Official Review: The Private Sector by Leigh M. Lane

Mune · Post by **Mune** » 01 May 2016, 21:42

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Private Sector" by Leigh M. Lane.]

3 out of 4 stars

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Dystopian books are fascinating in that they give us a possible future where a significant change has occurred and the world is vastly different than it is now. In these stories, the changes usually boil down to greed or good intentions gone bad due to lack of an understanding of the possibilities of choices. In The Private Sector, by Leigh M. Lane, the future has changed due to greed. Corporations now run the world; government seems to no longer be a power of the people, but instead the richest companies taking over as many aspects of the world as they can.

This book reminded me of the movie “Crash,” in which several groups of people’s lives loop and intersect at odd points, making the multiple story perspectives all link together. The majority of the tale revolves around a couple and their son. The other characters are the woman’s mom, her sister, their son, a woman who the man meets, and then brief ideas about the other people involved. In this dysfunctional future, the police is no longer a number you can dial in an emergency, unless you have the funds to pay them or you have a policy with the police company that responds. This is the same with ambulances, hospitals, fire departments, building code enforcement, hospitals, and every other aspect of our daily lives that we take for granted. Imagine a world where your home is robbed, but you don’t have insurance with a good police company so you can’t call them. Or a situation in which a dead body is found and whoever calls it in is held responsible for fees and possibly the crime. Every aspect is monetized and privatized. There is no government assistance, art is being outlawed as wasteful, cheap public schools are overrun with disease and lack any education, people die and are left to rot where they land, and if you are caught in the crossfires of crime, you have to hope you survive and getaway before the police show up.

The premise of this book was very interesting. I was drawn in and found myself contemplating such a future. The thought is rather devastating as well as terrifying. I felt the author did a good job at giving glimpses into the various aspects of life that this corrupt system has an impact on. The brainwashing of the people into being forced into crazy insurance policies and contracts just to protect themselves or insure some form of help if anything were to happen to them was unbelievable to imagine, and yet perfectly plausible. I sympathized with Dianne and admired her strength. The son of Dianne and John, Junior, is only a few years older than my son and helped me understand the difficult decisions and situations she had to deal with. I felt myself rooting for her, though she was one of the few characters I really felt was fully flushed out.

Unfortunately, there were many aspects of the book that made it take longer for me to read than I normally do. For one, there is a lot of back and forth on John’s character. I found myself feeling his frustrations and helplessness in certain aspects of his life, but overall, it didn’t feel like it was enough to explain his occasional bi-polar swing to being a man that didn’t seem to be too concerned with the well-being of his wife and child. Jenny, Dianne’s sister, is a drug addict. Much of her personality is understandable, but the character is whitewashed due to the constant influence of drugs, and makes it difficult to find anything redeemable or worthy of me caring about. The rest of the characters lacked dimension. Most showcased a central quality, but nothing was fleshed out enough for me to care about them. I also felt there was too much time spent on explaining Jenny under the influence of drugs or the mental ramblings of a character on an aspect of the world, such as John’s job or the education system. The explaining takes over and is either repetitive in several internal monologues or narrations, or drones on to the point of feeling like I am being dumbed down. There is a lot of action to offset the despair and long narrations, either.

Overall, the premise was good and had a nice foundation for a very intriguing story. I did enjoy the book, and am happy I read it. I do wish the author would have spent a bit more time working on immersing the reader in the world rather than repeating long sections of chapters going over the same thing. Jenny’s drugged hallucinations are all the same and ramble on for pages and repeat on at least three occasions in the book. I wish I had more to go on about John and why he does the things he does and why he is so neglectful of his family. I would have also liked just a small bit more put into Dianne’s parents and why they hold the beliefs they do. I also wish that some of the traumatic events at the end of the book had more of an impact on the characters, it felt like something that should have been very important and devastating was glossed over and the ending was a bit rushed. In all, I would give The Private Sector a 3 out of 4 stars and would be interested in checking out other works by this author.

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The Private Sector
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Leigh M Lane · Post by **Leigh M Lane** » 02 May 2016, 14:05

Thank you for the thoughtful and thorough review, Mune!

kimmyschemy06 · Post by **kimmyschemy06** » 04 May 2016, 07:40

That sounds like a scary future for me

I also like the premise. I hope I get the chance to read it.

Vermont Reviews · Post by **Vermont Reviews** » 19 Jul 2016, 09:45

I am very surprised that your review did not mention anything about the story needing some minor changes for readability. Proof and edit work. Your review was good.

Vermont Reviews.

gali · Post by **gali** » 19 Jul 2016, 10:02

I have read the sample and liked it. I love Dystopian books which give a good glimpses into the various aspects of life.

Congratulations to the author on the positive review!

Vermont Reviews · Post by **Vermont Reviews** » 19 Jul 2016, 10:08

Congratulations on Book of the Day.

Vermont Reviews.

Cjgarland89 · Post by **Cjgarland89** » 19 Jul 2016, 10:14

Great review. Thanks for the heads up on the flow of the book. I find that when I know ahead of time about bouncing back and forth between characters it makes it easier to read the book. I sometimes have trouble figuring out which character is present at times.

Heidi M Simone · Post by **Heidi M Simone** » 19 Jul 2016, 10:30

Nice and detailed review, Mune! Dystopian is also a genre I fancy. It's really interesting how this Dystopian world seems more realistic than the usual type, which in turn does seem scary. I've also read the sample, and it seems like an interesting read!

chocomeiske · Post by **chocomeiske** » 19 Jul 2016, 10:48

Great review. It sounds like it would be a good read.

arelireads · Post by **arelireads** » 19 Jul 2016, 10:58

This book really seems interesting! Thank you so much for the review!

Post by **bookowlie** » 19 Jul 2016, 11:05

Great review! Your comparison to the movie Crash caught my attention since I love that movie. The premise of the book sounds interesting with people having to pay a lot of money to have the police respond and people being brainwashed into getting expensive insurance policies for basic services.

AbbyC · Post by **AbbyC** » 19 Jul 2016, 11:28

Great review! And thanks for the heads up on the characters and plot flow. It's easier to read stuff like this when you know what to expect.

Congrats to the Author on the positive review and BOTD!

jegrace · Post by **jegrace** » 19 Jul 2016, 11:29

Thanks for the review. I look forward to reading the book.

catmomma · Post by **catmomma** » 19 Jul 2016, 12:24

Good detailed review. I liked that she compared it to the movie "Crash". Thanks for the heads up on the flow of the book.

truebookaddict · Post by **truebookaddict** » 19 Jul 2016, 12:25

This sounds like a scary read. As our world continues to change, especially considering recent events, these types of books start seeming like their stories could become reality. Very scary indeed.

Thanks for the constructive review!