American War on the surface is just Global Justice Porn. I don't mean that in a good way.
It describes a world hit early by full (or nearly full) polar melt due to global warming. This world has a humbled United States governed out of Columbus, Ohio with four Southern states leading a rebellion. A large portion of its Western half has been ceded to Mexico. It also has an empire stretching from Morocco to Pakistan that has gained the technological edge. By 2090, Atlanta is a sweatshop where Southerners live in hot and cramped megatowers.
This world's history reads like an answer to the following question: "What if all the bad shit the United States did to the world got reversed and happened to it?"
The problem is that the United States Akkad sets his dystopian story in doesn't seem like America at all. The main character is a... Women of Color? and she... joins the Southern cause? The Southern cause that fights for... the right to use fossil fuels?
America does not work like that, and Akkad’s understanding of America has to be called into question. Perhaps this was the intention: When you imagine this story in South America, or China, or Africa (or Syria, the real target), you don’t find there is much difference. Truly, you could easily rewrite this book with any location in the world by just “find and replacing” a few key geographic terms.
The story of a refugee girl finding her way thrown into terrorism and torture is universally applicable. Akkad has said himself that the story is about revenge. If that’s what he meant, okay, that works.
Still, the setting and the way the dystopia unfolds holds this story back. The tale of revenge is painted on a moldy canvas, and a poorly drawn world map.
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