The trouble with reading dystopian fiction all the time is that bad dystopias are annoying, good dystopias are depressing, and excellent dystopias are devastating. This is the third kind. ‘Random Acts of Senseless Violence’ tells the story of America’s implosion in the brilliantly immediate format of a tweenager’s diary. The writer is plunged straight into the life of Lola, a twelve year old girl living with her parents and younger sister in New York. The way that total social breakdown plays out in the background of her daily doings is nothing short of brilliant. The world-building through teenage slang is cleverly done and has aged well. The language unerringly walks the line between otherness and comprehensibility; the pacing is relentless and absolutely compelling.

Even though I wanted to read something more cheering, I could not put this novel down. A major part of this was emotional investment in Lola, who is a heart-breaking and unforgettable character. It's genuinely distressing to be periodically reminded that she and her friends are only twelve. She is old before her time, clear-eyed and pragmatic. When her parents try to reassure her that everything is going to be fine, she knows immediately that they’re lying and it isn’t. Indeed, she feels a strong sense of responsibility and protectiveness towards her parents and sister. Yet she is also preoccupied with school work and friendships.

I won’t spoil the events of the book, merely comment that they are told in an unusually vivid fashion. First person narration is challenging to get right, but when done well it can be uniquely involving. (Examples from my favourite novels shelf include [b:The Kindly Ones|3755250|The Kindly Ones|Jonathan Littell|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347999215s/3755250.jpg|2916549] and [b:The Goldfinch|17333223|The Goldfinch|Donna Tartt|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1451554970s/17333223.jpg|24065147].) Political instability, economic collapse, and the escalation of violence are recounted subtly, woven into the fabric of Lola’s daily life. The narrative has a level of emotional conviction that lends it disturbing plausibility. That said, a few years ago I wouldn’t have considered this scenario of total social implosion in the US at all likely to occur. Yet here we are.

The significance of the title is that the book shows why senseless violence is not random. Violence is systemic and its apparent senselessness conceals personal and social causes. I am incredibly impressed with the nuanced analysis of social breakdown that is concealed in the format of a twelve year old’s diary, somehow without Lola becoming a precocious caricature. I won’t soon forget this novel or its narrator. Pity about the lurid cover design, though. ( )

Read this
Highly ( )

By far the best of Womack's dystopian NYC novels. This one is less SF than the others, and is focused entirely on the misfortunes of a teenage girl whose parents fall on hard times. An excellent, very believable urban drama. ( )

What a great book, a near future telling of the demise of US society told through the eyes of a young girl. Moving, gripping and thought provoking, I loved every page. ( )

Following the trend so easy to see for all of us who lived through the early 1990's, this book takes everything we experienced and amped it up to a fever pitch.

Womack takes all the increasing poverty, the general decline across the board, the massive riots, unrest and all the various drugs making it into every home (including prescription abuse), and tops it with violence on a very scary and down-to-earth scale.

It works so well here in this novel. The gentle diary of a 12-year-old girl in a money-troubled middle-class house slides step by step into chaos. It's so easy to get lost in her everyday concerns, but just like the proverbial frog in the stovepot, it's a cinch to get boiled in the end. :)

From being hounded by true asshole collectors, to moving to a rougher neighborhood, to being ostracized by her old friends, to getting involved in street gangs, this is one hell of a frightening tale. It's just normal life. Twisted inexorably to a dark fate.

And this isn't some novel about one single example. The whole world is going to shit. The riots continue much farther than what we saw. Presidents were mauled by angry mobs. Poverty is rampant everywhere.

The slide is not so quick that people don't TRY to hold it all together. But the slide happens despite everything and this made the book one hell of a horrific read. There's no way out. Anywhere.

Goodbye, normalcy. This SF is a supremely understated sociological SF that instead relies on great characters with great personalities driven into ever-increasing bad circumstances. As an idea novel, it's pretty damn brilliant, but as a dark realistic horror, it's even better.

Very worth the read. Scary. ( )

This is a very uncomfortable, but very rewarding read. More over at my blog. ( )

I am a sucker for good titles, I admit. This one was in a list I saw: http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2014/mar/10/top-10-books-read-af....
The book started interestingly enough, but unfortunately did not develop. I was rather disappointed, I admit. At least one whole star goes to the author for his rather painstaking idea to change the way Lola talks, in a gruesome kind of crescendo, as her life changes from a relatively protected childhood. It does not sound like it, but I think it was generally a good idea. I hope it was with deliberation that she ended up sounding so out of place, desperately trying to belong in her new... hood. ( )

Hm, which is worse? The device of an upper east-side teen girl's diary? The b otched wanna-be street-smart slang when hard times for her Hollywood script writing father evict the family to Harlem? Or the endless repetition of non-developing plot points that stretch a flimsy short story into a novel-length snore?

Nah, it's gotta be the payola reviews on the back cover, herniating themselves to tell me Womack is comparable to Gibson and Hoban. What money or bedfellows this guy must have.

( )

Riveting, unique and heartbreaking. A great story told from the point of view of a 12 year old girl in an eerie near future dystopian NYC. ( )

http://spacebeer.blogspot.com/2006/03/random-reads.html ( )

cyberpunk.

*note to self. (copy from Al).