My review of this book can be found on my YouTube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/ZkQpkk74wHI

Enjoy!

I would like to thanks Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for sending me small preview of this book in exchange for an honest review. I will be honest this book wasn't for me, I found the style of the book all over the place and I found the font hard to read. This might be different on paper but as an e-arc it was very small. ( )

(Full disclosure: I received a free e-ARC for review through Edelweiss. Trigger warning for allusions to sexual assault.)

At twenty-five years old, Londoner Katie is the veritable Meryl Streep of crappy jobs. Directionless and perpetually anxious, she just wants to earn enough money to pay her rent, put food on the table, and maybe buy the latest gadget from tech conglomerate Arko.

Oh, and to earn enough points to score her ex-partner and best friend Nasim a permanent visa in the country.

Nas is tortured artist struggling to find their next big - nay, revolutionary! - project. To pass the time (and help pay the rent), Nas is helping their landlord Jeremy (semi-washed up actor/comedian) organize his archives.

Emma is by far the most "successful" of Katie's friends, with a stable job as a programmer at Arko and a steady (if boring) fiance named Oliver. Her future is upended when her ambitious boss Michelle - founder and CEO of Arko - comes under fire for corruption. However, buying the current PM's seat in exchange for favorable government contracts might pale in comparison to some of Arko's other transgressions.

TWELVE PERCENT DREAD is a really interesting blend of SARAH'S SCRIBBLES and science fiction (think: nefarious megacorporations monopolizing tech and exploiting sentient AI). While most of the story follows Katie and Nas's day-to-day struggles to pay the rent, get to where they need to be on time (and with a limited budget), prioritize their mental and physical health, and nurture personal relationships, this is kind of overshadowed by Arko and the outsized role it plays in their lives. From buying political power to micromanaging peoples' lives through its ONE app, Arko is omnipresent; inescapable. (I love how McGovern underscores this by having the characters accidentally run into each other at unexpected times: Katie is unknowingly hired to tutor Michelle's daughter, Skye; Katie and Nas's side hustle as lab rats dovetails with a secret project at Arko; etc.)

Arko itself feels like a skewering of Facebook or Twitter (although Michelle was giving me some strong Elon vibes), as well as the culty, New Age tendencies of certain tech companies.

The ending felt a little too neat and tidy (a multi-billion dollar company succumbing to a scandal? as if!), but the ride is a somewhat enjoyable one (Nas and Alicia, come the fuck on!). From immigration to universal health care, rape culture to transphobia, TWELVE PERCENT DREAD address a breadth of current topics in a way that's empathetic, progressive, humanistic - and *funny*. ( )