much distance from the overthrowing incident that the mystery plot & tension didn’t feel as urgent or engaging as I wanted it to be.

Overall, Poster Girl was fascinating, but I wished for a little more depth and higher stakes.

CW: murder, death, child death, suicide, suicidal thoughts, violence, alcoholism, drug use, confinement, gun violence, addiction, grief, mental illness, panic attacks, police brutality, war, kidnapping, child abuse

(I received a free copy of this book; this is my honest review.)

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introverted_reads's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

4 stars

ARC provided by publisher on NetGalley for an honest review

“He called them criminals… but all I could see was desperation.”

Poster Girl, Veronica Roth’s new dystopian novel, is very reminiscent of Orwell’s 1984 with its overarching themes of government surveillance, and even a morality system echoing ideas of Thoughtcrime. After the collapse of the Delegation dictatorship, Sonya Kantor and the other sweethearts of the Delegation are locked in the Aperture, facing a life sentence for their political crimes. Roth questions what happens after the collapse of a dystopian government, what happens to the loyalists, what happens to the children of the dictatorship.

“You can’t be both the pretty Delegation princess and the hardened prisoner of the Aperture at the same time.”

Sonya Kantor, the poster girl and face of the Delegation, narrowly misses the cutoff of the mercies of the Children of the Delegation Act - held responsible for the crimes of her family, and the loyalty she was indoctrinated to hold. However, Sonya is offered a chance of freedom by the Triumvirate - find Grace Ward, the second child of the Ward’s taken by the Delegation, and earn her freedom. However, in her investigation into Grace Ward, Sonya uncovers the unsavoury truth about her family and the regime she was told was right, and is forced to question her upbringing and the world she thought she knew.

“It’s all been downplayed by government officials, but those who know, know… And I always know.”

Whilst being an entertaining read in itself, Roth’s Poster Girl also offers a commentary on contemporary issues of technology, genetic engineering and morality. Technology is a fundamental part of the Delegation, and Roth questions how far can we take technology, highlighting the privacy sacrificed for the sake of convenience. It’s very easy to notice the similarities between the Insights of the Delegation, monitoring every purchase, movement, interaction and thought, and the technology that dominates modern society - phones, laptops, Alexa etcetera. Roth also comments on the interaction between technology and human development, echoing body architect Lucy McRae in the exploration of fusing the synthetic with the organic, and questioning what this means for the development and evolution of humanity.

“All of life, an endless series of columns, this versus that, action versus inaction. It’s all subjective. It’s all math.”

What really stood out for me, was the capitalisation of morality, and the construction of the morality system within the Delegation. Morality under the Delegation is dictated by human choice, the government decide what is right, and what is wrong. Roth uses Poster Girl to question what is morality, exploring a system reminiscent of Emotivism. Roth takes a non-cognitivist stance on ethics and morality, highlighting the subjectivity of morality dependent on culture. It was this commentary on ethics which really drew me into Poster Girl, morality is dependent on behaviour rather than intention under the Delegation, and this distinct divide between the law and what is right, highlights the questions still being asked in contemporary political climates; is the law always right?

Poster Girl is a dark novel which comments on human desperation, hopelessness, technology, and government and politics. It is both a captivating novel which I’m sure many will enjoy reading, and an artistic political allegory which focuses on contemporary issues. I only wish it were longer; the 280 pages feels insufficient to truly analyse and discuss the political issues raised within the novel, there are really thought provoking ideas raised, but these aren’t really expanded upon sufficiently. However, this doesn’t take away from the fact that Poster Girl is a highly enjoyable, and considered dystopian novel.

Quotes taken from e-ARC provided through NetGalley and may change in final published work

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parchmentdreams's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Veronica Roth's Poster Girl is the first book I've read by the author, and what a book! Roth's adult dystopian novel is set in a post-surveillance society, featuring the literal "poster girl" of the previous regime - Sonya Kantor.

We follow Sonya as she lives in the Aperture, a specially designed prison for the remnants of the Delegation. Poster Girl is the story of one young woman as she struggles to find herself - her identity and her role in life - in a society that has moved on without her. The novel cleverly and gently discusses topics such as surveillance and digital identities, suicide, societal and economic disparities, and how it feels to live in a world which no longer makes sense.

Roth's writing lends itself very well to film adaptation, in the way the author build us a world and almost places us inside it right alongside the main character. The lead herself, Sonya, had the potential to be an incredible unlikeable character, and while she was certainly a naive teen, as a woman her character is strong yet sensitive. I loved that Sonya was able to look back on the mistakes she had made as a child (and even as an adult) and recognise and make an effort to grow from those errors. She wasn't whiny or self-absorbed as a lot of characters in this sort of setting end up coming across, and I really enjoyed the chemistry between her and Alexander.

Overall, this was a very well written and engaging novel, about a young woman struggling to find and accept who she is in a post-surveillance world that has moved on without her. I would highly recommend this to anyone who loves dystopian or speculative fiction, with sci-fi elements and in depth characters.

"She's a speck of dust here, unobserved and unremarked upon. Everywhere, in every direction, is emptiness. Everywhere, in every direction, is freedom."

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leahjanespeare's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.5

Why even bother with the word dystopian these days? This book takes place in the near future. One tyrannical regime has collapsed, and another is rising to take its place, promising that, don’t worry, they’re the good guys. Poster Girl shows the inevitable fallout when citizens lack privacy from their government; unchecked power, and the allure of an ‘easy’ life with all information at the tips of our fingers - and yet the importance of questioning the cost of that information. It's a speculative thriller; straightforward, slowly unfolding. Old school, like a noir. We also have very complicated, morally grey characters, which I often think of as Roth's signature style. Sonya is liked by absolutely no one, not really even her fellow political prisoners. She plays dirty, still has long-time habits from living a life of surveillance; ultimately not a great person - and yet I was fascinated by her and how she chose to respond to situations in the new world she doesn't fit into but now 'chooses' to be a part of.

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