LitPick Review
Tulsa, Oklahoma, 2021. It has been six years since the first African American president was assassinated, leaving the country erupting in a widespread turmoil of riots, disorder, and crime. It has been five years since Tulsa became the first fully privatized city in the United States, a grand social experiment with big risks that has the power to change the world. It has been months since the mysterious graffiti WH2RR started to appear on the brick walls on the outskirts of the city. And now along comes Sara Christie. An aspiring film student, Sara is looking for a documentary that will get her on the fast track to UCLA and the heck out of Tulsa. The mysterious graffiti is just the place to start. And then she meets Billy Rune. Mysterious, provocative, passionate, Billy is everything Sara desires and everything Sara fears. And he wants her. Soon, Sara is caught up in a whirlwind full of dark secrets and conspiracies that threaten the peace that has weakly tied her city together for so long.
"In spite of all FFT’s efforts, you saw WH2RR? On the walls of public buildings, including City Hall; you saw it on schools; you saw it scribbled on and etched into bathroom stalls in just about every public place."
Opinion:
I felt that this book was very strong in some areas yet very weak in others. The sentence structure was very loose and flowing, giving the novel an almost otherworldly feel that kept the reader entranced and on the edge of their seat. However, I felt that the main focus jumped around too much, leaving me confused. Descriptive language was also awfully hard to come by, which can give some readers a hard time visualizing characters. There were also quite a few themes that I felt were a little disturbing that were, theoretically, “glossed over”. One example of this would be the dynamics of Billy and Sara’s relationship. At some points, I felt like their relationship was both physically and emotionally abusive, yet the author somehow tried to justify it by writing behind the façade of righteous activism or honorable reason. I feel like this book would be a great read for the right person, but I am afraid that that right person wasn’t me.
“They weren’t coming for her. They couldn’t be. But those power washers, those jogging men, had come for her, as had that frozen figure on the stairs, and the ashen men looking up at her with stones for eyes in the vacant lot."
I would recommend this book for mature readers. There are varying themes of graphic violence, along with pretty extreme profanity and sexual situations. As mentioned above, there were also some parts that could be seen as abuse, acting as a “trigger” for some readers.
Caught between the choice of loving or leaving, will Sara be able to use her film for good or for change? Contract City by Mark Falkin has all the answers!
