Review of Anticipation Day

[hayley piazza]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Anticipation Day" by Jeff Michelson.]

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3 out of 5 stars

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Anticipation Day by Jeff Michelson was an attempt at providing a glimpse of what a government provided simulation therapy and its effects on everyday people could look like in the near future. While the concept was intriguing based on the description, I felt the delivery fell flat.
The novel opens with a prologue, which explains the simulations as it pertains to the story, but the characters introduced are not critical to the remainder of the story. I felt that these details could have been explained through the lens of the main characters and their thoughts, which would have given me an opportunity to feel more attached to them. I was surprised after the prologue to realize I was following a new set of characters, and by the time I got to read about the simulations, I did not feel like I cared about their experiences. I felt the characters’ introductions were repetitive with little time to create a significant attachment to any of them. As I read about their experiences, I began to notice the unnecessary cursing, and sexual encounters that I did not feel added to the message of the book. I feel another way of structuring the simulation stories would have led me to be more immersed and wanting to know more. By the end, I could understand that the author was touching on different human traits and experiences and how those could be affected by this type of technology, but I was not as captivated as I thought I would be given the premise.
In all, the story was promising, but the execution was not to my standards. If there are any future books in relation to this concept, I would be interested in reading to see if there is improvement in truly conveying the potential impacts of these simulations. My overall rating for Anticipation Day is a 3.

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Anticipation Day
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