Dystopian Tales

25 Perfect Days by Mark Tullius
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was lucky enough to have been granted an advance reading copy of 25 PERFECT DAYS - thank you NetGalley and Vincere Press.

Mark Tullius's novel is a disturbing but mesmerising read. A chronological collection of fragmented first-person vignettes from a group of interrelated characters, the book chronicles the gradual descent of a society into a dystopian state, and the sacrifices required for salvation. Commencing with revenge and culminating in resurrection, the stories run the gamut from hope to violent despair. Offering slices of the lives of generationally interrelated characters, the world building provides glimpses of existence under a totalitarian regime between August 2036 and Christmas 2076.

Tullius depicts a fractured society in which a doctrinal group called The Way, led by a charismatic sociopath known as the Preacher, is ceded authority by the government to manage taxation policy, regulate health and well-being and rationalise the size of the population. A familiar dystopian theme, the oppressed population in 25 PERFECT DAYS is starving, terrorised, and forced to make inhumane choices just to survive but many don’t. Tullius’s protagonists face callous fates - some for trying to change their world, others despite bowing acceptance to it. By the time 25 PERFECT DAYS ends its characters have faced forced serialisation, mass murder and State-sanctioned torture. No one emerges unscathed.

This novel will appeal to readers who enjoy dystopian fiction. Mark Tullius is a solid author, although some of the vignettes are stronger than others. I must admit to having become a little lost in the sheer volume of characters, not discovering the handy 'who's who' of protagonists until I had completed the novel (perhaps this should be listed up front, not at the end). 25 PERFECT DAYS contains allusions to 1984 and BRAVE NEW WORLD as well as films like “Soylent Green,” “Blade Runner,” and “Children of Me, but is, for all that, unique and interesting and not derivative. 25 PERFECT DAYS is definitely worth reading.

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