The protagonist of this dystopian novel is ex-baker Olivia Pritchard, she is married to Danny and they have two children: Matthew and Mia. Olivia lost her business 7 years ago after Mother Mason came to power in Britain. Mother Mason’s goal is to make everyone healthier and therefore sugar has been banned. People are only allowed to use recipes for food that are Mother Mason approved and they have to go to the gym at least once a week.
When she’s at the supermarket, Olivia sees another woman dragged out by the police because she’s done something illegal in Mother Mason’s Britain. A few days later, Liv, her family and her best friend Alice are summoned to a re-education course. Between the woman’s arrest and the course, Olivia is starting to feel more and more that the country has made a mistake electing Mother Mason into power.
One night, Liv and Danny are out for dinner with Alice and Dev (a man she met at the re-education course) and Liv finds out that Alice is wearing a camera (hidden in a button) – she realises that her friend is part of the resistance against Mother Mason’s regime. Olivia begs Alice to be part of this… which soon after she might regret because she is arrested…
This is a re-read for me, and the book is still as powerful as it was the first time I read it. I was appalled by how people are treated in the book – and gosh, the banned foods just sound scary.
Read for the PopSugar Reading Challenge 2025
Prompt 37: Two books with the same title (1)
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
