Friday, February 19, 2016

Book Review: Chimpanzee

Read 1/23/16 - 2/1/16
4 Stars - Strongly Recommended that you pay your friggen school loans off because holy shit the government is gonna get theirs...
Pages: 216
Publisher: Underland Press
Released: 2015





Holy fuck you guys, get those school loans paid off, pronto!

In a future dystopia, America enters The Second Great Depression and people are losing their jobs left and right. In an effort to maintain some form of control, as college grads begin to default on their school loans, the government starts forcefully removing their unpaid 'education', and the memories attached to that education, from their brains through a process called Repossession Therapy. A crazy underground movement emerges, one that Dr. Benjamin Cade finds himself pulled into, when he begins holding free classes in the middle of a local park, in a desperate attempt to pass on his knowledge before it's completely taken from him. 

It's like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind only you don't get to choose what's taken from you. And what's taken from you can be stored, stolen, and sold on the black market. It's a fucking horror show. I don't know about you, but if my husband or I lost our job and could only afford to pay some of our bills, I'd make damn sure we'd throw all of our money at the ones that would cause someone to come knocking on my door, tie me to a couch, and suck memories out of my brain. Cell phone bill? Suddenly not important anymore. Sell the shittin' things on Ebay. Cable bill? Nu-uh. Screw that. No more Walking Dead and X-Files. It's a sacrifice I am willing to make. Car loans? Welp, one of us is out of work so we don't need to drive anywhere anymore. They can repo the car. Take it. Have fun with it. Credit cards? Ok, come on over and take back the couch, the TV (since we won't be watching anything on it, haha) and whatever else we've charged. But no fucking way are you putting that memory-sucking freak cap on my head and messing  with my mind. Not having it!

This is science fiction grounded in reality. This is  fright fiction because it's not-so-far-fetched. This is the kind of book we'll look back on in 20 years and say "how the hell did Darin predict this?".  It's scary because it could happen. It's scary because Darin could be writing about himself. It's scary because it's something I could see our government doing when push comes to shove.

And how strangely timely, because have you seen the news? A man was just recently arrested for failure to appear in court for a school loan that went unpaid for nearly 30 years! 

This future, it's coming. And it ain't looking too promising, ya'll.

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