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The Senator (The Senator Saga, #1).
It’s the year 2075 and Sen. Jason Jones is on his way to Washington D.C. after ousting the opposing party’s majority leader in last year’s midterms. A ruthless prosecutor with a dark history, Jason knows he’s heading into a fight. But when a senator is murdered hunting for answers about the President’s ties to a foreign power on the Senate Select Intelligence Committee—the same committee Jason serves on—he realizes he must pick up the investigation where the murdered senator left off and hunt down those responsible.
But what the murderers don’t realize is that Jason isn’t your typical senator: he’s bulletproof. Changed forever by a radioactive event in his hometown that killed his friends and family, he is prepared to use all the supernatural gifts at his disposal to get to the truth. Even if it means taking down the President of the United States.
The President is about to learn this is one senator he can’t hide his
tax returns from…
But what the murderers don’t realize is that Jason isn’t your typical senator: he’s bulletproof. Changed forever by a radioactive event in his hometown that killed his friends and family, he is prepared to use all the supernatural gifts at his disposal to get to the truth. Even if it means taking down the President of the United States.
The President is about to learn this is one senator he can’t hide his
tax returns from…
364 pages, Paperback
Published March 29, 2020
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June 3, 2024
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**I received this book as a free eBook copy from the author in exchange for an honest review. Thank you S.P. Fletcher for entrusting me with your story and for your endless patience!**
”You’re the first one I actually ever voted for because I thought you would make life for people around here better. So you are going to get on that rocketship and you are going to go make a difference like everyone knows you can.”
First of all: I’m kinda mad at myself for reading “The Senator” so late! This story was great and I absolutely loved it because it was once again the right book at the right time for me. And secondly: The European elections are around the corner, Austrian elections for the Austrian parliament are coming up this autumn and I still don’t know who to vote for. Modern day politics have become tiresome and vexing and with all the scandals and corruption allegations, it’s really not easy to find someone decent who actually deserves your vote. I want change and I want Austria to become a better country, for the politicians to do more for their people and to understand the troubles and hardships Austrian citizens have to face. Unfortunately, it seems like they are miles away from knowing what is truly happening in their country and I think I’d have to go into politics myself in order to truly bring about change. Well, and that’s the point where we come back to the plot of the book because that’s exactly what the MC of “The Senator” does!
”To me, it seems democracy too easily falls prey to men of greed and power.”
I could totally relate to this quote and if there ever was a guy who would have gotten my vote then it would have been Senator Jason Jones! XD I really loved the fact that Jason came from a poor background and lived at a trailer park. His life wasn’t easy and due to politicians and people who didn’t care he had an accident that turned him into some sort of indestructible superhero when he was a teen. Of course, no one knows about this part of Jason’s past and even though he had to fight his way to the top, he became the official senator of Kentucky! He’s become a man of the people and because he’s so down-to-earth and knows about the struggles ordinary people have to face, he’s trying his best to change American politics from the inside.
"And here I am, day after day, in a small forlorn and forgotten back alley of the rust belt, fighting to keep us out of poverty, fighting to keep the bank away from the house, fighting to stop Dad from gambling away his pay check on horses and drugs while he bashed my head in on a regular basis."
Yes, Jason didn’t have it easy and because of that he’s become a fighter for the poor people that can’t defend themselves. No matter if it’s at the courtroom in his official function as a prosecutor, as the Senator of Kentucky who works in the Senate or as a secret villain who takes out corrupt politicians at night. Jason’s work is cut out for him and as it seems he’ll have to go through half of the Senate in order to weed out all the bad roots. The worst part? Apparently, the President himself is allied with the very forces that want to bring about the downfall of America.
”Thank you for not fucking something up for once, I guess? That's an improvement for you guys." How much prison time do they give you for killing the President again? Is it like a guaranteed ride to the electric chair or would I be able to say he asked for it?
And so it happens that Jason ends up at the Oval Office at midnight, while the man who is responsible for America is trying to ensure his silence by offering him way too much money. Of course, Jason declines which causes him to end up on the blacklist of the President himself. Talk about a good start of your career as a Senator. *lol* Jason would not be Jason if this would faze him, though. If you stick your nose in someone else’s business, you’re bound to face some serious backlash. Jason was aware of that from the beginning. Still, he didn’t think the crazy leader of America would go to such lengths in order to get rid of him.
”This is just turning into the worst week of my life.” I calmly survey the tanklike men. “Come to Washington D.C. Be a senator. You’ll spend your whole term cleaning up other people’s messes and have people trying to kill you.”
Haha! I just loved Jason’s black humour, unapologetic attitude and his integrity. I mean they tried to bribe him with a lot of money, but he still said “no”. They did everything in their power to thwart his career because he came from a poor background and is gay and they crossed him on multiple occasions, trying to get rid of him with all their machinations and intrigues. Thankfully, Jason had a great team that was loyal to him and always managed to be one-step ahead of the game. Bless Harry, the Senator of Hawaii, his personal assistant Jackie and sweet Earnie.
”You ever try something like that again and I will rip your arms out of their sockets and beat you to death with them. Come after me all you want. That’s fine. But you don’t dare fuck with the innocent families of this country. I was a prosecutor. If I kill you, I will get off without a sentence or conviction.”
I know Jason’s actions were more than just morally grey and totally out of line. You don’t go about killing corrupt politicians at night. It’s the wrong way to bring about change and it’s morally reprehensible, but some part of me could understand why he did what he did. Jason was tired of the system failing whenever it was important. Cases lost on some minor technicality that let the culprit get free and do it again or just judges that were bribed with a lot of money. And quite honestly, that part wasn’t even fiction. So many cases are lost because of little mistakes and the victims have to suffer their entire lives from what was done to them while the rapists, murderers, burglars etc. get free without any consequences. Add to that the sheer amount of horrible, rich and entitled Senators that never did what was good for their people and only ever worked for their own gain. Jason was in a position to get his change, whether it was through legal ways or through using his special abilities, either way he was determined to do what was best for his country and people. So yeah, I got where he was coming from and his actions might have been drastic and wrong but they ultimately came from a good place.
”I’m not exactly sure I’m the hero America wants.
But, if I’m sure of anything, it’s that, right now, I’m willing to be the villain it desperately needs.”
S.P. Fletcher created an anti-hero you can’t help but pull for, no matter how condemnable his actions are. I think in many ways Jason Jones reminded me of Matt Murdock. Attorney at day and “Daredevil” at night. Both of them are morally grey characters but Jason definitely gets his hands way dirtier than Matt and thrives when he hands out justice. I think there’s a dark side to Jason that enjoys killing those politicians and to take them out of the race. Yet there’s still his unshakable belief in justice and truth that motivates him to get up every day. Jason is a truly complex character and I loved that about him.
”That hadn’t gone so well. Since I didn’t speak any Russian, I had to interrogate him through Google Translate, and from the weird looks he kept giving me none of my questions were making any sense. I could have bought the app for my phone but they wanted $29 and no interrogation is worth wasting that kind of money on.”
Also he’s funny! *lol* There were a couple of scenes that caused me to laugh because they were so absurd, but also very relatable. Sure, the fact no one is able to catch him felt a little unrealistic at times, especially because the story played in the future and there are like a million of surveillance systems that should have been able to give him a hard time. For the plot’s sake I had no problem to overlook those minor issues, though. Sometimes you just gotta cut the author some slack and let them off the hook in order to enjoy a book. Call it creative freedom. ;-P
"Sadly, there are no good, decent men in the Senate anymore," I say, almost fiercely. "But lately I'm starting to wonder if there ever was anyone decent in this job."
"That can't be true, sir." He locks eyes with me. "I'm looking at one of the decent ones right now." I blush uncomfortably.
Last, but not least I have to talk about Jason being a part of the LGBTQIA+ community and the very steamy scenes we get throughout the entire book. Truth be told, it even starts with one and that was quite a surprise! I didn’t expect the book to go for it right at the beginning but that opening scene certainly intrigued me enough to continue. *lol* You have no idea how happy I was to find out that Jason isn’t only gay but also very unapologetic about it. He’s secure in his sexuality and whenever he meets someone he finds attractive Jason doesn’t beat about the bush and makes his intentions clear. When he gets a “no” he accepts it and when he gets the all-clear he enthusiastically goes for it. I loved this! No, seriously! Please write more characters like that! The world needs them!
“Never seen a male senator with the pizza boy before.” He opens the car door for me. There’s a hint of a smile on his features. “Ah. How time changes and we move forward.”
“Well that’s what I’m here for,” I say. “Breaking barriers and moving America forward one pizza boy at a time.”
That scene! *lol* It was gold! As was Special Agent Galloway who becomes Jason’s bodyguard and is part of his security detail. This hot Scottish Highlander with copper hair and a body like Adonis was exactly what we needed in this story. XD His growing friendship and later on relationship with Jason was perfect and it was nice to see that there was someone who could accept Jason for who he was, with all his faults, flaws and secrets. He doesn’t condone Jason’s actions and even calls him out on them, but he understands why he is doing what he’s doing and he respects Jason’s decisions. I was glad he finally found someone who made him feel safe enough to confide in.
When I turn my gaze away from the rain thrusting down across the street and off my portico, my eyes are haunted. “They killed an entire town.” I feel my throat hoarsen. “Because they didn’t want to pay seventeen dollars and nine cents. They killed 449 people just for that. For a measly seventeen dollars and nine cents. All my childhood friends and Link. They killed them all.”
My heart broke for Jason when he told his superhero origin story and despite the book having a rather black humour and being very action driven those chapters were kept very serious and sober. With this S.P. Fletcher managed to convey the intensity of Jason’s background story and as a reader you feel his pain and helpless rage at the system. Moreover, you become angry on Jason’s behalf and you want the bad guys to pay for what they did. Quite honestly, it’s a genius stroke of the author and this scene was done masterfully. You have enough distance to take it all in but it still leaves a strong impression.
Conclusion:
I can’t believe I waited so long to read “The Senator” because this was amazing! I dunno what it is about this book but it catered to all my needs and I was hooked right from the beginning. No matter if it was the backstabbing politics, the superhero aspect, the LGBTQIA+ representation, the humour, the steamy scenes or Jason as the multi-layered MC of the story who’s integrity can’t be swayed, I enjoyed it all. This was great and if you’re tired of today’s politics this perfectly hits the nerve of the times. ;-)
__________________________________
I had so much fun reading this! <3
I didn’t expect to like “The Senator” that much but once again it was the right book at the right time. Also I loved the mixture of intrigues, superpowers, action and LGBTQIA+ rep! And yes, it was steamy too. ;-P
Full RTC soon! I need to think this through and write a proper review! =)
___________________________________
First of all I want to apologize to S.P. Fletcher for taking so long to get to this review copy, and then I want to add how much I’m looking forward to read “The Senator”!
I heard this is a book for people that are fed up with politics and quite honestly the mere fact we have a Senator who has super powers and uses them to get rid of corrupt politicians is already persuading enough. *lol*
Plus I heard that Senator Jason Jones is part of the LGBTQIA+ community so this sounds perfect!
Let’s find out the truth. ;-)
Find me on:
My Blog
Instagram
**I received this book as a free eBook copy from the author in exchange for an honest review. Thank you S.P. Fletcher for entrusting me with your story and for your endless patience!**
”You’re the first one I actually ever voted for because I thought you would make life for people around here better. So you are going to get on that rocketship and you are going to go make a difference like everyone knows you can.”
First of all: I’m kinda mad at myself for reading “The Senator” so late! This story was great and I absolutely loved it because it was once again the right book at the right time for me. And secondly: The European elections are around the corner, Austrian elections for the Austrian parliament are coming up this autumn and I still don’t know who to vote for. Modern day politics have become tiresome and vexing and with all the scandals and corruption allegations, it’s really not easy to find someone decent who actually deserves your vote. I want change and I want Austria to become a better country, for the politicians to do more for their people and to understand the troubles and hardships Austrian citizens have to face. Unfortunately, it seems like they are miles away from knowing what is truly happening in their country and I think I’d have to go into politics myself in order to truly bring about change. Well, and that’s the point where we come back to the plot of the book because that’s exactly what the MC of “The Senator” does!
”To me, it seems democracy too easily falls prey to men of greed and power.”
I could totally relate to this quote and if there ever was a guy who would have gotten my vote then it would have been Senator Jason Jones! XD I really loved the fact that Jason came from a poor background and lived at a trailer park. His life wasn’t easy and due to politicians and people who didn’t care he had an accident that turned him into some sort of indestructible superhero when he was a teen. Of course, no one knows about this part of Jason’s past and even though he had to fight his way to the top, he became the official senator of Kentucky! He’s become a man of the people and because he’s so down-to-earth and knows about the struggles ordinary people have to face, he’s trying his best to change American politics from the inside.
"And here I am, day after day, in a small forlorn and forgotten back alley of the rust belt, fighting to keep us out of poverty, fighting to keep the bank away from the house, fighting to stop Dad from gambling away his pay check on horses and drugs while he bashed my head in on a regular basis."
Yes, Jason didn’t have it easy and because of that he’s become a fighter for the poor people that can’t defend themselves. No matter if it’s at the courtroom in his official function as a prosecutor, as the Senator of Kentucky who works in the Senate or as a secret villain who takes out corrupt politicians at night. Jason’s work is cut out for him and as it seems he’ll have to go through half of the Senate in order to weed out all the bad roots. The worst part? Apparently, the President himself is allied with the very forces that want to bring about the downfall of America.
”Thank you for not fucking something up for once, I guess? That's an improvement for you guys." How much prison time do they give you for killing the President again? Is it like a guaranteed ride to the electric chair or would I be able to say he asked for it?
And so it happens that Jason ends up at the Oval Office at midnight, while the man who is responsible for America is trying to ensure his silence by offering him way too much money. Of course, Jason declines which causes him to end up on the blacklist of the President himself. Talk about a good start of your career as a Senator. *lol* Jason would not be Jason if this would faze him, though. If you stick your nose in someone else’s business, you’re bound to face some serious backlash. Jason was aware of that from the beginning. Still, he didn’t think the crazy leader of America would go to such lengths in order to get rid of him.
”This is just turning into the worst week of my life.” I calmly survey the tanklike men. “Come to Washington D.C. Be a senator. You’ll spend your whole term cleaning up other people’s messes and have people trying to kill you.”
Haha! I just loved Jason’s black humour, unapologetic attitude and his integrity. I mean they tried to bribe him with a lot of money, but he still said “no”. They did everything in their power to thwart his career because he came from a poor background and is gay and they crossed him on multiple occasions, trying to get rid of him with all their machinations and intrigues. Thankfully, Jason had a great team that was loyal to him and always managed to be one-step ahead of the game. Bless Harry, the Senator of Hawaii, his personal assistant Jackie and sweet Earnie.
”You ever try something like that again and I will rip your arms out of their sockets and beat you to death with them. Come after me all you want. That’s fine. But you don’t dare fuck with the innocent families of this country. I was a prosecutor. If I kill you, I will get off without a sentence or conviction.”
I know Jason’s actions were more than just morally grey and totally out of line. You don’t go about killing corrupt politicians at night. It’s the wrong way to bring about change and it’s morally reprehensible, but some part of me could understand why he did what he did. Jason was tired of the system failing whenever it was important. Cases lost on some minor technicality that let the culprit get free and do it again or just judges that were bribed with a lot of money. And quite honestly, that part wasn’t even fiction. So many cases are lost because of little mistakes and the victims have to suffer their entire lives from what was done to them while the rapists, murderers, burglars etc. get free without any consequences. Add to that the sheer amount of horrible, rich and entitled Senators that never did what was good for their people and only ever worked for their own gain. Jason was in a position to get his change, whether it was through legal ways or through using his special abilities, either way he was determined to do what was best for his country and people. So yeah, I got where he was coming from and his actions might have been drastic and wrong but they ultimately came from a good place.
”I’m not exactly sure I’m the hero America wants.
But, if I’m sure of anything, it’s that, right now, I’m willing to be the villain it desperately needs.”
S.P. Fletcher created an anti-hero you can’t help but pull for, no matter how condemnable his actions are. I think in many ways Jason Jones reminded me of Matt Murdock. Attorney at day and “Daredevil” at night. Both of them are morally grey characters but Jason definitely gets his hands way dirtier than Matt and thrives when he hands out justice. I think there’s a dark side to Jason that enjoys killing those politicians and to take them out of the race. Yet there’s still his unshakable belief in justice and truth that motivates him to get up every day. Jason is a truly complex character and I loved that about him.
”That hadn’t gone so well. Since I didn’t speak any Russian, I had to interrogate him through Google Translate, and from the weird looks he kept giving me none of my questions were making any sense. I could have bought the app for my phone but they wanted $29 and no interrogation is worth wasting that kind of money on.”
Also he’s funny! *lol* There were a couple of scenes that caused me to laugh because they were so absurd, but also very relatable. Sure, the fact no one is able to catch him felt a little unrealistic at times, especially because the story played in the future and there are like a million of surveillance systems that should have been able to give him a hard time. For the plot’s sake I had no problem to overlook those minor issues, though. Sometimes you just gotta cut the author some slack and let them off the hook in order to enjoy a book. Call it creative freedom. ;-P
"Sadly, there are no good, decent men in the Senate anymore," I say, almost fiercely. "But lately I'm starting to wonder if there ever was anyone decent in this job."
"That can't be true, sir." He locks eyes with me. "I'm looking at one of the decent ones right now." I blush uncomfortably.
Last, but not least I have to talk about Jason being a part of the LGBTQIA+ community and the very steamy scenes we get throughout the entire book. Truth be told, it even starts with one and that was quite a surprise! I didn’t expect the book to go for it right at the beginning but that opening scene certainly intrigued me enough to continue. *lol* You have no idea how happy I was to find out that Jason isn’t only gay but also very unapologetic about it. He’s secure in his sexuality and whenever he meets someone he finds attractive Jason doesn’t beat about the bush and makes his intentions clear. When he gets a “no” he accepts it and when he gets the all-clear he enthusiastically goes for it. I loved this! No, seriously! Please write more characters like that! The world needs them!
“Never seen a male senator with the pizza boy before.” He opens the car door for me. There’s a hint of a smile on his features. “Ah. How time changes and we move forward.”
“Well that’s what I’m here for,” I say. “Breaking barriers and moving America forward one pizza boy at a time.”
That scene! *lol* It was gold! As was Special Agent Galloway who becomes Jason’s bodyguard and is part of his security detail. This hot Scottish Highlander with copper hair and a body like Adonis was exactly what we needed in this story. XD His growing friendship and later on relationship with Jason was perfect and it was nice to see that there was someone who could accept Jason for who he was, with all his faults, flaws and secrets. He doesn’t condone Jason’s actions and even calls him out on them, but he understands why he is doing what he’s doing and he respects Jason’s decisions. I was glad he finally found someone who made him feel safe enough to confide in.
When I turn my gaze away from the rain thrusting down across the street and off my portico, my eyes are haunted. “They killed an entire town.” I feel my throat hoarsen. “Because they didn’t want to pay seventeen dollars and nine cents. They killed 449 people just for that. For a measly seventeen dollars and nine cents. All my childhood friends and Link. They killed them all.”
My heart broke for Jason when he told his superhero origin story and despite the book having a rather black humour and being very action driven those chapters were kept very serious and sober. With this S.P. Fletcher managed to convey the intensity of Jason’s background story and as a reader you feel his pain and helpless rage at the system. Moreover, you become angry on Jason’s behalf and you want the bad guys to pay for what they did. Quite honestly, it’s a genius stroke of the author and this scene was done masterfully. You have enough distance to take it all in but it still leaves a strong impression.
Conclusion:
I can’t believe I waited so long to read “The Senator” because this was amazing! I dunno what it is about this book but it catered to all my needs and I was hooked right from the beginning. No matter if it was the backstabbing politics, the superhero aspect, the LGBTQIA+ representation, the humour, the steamy scenes or Jason as the multi-layered MC of the story who’s integrity can’t be swayed, I enjoyed it all. This was great and if you’re tired of today’s politics this perfectly hits the nerve of the times. ;-)
__________________________________
I had so much fun reading this! <3
I didn’t expect to like “The Senator” that much but once again it was the right book at the right time. Also I loved the mixture of intrigues, superpowers, action and LGBTQIA+ rep! And yes, it was steamy too. ;-P
Full RTC soon! I need to think this through and write a proper review! =)
___________________________________
First of all I want to apologize to S.P. Fletcher for taking so long to get to this review copy, and then I want to add how much I’m looking forward to read “The Senator”!
I heard this is a book for people that are fed up with politics and quite honestly the mere fact we have a Senator who has super powers and uses them to get rid of corrupt politicians is already persuading enough. *lol*
Plus I heard that Senator Jason Jones is part of the LGBTQIA+ community so this sounds perfect!
Let’s find out the truth. ;-)
Find me on:
My Blog
January 11, 2020
This book—WOAH!!!! WHERE DO I EVEN BEGIN??!!!
*Apologies to the Author who thoughtfully sent me a pdf ARC after reading my War Storm review*
Settle in and grab some whiskey, Peeps.
This is going to be a long one because I’ve got some things to say.
First, a personal note. It’s no secret I’ve been staying away from YA fiction in general lately. For a form that was once diverse, in the last few years it’s quickly shrunk into a small exclusive club of authors that come from rich, upperclass Ivy League colleges who (somehow) are able to completely plagiarize a slightly more successful series for six figures and then jet off to Paris.
There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, power to ya, but after a while I started to notice this weird trend of YA publishers to continually select authors who come from the top-tiered colleges in our country. I mean, the number of book jacket bios that I read that went along the lines of “I come from a rich family, went to an Ivy League college, sold a book for six figures, and now my full-time occupation is vacationing” became almost comical. Though, it did start to explain why so many heroines got “tortured” by being locked in my equivalent of five-star accommodation.
It would also be nice to see a YA author that didn’t come from California or New York. (I’m not one of those blue states are out-of-touch liberal havens for the blah, blah, blah, but would it really kill publishers to represent the whole of the country in YA fiction, because for a few blissful years there you would see authors published from everywhere, even ones who weren’t college-educated and didn’t go to Yale, or USC, or any other place that’s just one tiny FBI investigation away from exposing another college admission’s scandal.) I mean, even though I’m from an Ivy League College I’ve lately become unimpressed with the people who so easily attain access to these institutions and then bar everyone else.
Why do I mention this? Because as YA has grown into an oligarchy of rich kids it’s grown progressively creatively bankrupt in the process. To be clear, I don’t have a problem with people making money as long as it doesn’t become ALL about money and the quality of the book takes a back seat to the author’s salary, which I feel is happening a lot these days. I know I’m not alone with this. If you’ve ever opened a book and thought, “WHO THE HELL AT THE PUBLISHING HOUSE GAVE THE GREENLIGHT ON THIS?!!! OR BETTER YET WHO THOUGHT TO PAY SIX FIGURES FOR THIS??!!!” That became me nearly every second weekend until I just couldn’t stand it any more, or maybe I’m just too harsh.
Ideally, you would think people who have figured out by now that telling someone over and over again with millions of dollars of advertising that a book is “amazing!” and “the next Hunger Games!” is pretty much a pointless exercise in the age of intelligent readers with good BS detectors; and you would think people would get the message and redouble their efforts to create something for me that is impressively good. But nope. It’s not the only industry going through this, to be fair: I just finished watching Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Hundreds of millions of dollars spent and what a colossal fuckfest that movie was. To get to my point, due to these trends, I’ve recently been taking an extended leave of absence in the world of indie publishing, and—wow—I never thought I’d come to appreciate an unannounced indie published book so much.
THE Premise
The book orbits the life of Sen. Jason Jones in 2075, a superpowered junior Democratic senator from Kentucky who is elected in the 2074 midterms. He’s a former prosecutor who decided to run for the US Senate when the current president, President Rook, started stacking the courts with crazy judges. At the start of the book, a Republican Senator is murdered and Jason essentially hunts down the people responsible using his powers. Russians start getting involved and the whole thing explodes into cheery superhero fun.
MY Take
I would consider this a dark comicbook in book form or a dark fairytale. Jason’s powerset furthers the plot but aside from some cool action sequences not everything revolves around them. The novel is about the loss of family and the real slide of American politicians into corrupt thieves. It’s the quest of someone trying to believe people are capable of being good and being perpetually disappointed by their betrayal. It’s about a kid from a whitetrash town learning at an early age that no one gives a fuck.
You hear a lot about novels being “for our time” which I usually always roll my eyes at and put down to an uncreative marketing team, but The Senator might actually encompass it for once—there’s real heart in the words. I rarely heap praise on authors because I read a lot and if there’s any literary or syntax trick out there I’ve seen it done before, but I still take my hat off to an author that can make me care about a character when I’m such a cynic.
The Politics of Growing up Poor and White in America Today
One of the difficulties I think authors—hell even journalists—struggle to demonstrate or talk about these days is why these towns in the Rust Belt have views that are not particularly modern. Either an author is too sympathetic by either writing off racism in those towns as an awkward silence—which is not good enough—or by broadly labelling everyone in those towns as racists and people to be fed into the furnace of public opinion. Fletcher somehow achieves a balance by showing how people in power create those views to engineer policy that further ruins the life of poor white people in those towns. It’s a little rough around the edges but it’s still the first time I’ve seen the issue handled by actively being aware of the games of manipulation played by politicians.
Part of that, I think, is SP Fletcher has really done the work to layer his main character. I understood his actions, his pain, and why he was the way he was. The amount of books I’ve read where the hero just decides to start a random rebellion because, ya know, it’s Rebellion Friday, I’ve lost count of. I didn’t always agree with him, but it wasn’t like I didn’t understand his ruthlessness. Here is someone who gets that the judges, the politicians, all levels of American society have abused him and written him off. He’s angry and justifiably so. It’s hard to describe how much I love this book. In the last few years, where I’ve felt there have been some real spineless acts of cowardice from the people in leadership positions, it’s supremely enjoyable to watch a superpowered anti-hero who’s just had ENOUGH go around D.C. kicking scumbags through windows to get bills passed into law.
THE Writing
I have to admire Fletcher specifically for one particular thing that he does here. He gives us a superhero origin story without retreading over the same old tiring tropes and beats of radioactive spider or supersoldier serum or parents murdered in a dark shadowy alleyway, and he tells the events out of order. Jason essentially recounts gaining his powers in a brief but powerful flashback chapter midway through, and I have to admire the ingenuity of such a move—to somehow get that information of his origin story to us as quickly and succinctly as possible—in a genre that I’ve honestly been concerned I’ve been approaching my oversaturation threshold in.
One element that could be improved is the writing. I didn’t have any consistency issues, so that’s good. There were some typos, nothing as egregious as the books I’ve seen published by HarperTeen lately, but it still frustratingly took me out of the story when I was in it the most. Overall, Fletcher isn’t a perfect author or a great author—yet. But the one thing he does really well is character-building. Despite the novel’s flaws, I wanted Jason to be happy. I wanted him to believe he could have a family. And getting me to care about a character in a pdf ARC in an era where I feel like all industries are struggling with that is something impressive.
It also feels like forever since I read a completely juicy novel with the right amount of drama, action, and intrigue.
VERDICT : A slightly unsteady start to an intriguing trilogy – B+
Now just excuse me, while I do my hair and prepare myself for the next book:
*Apologies to the Author who thoughtfully sent me a pdf ARC after reading my War Storm review*
Settle in and grab some whiskey, Peeps.
This is going to be a long one because I’ve got some things to say.
First, a personal note. It’s no secret I’ve been staying away from YA fiction in general lately. For a form that was once diverse, in the last few years it’s quickly shrunk into a small exclusive club of authors that come from rich, upperclass Ivy League colleges who (somehow) are able to completely plagiarize a slightly more successful series for six figures and then jet off to Paris.
There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, power to ya, but after a while I started to notice this weird trend of YA publishers to continually select authors who come from the top-tiered colleges in our country. I mean, the number of book jacket bios that I read that went along the lines of “I come from a rich family, went to an Ivy League college, sold a book for six figures, and now my full-time occupation is vacationing” became almost comical. Though, it did start to explain why so many heroines got “tortured” by being locked in my equivalent of five-star accommodation.
It would also be nice to see a YA author that didn’t come from California or New York. (I’m not one of those blue states are out-of-touch liberal havens for the blah, blah, blah, but would it really kill publishers to represent the whole of the country in YA fiction, because for a few blissful years there you would see authors published from everywhere, even ones who weren’t college-educated and didn’t go to Yale, or USC, or any other place that’s just one tiny FBI investigation away from exposing another college admission’s scandal.) I mean, even though I’m from an Ivy League College I’ve lately become unimpressed with the people who so easily attain access to these institutions and then bar everyone else.
Why do I mention this? Because as YA has grown into an oligarchy of rich kids it’s grown progressively creatively bankrupt in the process. To be clear, I don’t have a problem with people making money as long as it doesn’t become ALL about money and the quality of the book takes a back seat to the author’s salary, which I feel is happening a lot these days. I know I’m not alone with this. If you’ve ever opened a book and thought, “WHO THE HELL AT THE PUBLISHING HOUSE GAVE THE GREENLIGHT ON THIS?!!! OR BETTER YET WHO THOUGHT TO PAY SIX FIGURES FOR THIS??!!!” That became me nearly every second weekend until I just couldn’t stand it any more, or maybe I’m just too harsh.
Ideally, you would think people who have figured out by now that telling someone over and over again with millions of dollars of advertising that a book is “amazing!” and “the next Hunger Games!” is pretty much a pointless exercise in the age of intelligent readers with good BS detectors; and you would think people would get the message and redouble their efforts to create something for me that is impressively good. But nope. It’s not the only industry going through this, to be fair: I just finished watching Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Hundreds of millions of dollars spent and what a colossal fuckfest that movie was. To get to my point, due to these trends, I’ve recently been taking an extended leave of absence in the world of indie publishing, and—wow—I never thought I’d come to appreciate an unannounced indie published book so much.
THE Premise
The book orbits the life of Sen. Jason Jones in 2075, a superpowered junior Democratic senator from Kentucky who is elected in the 2074 midterms. He’s a former prosecutor who decided to run for the US Senate when the current president, President Rook, started stacking the courts with crazy judges. At the start of the book, a Republican Senator is murdered and Jason essentially hunts down the people responsible using his powers. Russians start getting involved and the whole thing explodes into cheery superhero fun.
MY Take
I would consider this a dark comicbook in book form or a dark fairytale. Jason’s powerset furthers the plot but aside from some cool action sequences not everything revolves around them. The novel is about the loss of family and the real slide of American politicians into corrupt thieves. It’s the quest of someone trying to believe people are capable of being good and being perpetually disappointed by their betrayal. It’s about a kid from a whitetrash town learning at an early age that no one gives a fuck.
You hear a lot about novels being “for our time” which I usually always roll my eyes at and put down to an uncreative marketing team, but The Senator might actually encompass it for once—there’s real heart in the words. I rarely heap praise on authors because I read a lot and if there’s any literary or syntax trick out there I’ve seen it done before, but I still take my hat off to an author that can make me care about a character when I’m such a cynic.
The Politics of Growing up Poor and White in America Today
One of the difficulties I think authors—hell even journalists—struggle to demonstrate or talk about these days is why these towns in the Rust Belt have views that are not particularly modern. Either an author is too sympathetic by either writing off racism in those towns as an awkward silence—which is not good enough—or by broadly labelling everyone in those towns as racists and people to be fed into the furnace of public opinion. Fletcher somehow achieves a balance by showing how people in power create those views to engineer policy that further ruins the life of poor white people in those towns. It’s a little rough around the edges but it’s still the first time I’ve seen the issue handled by actively being aware of the games of manipulation played by politicians.
Part of that, I think, is SP Fletcher has really done the work to layer his main character. I understood his actions, his pain, and why he was the way he was. The amount of books I’ve read where the hero just decides to start a random rebellion because, ya know, it’s Rebellion Friday, I’ve lost count of. I didn’t always agree with him, but it wasn’t like I didn’t understand his ruthlessness. Here is someone who gets that the judges, the politicians, all levels of American society have abused him and written him off. He’s angry and justifiably so. It’s hard to describe how much I love this book. In the last few years, where I’ve felt there have been some real spineless acts of cowardice from the people in leadership positions, it’s supremely enjoyable to watch a superpowered anti-hero who’s just had ENOUGH go around D.C. kicking scumbags through windows to get bills passed into law.
THE Writing
I have to admire Fletcher specifically for one particular thing that he does here. He gives us a superhero origin story without retreading over the same old tiring tropes and beats of radioactive spider or supersoldier serum or parents murdered in a dark shadowy alleyway, and he tells the events out of order. Jason essentially recounts gaining his powers in a brief but powerful flashback chapter midway through, and I have to admire the ingenuity of such a move—to somehow get that information of his origin story to us as quickly and succinctly as possible—in a genre that I’ve honestly been concerned I’ve been approaching my oversaturation threshold in.
One element that could be improved is the writing. I didn’t have any consistency issues, so that’s good. There were some typos, nothing as egregious as the books I’ve seen published by HarperTeen lately, but it still frustratingly took me out of the story when I was in it the most. Overall, Fletcher isn’t a perfect author or a great author—yet. But the one thing he does really well is character-building. Despite the novel’s flaws, I wanted Jason to be happy. I wanted him to believe he could have a family. And getting me to care about a character in a pdf ARC in an era where I feel like all industries are struggling with that is something impressive.
It also feels like forever since I read a completely juicy novel with the right amount of drama, action, and intrigue.
VERDICT : A slightly unsteady start to an intriguing trilogy – B+
Now just excuse me, while I do my hair and prepare myself for the next book:
March 12, 2020
ME RUNNING TO TELL ALL MY FRIENDS ABOUT THIS BOOK!
This was incredible. Scratch that, I’m going to risk it and say it was the best book I’ve read so far in 2020. I know it’s just March but still!!!!
That scene in Jason’s office alone won me over.
HOLY COW! It’s about fucking time! As a person who’s wanted to see a gay superhero-type character finally get to be center stage in a genre that’s notoriously sidelined them, today I finally get my wish. Yes, we’ve had Ice-Man and North Star and a string of others, and those characters are important, but I was delightfully surprised this book survived on its merits without constantly bashing me over the head that he was gay, which is becoming an annoying trend of late.
I mean, when you’re a kid and a teenager those coming out stories are always a little heartfelt but I’ve always wanted to see more characters whose story wasn’t just about being gay and did this book do it for me! You think we would’ve seen someone by now in popular culture. Poe and Finn’s romance—which was hinted at by EVERYONE—got scrunched up and thrown into the trash compactor in the last Star Wars movie, and Marvel just announced they’re “working on it”which later turned into: we’re looking in to looking in to thinking about maybe or maybe not or maybe not not doing it sometime in the not too distant or far far future.
I just can’t even with major publishers or studios these days. I mean, pick a side. The queerbaiting is seriously frustrating my face off and it's refreshing to read a book where the character isn't being coy with the reader. But one could argue that if those books like Red, White, and Blue weren’t rosily unrealistic versions of gay life than it's unlikely that a publisher would have forked over the money for the marketing and distribution.
But I am the type of person where if it’s a choice between a rosily unrealistic novel or a novel that’s honest I’m more likely to pick the second but that’s just me.
Fletcher doesn't fall into that camp and he doesn't fall into the trap to portray our political system in black and white. He talks about corruption on both side of the aisle. This isn't Republicans are bad and Democrats are good; this is both sides need to do some serious soul-searching about who they represent and why.
It has been so long since I’ve had that genuine feeling with a book. (No offense to literature lately, but I feel like everything has been marketed towards getting a movie or TV show that no one has made the effort to impress me by simply writing a satisfying book.) And these days there is so much marketing and money sprinkled around with book campaigns I consistently wonder if a book I like is genuinely good or is everyone else saying it’s good making me think it’s better than it actually is.
THE CHARACTERS
I’ll be brief here because I don’t want to spoil anything and I cannot be bothered putting in spoiler formatting markers.
SENATOR JASON JONES
My favourite thing about this book, by far, was Sen. Jason Jones. You just don’t come across this type of character often, and I mean—dare I risk it—this might be Katniss-level character building. In fact, not since Katniss have I both feared, respected, and wanted to hug a character.
Characters have to tick a few boxes for me.
They have to have a consistency to their actions. They have to make mistakes. The book has to demonstrate subtlety what things in their lives turned them into who they are when I meet them; if they’re unique to their surroundings I have to know why or how they got that way. But rarely does an author deftly tick all of these at the same time for me.
Jason is complex, he’s damaged, he’s dark, and he’s a type of male character I don’t think we’ve ever really seen before. He’s a portrait of a complicated young gay man who is both courageous and an action hero. At one moment I loved him, the next I hated him, but as much as I thought he went too far I didn’t stop rooting for him. He’s the type of person who’s been knocked down a lot and exactly the kind of person you hope goes into the Senate or politics in general. It was also good to see why he decided to start killing all the corrupt government officials with his powers. He didn’t do it because it was whimsical; the author made an effort to show Jason trying to avoid it at all costs. It’s also a sad statement on politics is America today—could we return to a democracy with all the corruption that’s been festering for so long in our institutions without some kind of violent conflict ensuing?
AGENT DOUG GALLOWAY
My dreams of a gay Jamie Fraser type Scotland guy that lies around in kilts all day and is a hot bodyguard have been answered! Combine Gerald Butler from Olympus Has Fallen and then Jamie Fraser and then Richard Madden and you have one smouldering Agent Doug Galloway—he’s like a sexy Scottish hybrid of every action hero. What made him extra was his family, and you can understand why Jason would fall in love with someone who was protective. I loved their chemistry, the sex scenes, and their banter. So many times I read book couples and I’m like, I don’t know how you’re together, like part of me is thinking one of you just kidnapped and brainwashed the other.
I appreciated that he also didn’t stand around waiting for Jason to do all the saving. He jumped in and tried to Steve Trevor his way through it, even while Jason was fighting around the mall.
And there you have it friends, my complete list of thoughts on The Senator. I am definitely excited to continue this series and I still really did enjoy this. I'm looking forward to what happens next.
This was incredible. Scratch that, I’m going to risk it and say it was the best book I’ve read so far in 2020. I know it’s just March but still!!!!
“Yes.” I whisper. “You will…Lobbyist scum.”
With no remorse, I punch him through the wall.
That scene in Jason’s office alone won me over.
HOLY COW! It’s about fucking time! As a person who’s wanted to see a gay superhero-type character finally get to be center stage in a genre that’s notoriously sidelined them, today I finally get my wish. Yes, we’ve had Ice-Man and North Star and a string of others, and those characters are important, but I was delightfully surprised this book survived on its merits without constantly bashing me over the head that he was gay, which is becoming an annoying trend of late.
I mean, when you’re a kid and a teenager those coming out stories are always a little heartfelt but I’ve always wanted to see more characters whose story wasn’t just about being gay and did this book do it for me! You think we would’ve seen someone by now in popular culture. Poe and Finn’s romance—which was hinted at by EVERYONE—got scrunched up and thrown into the trash compactor in the last Star Wars movie, and Marvel just announced they’re “working on it”which later turned into: we’re looking in to looking in to thinking about maybe or maybe not or maybe not not doing it sometime in the not too distant or far far future.
I just can’t even with major publishers or studios these days. I mean, pick a side. The queerbaiting is seriously frustrating my face off and it's refreshing to read a book where the character isn't being coy with the reader. But one could argue that if those books like Red, White, and Blue weren’t rosily unrealistic versions of gay life than it's unlikely that a publisher would have forked over the money for the marketing and distribution.
But I am the type of person where if it’s a choice between a rosily unrealistic novel or a novel that’s honest I’m more likely to pick the second but that’s just me.
Fletcher doesn't fall into that camp and he doesn't fall into the trap to portray our political system in black and white. He talks about corruption on both side of the aisle. This isn't Republicans are bad and Democrats are good; this is both sides need to do some serious soul-searching about who they represent and why.
It has been so long since I’ve had that genuine feeling with a book. (No offense to literature lately, but I feel like everything has been marketed towards getting a movie or TV show that no one has made the effort to impress me by simply writing a satisfying book.) And these days there is so much marketing and money sprinkled around with book campaigns I consistently wonder if a book I like is genuinely good or is everyone else saying it’s good making me think it’s better than it actually is.
THE CHARACTERS
I’ll be brief here because I don’t want to spoil anything and I cannot be bothered putting in spoiler formatting markers.
SENATOR JASON JONES
I freeze, my heart racing.
“You don’t want to fall in love with someone like me,” I inform him stoically.
“Oh?” says Doug archly. “Why not?”
I don’t like the way this conversation is going, but know better then to let it show on my face. Instead, I gently pry his fingers away from mine. “Because,” I say. “I’ll break your heart before you realise you want to break mine, Doug. Not intentionally. Never intentionally. It’s just who I am.”
My favourite thing about this book, by far, was Sen. Jason Jones. You just don’t come across this type of character often, and I mean—dare I risk it—this might be Katniss-level character building. In fact, not since Katniss have I both feared, respected, and wanted to hug a character.
Characters have to tick a few boxes for me.
They have to have a consistency to their actions. They have to make mistakes. The book has to demonstrate subtlety what things in their lives turned them into who they are when I meet them; if they’re unique to their surroundings I have to know why or how they got that way. But rarely does an author deftly tick all of these at the same time for me.
Jason is complex, he’s damaged, he’s dark, and he’s a type of male character I don’t think we’ve ever really seen before. He’s a portrait of a complicated young gay man who is both courageous and an action hero. At one moment I loved him, the next I hated him, but as much as I thought he went too far I didn’t stop rooting for him. He’s the type of person who’s been knocked down a lot and exactly the kind of person you hope goes into the Senate or politics in general. It was also good to see why he decided to start killing all the corrupt government officials with his powers. He didn’t do it because it was whimsical; the author made an effort to show Jason trying to avoid it at all costs. It’s also a sad statement on politics is America today—could we return to a democracy with all the corruption that’s been festering for so long in our institutions without some kind of violent conflict ensuing?
AGENT DOUG GALLOWAY
My dreams of a gay Jamie Fraser type Scotland guy that lies around in kilts all day and is a hot bodyguard have been answered! Combine Gerald Butler from Olympus Has Fallen and then Jamie Fraser and then Richard Madden and you have one smouldering Agent Doug Galloway—he’s like a sexy Scottish hybrid of every action hero. What made him extra was his family, and you can understand why Jason would fall in love with someone who was protective. I loved their chemistry, the sex scenes, and their banter. So many times I read book couples and I’m like, I don’t know how you’re together, like part of me is thinking one of you just kidnapped and brainwashed the other.
I appreciated that he also didn’t stand around waiting for Jason to do all the saving. He jumped in and tried to Steve Trevor his way through it, even while Jason was fighting around the mall.
And there you have it friends, my complete list of thoughts on The Senator. I am definitely excited to continue this series and I still really did enjoy this. I'm looking forward to what happens next.
Read
May 27, 2024good
April 19, 2020
MY INBOX:
Goodreads Friend: You have to read this book!
Me: *reads sample chapters and graphic gay sex scene*
Me to Goodreads friend: I AM NEVER GOING TO READ THIS BOOK!!!
Goodreads Friend: It gets better past the sample pages I promise!
Me: Never!
Goodreads Friend: It has a hot Scottish love interest.
Me: Nope.
Me: watches book climb up the best seller lists
Goodreads Friend: I have a free PDF ARC for you to borrow.
Me: Fine. I cave.
Me: *skips past gay sex scenes
Me: …
Me to Goodreads friend: THIS BOOK IS SO GOOD WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME IT WAS SO GOOD!!!!!!!!
Goodreads Friend: *BLOCK*
Fellow reader, after ignoring this book for SOOOOOO long…I finally fell victim to reading it. And surprisingly, I think I actually kind of enjoyed myself.
First let’s talk about what I hated and what was my main gripe—THE SEX SCENES. I get that SJM has made an impact in publishing and all and I get it that’s it now the norm, but I really think fade to black sex scenes would’ve made this a whole lot easier to read. However, did it make the novel completely unreadable—the answer, to my chagrin, is no. Once I skipped past them I actually started to get the hype around the novel and why it ascended so quickly in the lists of 2020 releases. I actually found SJM can be pretty good too when she’s not turning me off by velvet-sheathed rods of steal going in and out of people.
One: it’s 2020 and I am really hoping Mitch McConnell gets voted out in the end of the year elections. (If the world doesn’t end and we’re all living in bunkers.) Hate for this man would be too kind of word to describe how much I loathe him and his wife Elaine Chao and the stuff he allowed to happen to Senator John McCain. Two: Senator Jason Jones runs in a midterm and knocks out a McConnell-esque Republican Majority Leader. In fact, if you’re a political junkie like me (or you’re waiting for the Senate to sign Nancy Pelosi’s fucking bill because people are fucking dying) you’ll know the office in the Russell Building the protagonist gets is actually Mitch McConnell’s current office. And Ohhh how that concept alone warms my cold dark heart
It wasn’t exactly a literary masterpiece but it had something a lot of those glossy YA books don’t—life that was actually believable. Trapped in lockdown here in NYC I have read almost a dozen books with repetitive plots and writing styles that all books in my TBR pile were starting to melt together into mindless glob. If I read one more knock off I am going to claw my eyes out. Why do publisher’s keep giving these people six-figure advances for the same book???!!! I will never understand YA imprints or where the money for them comes from? Like do they not have an accountant or someone who pipes up in the back and says, “Yo, bruh! We just bought this eight weeks ago!” Or “YouTube channel yo we gonna get loaded with coin ya’ll— money money money $ $ $ $ $ $ $” I would say this year alone I’ve read, no kidding, five books from the same publisher that were almost near-identical. Someone really needs to check the HarperTeen bank account. (It’s an inside joke.)
&/#/9823/; What’s The Book About?
The story revolves around Senator Jason Jones who is going to Washington D.C. in 2075 to become a senator. Russians and Republicans get involved with trying to take down the presidency and America’s democracy, but Jason’s all:
The book is, at its core, to borrow from my friend Mia’s review is “a dark intriguing comic book in book form.” It’s beautiful and vicious and merciless and gorgeous and I don’t know what that says about me, but I love it all the same. The novel has fleeting flashes and glimpses of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Not in the sense that there has been a Marvel or DC character, to my knowledge, with a similar backstory; in the sense that both Jack and Stan had an innate ability to use the current events of their time as a springboard for a well-fleshed out character. (X-Men is well known to be an allegory for the injustice of black people during the Civil Rights Era; Wonder Woman at least mirrored or reflected women’s fight for equality.)
In this instance, West, Texas fertilizer plant explosion + Flint, Michigan’s Water Crisis + Financial Crises + Apathetic and Spineless Politicians = Senator Jason Jones.
It’s true lots of books borrow from current events but usual so subtlety that I’ve found myself slapping my forehead. Jason Jones is a conflagration of a superhero growing up abused by the corruption in our time.
He feels real; he feels possible.
I believe this is S.P. Fletcher’s first novel. There’s not a lot of tea to spill there regarding the author. I found one Twitter account through the back of the book and google searches and that was about it. Even so, at first glance he has a knack for writing raw, complicated characters. Significantly, characters that have been abused or traumatized. This book is unashamedly angry and honest. He doesn’t make trauma “cool” but still shows how you can bounce back from it—there is a future out there for you somewhere.
This is someone who really gets being a part of the financial crash generation that were forced to grow up far too quickly to deal with foreclosures and subprime mortgages and parents hooking themselves up to opioids. The kind who knew that they’d likely either get a girl pregnant in high school or would die of an overdose at a young ages because that was happening to everyone else in their town. Take it from someone who knows, you have to work three times harder than everyone else to prove your worth and it sucks. I’ve often struggled to handle living in this era where we see the children of politicians go into politics and then make themselves richer and watching someone to come from the other end of the spectrum who is just motherfucking angry. Someone I could relate to. Was so good. Jason isn’t an anti-intellectualist; he doesn’t reject facts and statistics and figures. But I felt that through his interactions with people he balanced on that coy line about knowing that people in these institutions care more about looking good then doing good—and they’ll never care about people in America improving their lives if they think for a moment that he threatens their prosperity. And then it was enjoyable watching Jason leaping around killing Supreme Court Justices and the like and just pretty much fixing the whole system.
I also felt like I was given enough to know about his pain. Lately I’ve been reading books and though they’ve been fast and enjoyable enough to skim through there was no density to the story or they tell me too much instead of showing me. I forget after a day who are the characters or what mattered. The plot got a little fuzzy but I thought about Jason days afterwards.
It would be wrong to state, however, that everything in this novel revolves just around loss and pain and misery. Like my favorite books, it is unflinchingly blunt but not unhopeful. I was glad to find that, despite Jason’s comedic and darkly humorous journey through killing a never-ending army of corrupt Cabinet officials, at its core this is a novel that celebrates American hope. It’s a testament to our resilience. The ending of the novel—meant, in part, to answer Jason’s question on whether America can recover after a horrific President—also echoes the similar sort of questions we’ve all had to grapple with through the worst three years of a presidency in American history. Watching Jason’s arc from uncertain he belonged in the Senate to knowing it’s where he was destined to be makes me hopeful about the future and, dare I say it, the Senate races come November. Even if you don’t read the whole book read the last two pages.
Goodreads Friend: You have to read this book!
Me: *reads sample chapters and graphic gay sex scene*
Me to Goodreads friend: I AM NEVER GOING TO READ THIS BOOK!!!
Goodreads Friend: It gets better past the sample pages I promise!
Me: Never!
Goodreads Friend: It has a hot Scottish love interest.
Me: Nope.
Me: watches book climb up the best seller lists
Goodreads Friend: I have a free PDF ARC for you to borrow.
Me: Fine. I cave.
Me: *skips past gay sex scenes
Me: …
Me to Goodreads friend: THIS BOOK IS SO GOOD WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME IT WAS SO GOOD!!!!!!!!
Goodreads Friend: *BLOCK*
Fellow reader, after ignoring this book for SOOOOOO long…I finally fell victim to reading it. And surprisingly, I think I actually kind of enjoyed myself.
First let’s talk about what I hated and what was my main gripe—THE SEX SCENES. I get that SJM has made an impact in publishing and all and I get it that’s it now the norm, but I really think fade to black sex scenes would’ve made this a whole lot easier to read. However, did it make the novel completely unreadable—the answer, to my chagrin, is no. Once I skipped past them I actually started to get the hype around the novel and why it ascended so quickly in the lists of 2020 releases. I actually found SJM can be pretty good too when she’s not turning me off by velvet-sheathed rods of steal going in and out of people.
One: it’s 2020 and I am really hoping Mitch McConnell gets voted out in the end of the year elections. (If the world doesn’t end and we’re all living in bunkers.) Hate for this man would be too kind of word to describe how much I loathe him and his wife Elaine Chao and the stuff he allowed to happen to Senator John McCain. Two: Senator Jason Jones runs in a midterm and knocks out a McConnell-esque Republican Majority Leader. In fact, if you’re a political junkie like me (or you’re waiting for the Senate to sign Nancy Pelosi’s fucking bill because people are fucking dying) you’ll know the office in the Russell Building the protagonist gets is actually Mitch McConnell’s current office. And Ohhh how that concept alone warms my cold dark heart
It wasn’t exactly a literary masterpiece but it had something a lot of those glossy YA books don’t—life that was actually believable. Trapped in lockdown here in NYC I have read almost a dozen books with repetitive plots and writing styles that all books in my TBR pile were starting to melt together into mindless glob. If I read one more knock off I am going to claw my eyes out. Why do publisher’s keep giving these people six-figure advances for the same book???!!! I will never understand YA imprints or where the money for them comes from? Like do they not have an accountant or someone who pipes up in the back and says, “Yo, bruh! We just bought this eight weeks ago!” Or “YouTube channel yo we gonna get loaded with coin ya’ll— money money money $ $ $ $ $ $ $” I would say this year alone I’ve read, no kidding, five books from the same publisher that were almost near-identical. Someone really needs to check the HarperTeen bank account. (It’s an inside joke.)
&/#/9823/; What’s The Book About?
The story revolves around Senator Jason Jones who is going to Washington D.C. in 2075 to become a senator. Russians and Republicans get involved with trying to take down the presidency and America’s democracy, but Jason’s all:
The book is, at its core, to borrow from my friend Mia’s review is “a dark intriguing comic book in book form.” It’s beautiful and vicious and merciless and gorgeous and I don’t know what that says about me, but I love it all the same. The novel has fleeting flashes and glimpses of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Not in the sense that there has been a Marvel or DC character, to my knowledge, with a similar backstory; in the sense that both Jack and Stan had an innate ability to use the current events of their time as a springboard for a well-fleshed out character. (X-Men is well known to be an allegory for the injustice of black people during the Civil Rights Era; Wonder Woman at least mirrored or reflected women’s fight for equality.)
In this instance, West, Texas fertilizer plant explosion + Flint, Michigan’s Water Crisis + Financial Crises + Apathetic and Spineless Politicians = Senator Jason Jones.
It’s true lots of books borrow from current events but usual so subtlety that I’ve found myself slapping my forehead. Jason Jones is a conflagration of a superhero growing up abused by the corruption in our time.
He feels real; he feels possible.
I believe this is S.P. Fletcher’s first novel. There’s not a lot of tea to spill there regarding the author. I found one Twitter account through the back of the book and google searches and that was about it. Even so, at first glance he has a knack for writing raw, complicated characters. Significantly, characters that have been abused or traumatized. This book is unashamedly angry and honest. He doesn’t make trauma “cool” but still shows how you can bounce back from it—there is a future out there for you somewhere.
This is someone who really gets being a part of the financial crash generation that were forced to grow up far too quickly to deal with foreclosures and subprime mortgages and parents hooking themselves up to opioids. The kind who knew that they’d likely either get a girl pregnant in high school or would die of an overdose at a young ages because that was happening to everyone else in their town. Take it from someone who knows, you have to work three times harder than everyone else to prove your worth and it sucks. I’ve often struggled to handle living in this era where we see the children of politicians go into politics and then make themselves richer and watching someone to come from the other end of the spectrum who is just motherfucking angry. Someone I could relate to. Was so good. Jason isn’t an anti-intellectualist; he doesn’t reject facts and statistics and figures. But I felt that through his interactions with people he balanced on that coy line about knowing that people in these institutions care more about looking good then doing good—and they’ll never care about people in America improving their lives if they think for a moment that he threatens their prosperity. And then it was enjoyable watching Jason leaping around killing Supreme Court Justices and the like and just pretty much fixing the whole system.
I also felt like I was given enough to know about his pain. Lately I’ve been reading books and though they’ve been fast and enjoyable enough to skim through there was no density to the story or they tell me too much instead of showing me. I forget after a day who are the characters or what mattered. The plot got a little fuzzy but I thought about Jason days afterwards.
It would be wrong to state, however, that everything in this novel revolves just around loss and pain and misery. Like my favorite books, it is unflinchingly blunt but not unhopeful. I was glad to find that, despite Jason’s comedic and darkly humorous journey through killing a never-ending army of corrupt Cabinet officials, at its core this is a novel that celebrates American hope. It’s a testament to our resilience. The ending of the novel—meant, in part, to answer Jason’s question on whether America can recover after a horrific President—also echoes the similar sort of questions we’ve all had to grapple with through the worst three years of a presidency in American history. Watching Jason’s arc from uncertain he belonged in the Senate to knowing it’s where he was destined to be makes me hopeful about the future and, dare I say it, the Senate races come November. Even if you don’t read the whole book read the last two pages.
March 17, 2020
4 ½ STARS. I do not know this was a homerun, but dammit, it was entertaining! Honestly, I laughed out loud at the appearance of various political figures that were referenced in the novel. At first, I wasn’t going to read this. Call me a snob or whatever but I never really respected the whole independent publishing thing, despite the number of authors who started their now legitimate careers through it. But lately I’m picking up books from a big five publisher for $21 that have typos and usage errors in it, so when a few of my goodreads friends told me to read it anyway—what can I say—I caved.
And damn, I flew through this!
Just how Black Panther took a story we’ve sort of seen before and told it from an entirely new perspective to make it original, the Senator pulls a similar move telling a political origin story through the eyes of a gay senator from Kentucky with superpowers. It’s something we’ve never seen before and I loved it!
Senator Jason Jones has the kind of dry, witty sense of humour that I like.
Definite recommend if, like me, you’re being forced into lock down because of corona virus and have just been mindlessly going down indie publishing rabbit holes on Amazon.
And damn, I flew through this!
Just how Black Panther took a story we’ve sort of seen before and told it from an entirely new perspective to make it original, the Senator pulls a similar move telling a political origin story through the eyes of a gay senator from Kentucky with superpowers. It’s something we’ve never seen before and I loved it!
Senator Jason Jones has the kind of dry, witty sense of humour that I like.
Definite recommend if, like me, you’re being forced into lock down because of corona virus and have just been mindlessly going down indie publishing rabbit holes on Amazon.
March 17, 2020
OMG GIVE ME MORE!!!!! This book was annoyingly short?!!!!
April 10, 2020
It’s so bad it’s good! Oh god what a scream. Everyone
Whose already exhausted by 2020 politics needs to read this.
Whose already exhausted by 2020 politics needs to read this.
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