People’s Choice by Litty Williams
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Book Info
Genre: Speculative Fiction, Dystopian Fiction
Age Category: Young Adult
Number of Pages: 312 Pages
Publication Date: April 28, 2025
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/230923900-people-s-choice
Storygraph: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/6ace0b62-6d07-45e6-88da-c450606b97e0
Amazon: https://a.co/d/5mwdhrT (Canada) https://a.co/d/1evlxxk (USA) https://amzn.eu/d/fl4U6Z5 (UK)
Blurb
In near-future NewBrit, where only Winners succeed, Maz Tallis is a Loser. All she wants is the expensive medicine that could save her half-brother, Kyle.
As her final term at Albion House Academy begins, Maz enters the Manticore Challenge, a competition offering the winner 1,000 Life Chances—credits that can be exchanged for life-saving treatments. For Maz, this could be her only shot at getting the medication Kyle so desperately needs.
To improve her chances of winning, Maz comes up with a bold plan. But when Felix, a charismatic Winner, steals her idea, they become fierce rivals. To make matters worse, Kyle gets a superbug, making the need for treatment even more urgent.
As Maz uncovers a disturbing secret at the heart of the competition, she faces an agonising save her brother or expose the threat. Battling self-doubt and a corrupt system, Maz must decide if she will risk everything to reveal the truth. And will she find a way to save the people she loves without losing herself?
Maz lives in a post-apocalyptic version of Great Britain. Only those born as full citizens of NewBrit are able to access some of what they need. Superbugs, antibiotic-resistant diseases, are a constant threat to those who live in NewBrit. If you are a FirstGen, you have a chance of being treated in the best hospitals and using some Life Chances (credits that are hard to earn and worth more than money) to get the best treatment. If you are a SecondGen, aka you have one NewBrit parent and one non-NewBrit parent, you don’t have access to the best hospitals and you have to use more Life Chances on medication. If you are a ZeroGen, aka a refugee of sorts, you basically have no chance of getting any level of treatment. In fact, ZeroGens are often the ones blamed for “bringing” superbugs to NewBrit, so their hospitals have little to no true medical care. Maz is a FirstGen, but her sickly brother Kyle is a SecondGen. She goes to school at a reality show school of sorts where she has chances to earn Life Chances by passing exams and becoming popular, but she’s always struggled at both aspects. Now, Kyle is sicker than ever, and it is up to Maz to earn enough Life Chances to save him.
This book hit too close to our own reality for me to look at it as a true fantasy/science fiction novel. With how things are shifting with the rules of citizenship here in the United States, I could easily see a ranking system such as the one created in this novel being formed. Superbugs are real, albeit currently extremely rare, but the risk increases as more and more people receive high doses of antibiotics for various ailments throughout their lives. What happens if they stop working? The Life Chances system doesn’t yet exist, but there are plenty of children who carry the weight of their family’s health and safety on their shoulders. Those teens and young adults push themselves to their limits to try to excel academically or athletically to one day earn enough money to help their struggling families.
Maz was a very relatable character. I never personally struggled with test anxiety, but I know many people who do. Her working to overcome that challenge really spoke to me. Her relationship with her mother and brother was admirable. I wish that her mom had done more sometimes, as it often felt like she was shifting so much pressure onto her young daughter’s shoulders. Nevertheless, this is also a realistic trait as the mom was probably doing so much that the daughter didn’t see. Everyone suffered under this oppressive system.
Although the synopsis of this book makes you think that there may be some sort of Hunger-Games-esque violent trial about to happen, the book actually refrains from that sort of storyline. Instead, more of the conflict in this book is social conflict, class conflict, and the richest taking advantage of the desperation of the poorest. By staying away from unrealistic levels of physical violence and instead showing psychological violence, the book actually felt scarier to me. I could see more of these things identically happening in the real world, where I couldn’t easily see Hunger Games or Squid Games identically happening in the real world.
Two things I wish about this book. One: I wish we’d had some time outside of the school setting to really get to know the audience of the show. The focus of the book was People’s Choice, but so many of the people remained faceless throughout the story. I wanted to see how the people were reacting to the different events happening on the show. Maybe even some more instances of people commenting under the different characters’ posts, showing which comments received the most likes, and how the popular opinion of individuals changes throughout the story. Two: The ending of the story was a bit underwhelming for me in some ways. It wasn’t bad, but after things had picked up so much, I felt like I wanted a bit more.
I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a new dystopian YA novel.
Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 books.
About the Author
Born in Merseyside, Litty Williams wrote her first story at the age of twelve and has been writing off and on ever since. During her early career she worked in sales and corporate finance, then retrained to become a business psychologist where she really enjoyed helping people achieve their potential.
During a Masters in Creative Writing at City University in London Litty finished her first complete novel! Hurrah! This achievement had a massive impact on her belief in herself as a writer – and she has since written several novels and movie scripts.
Litty was inspired to write People’s Choice when working at Wellcome Trust.
Litty explains: “I used to work at Wellcome Trust, a global health charity that runs the brilliant campaign #StopSuperbugs. We face a terrifying future if we can’t #StopSuperbugs, and this forms the backdrop for Maz’s story. At the same time I was (and still am) angry at how much pressure is put on school kids in terms of both exams and social pressures. I’m also concerned about the global refugee crisis, which will only get worse due to climate change. Using my fear and anger, I created Maz’s story, where there’s jeopardy, excitement, and clean teen romance – with lots of dark humour and attitude…(inspired by my own kids.)”
Having worked in the UK, Italy, Hong Kong, and Russia, Litty is now a full-time writer living in south London. In her spare time, Litty plays the violin, is a listening volunteer and wages an ongoing campaign to win the affection of her standoffish cat, Lucy.