Woah this is as hard-hitting as they come, and I have read a lot of dystopian fiction.

Set in a near future (just after Covid, so, now, really) in a world where there is an epidemic of teenage children killing themselves despite all their parents' best efforts to keep them safe -set against an absolutely terrifying backdrop of facts about how screwed the world is, and only going in one direction- this book is not an easy read if you're feeling anxious about the state of the world (and surely we're all feeling anxious right now) .
The politicians are interchangeable despite what they say; the content covers belief in big society vs personal responsibility, the crippling anxiety of teenagers desperate not to get things wrong and whether we should focus on that or encourage them to try and move past it, hyper-sexualised children, rich men getting richer on the backs of others, anti-establishment 'Free-Speechers' and people hearing the voice of god.

The storyline pulls you along like a rip current, though you dont know where you're going to end up at the end. The story-telling is magnificent, you get caught up in events without realising how - and the layers of inter-twined tales are woven in expertly.

Go for it but brace yourselves for the journey!

Anthem seems to have polarised opinion, which is probably quite apt considering the subject matter of this colossal novel.

A book that reflects the state of the world. Divided. Damaged. Violent.

Young people are taking their own lives in the thousands.

How do we make sense of that?

A small group of these young people are on a mission to change the world. To create a new way of being after the chaos and destruction that is their inheritance.

A vast range of characters reflecting each side of the political divide. A billionaire paedophile (sound familiar?) Anarchy and violence.

There is also quite a strange supernatural element that didn't quite sit right for me.

And this book is long. It's detailed. It's depressing.

But it's also quite brilliant. Had it been written 30 years ago even, it would have sounded far fetched and like the ramblings of a deluded soul.

Now however it is a grisly testament to the world as we know it.

If you're looking for a light-hearted bit of escapism, Anthem is not for you. But if you want something meaty to get your teeth into and something that will make you think and reflect, then Anthem will tick those boxes.

Set in the near future, this novel highlights so many of the issues of our times to devastating effect. Young people are killing themselves at a terrifying rate, while desperate parents search for answers. In a clinic, Simon is told by a fellow patient known as “the Prophet” that God has a plan for him, and they go on the run in search of a man called the Wizard. This is when things got too weird for me. Touching on mental health, the opioid crisis, conspiracy theories, the corruption of government and much more, I found it just too dark and oppressive, and sometimes rather pompous. Deeply intellectual and full of ideas, this was not for me and I could not finish it.

The writing is brilliant. The storyline is depressing.

I must give a background as to my reason for not finishing the book before I start discussing the storyline. The siege of Ukraine by Russia has left me feeling sick with worry and despair. It’s affecting my reading habits where normally, I’ll read almost anything, I can’t get past the depressing scenes that seem to appear on each page. It’s not Noah Hawley’s fault. We’ve reviewed and loved his previous books.

Rony

Elite Reviewing Group received a copy of the book to review.

This book is funny, tragic, superbly written and I would absolutely recommend this book to my audience

Abandoned half-way. Twaddle masquerading as satire. Platitudes masquerading as profundities. As one Amazon reviewer commented, “Once you put it down, you can’t pick it up.” Quite. It started promisingly enough, with an epidemic of suicide amongst teenagers. Then it meandered off into a whole lot of subplots and secondary characters and preachifying and speechifying ad nauseam and completely lost its way. Or rather the author lost his way. And I lost mine….so I gave up.

This is a "it's me, not the book" case. I liked the style of writing and the dystopia was interesting but it wasn't the right moment and I felt it a bit too depressing for the moment.
Not my cup of tea, I will re-read in the future and i'm sure I will appreciated it.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Anthem by Noah Hawley is a genuinely disturbing vision of a dystopian future that is a slightly blurred or shifted version of the reality we are facing today, and is one of the most memorable books I have read in a very long time. At times the author speaks directly to the reader, describing his fears for the world his children will inherit, but that fear is also woven into the story he is telling, much of which is told from the point of view of teenagers. The book consists of several different narratives and perspectives which at first seem completely separate but which are cleverly intertwined by the end of the book. The author's skill and history in television makes him a master of these intricate plotlines and I was completely gripped by his tale. He tackles many of the issues making global headlines , from climate change to the growing opioid epidemic, and incorporates characters that are thinly disguised versions of their real life counterparts.
One of the most gripping and memorable books I have read in a very long time.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

This is not typically the type of book that I read the most often. I generally read more contemporary fiction. I have been known to enjoy the odd dystopian novel here and there, so I was interested to read this book.
Firstly I will say that I live in the U.K. and this book is very much based on American politics, I do know a little about American politics, and know the difference between the parties and who the leaders are. I did not feel that I was the intended audience for this book.
For me personally I don't enjoy reading about Covid-19, it's too soon. This was very much a doom laden story. I appreciate that this is well written I just didn't enjoy reading it that much.
Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for my ARC.

This is a novel of excoriating power, raw emotion and narrative verve. A wonderful and incredibly rich novel, I wasn't able to put it down till I reached the end.

This was some story. At first I didn't think I would be able to finish it but I kept going and eventually began to understand. It was certainly and experience not easily forgotten and a hope that the World does not come to this.

I have been a huge fan of Noah Hawley since reading before the fall, and Anthem has kept him in my good graces! A searing look at America today, this is also a rollicking page turner - literary suspense at its finest.

An interesting book to read in current times and one that is difficult to read and very thought provoking. Set in modern day America, a few years after Covid, teenagers begin committing suicide. Their notes quote A11. What does that mean?
It’s a well written, hard hitting book that isn’t easy to read but worth it for the writing style.

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book

sorry to say this one wasnt for me...i did try very hard and i could see that its well written but it didnt hold my interest

All over the country, teenagers are committing suicide, leaving a note that says “A11” which does not make sense to the adults. While America sinks into chaos with violence ruling the streets, a group superrich enjoys their peaceful life. Some individuals still believe in the constitution, thinks that with the established structures, they can do something to turn the situation around, to make a change. Among them is Margot Burr-Nadir who is about to be appointed to the Supreme Court. She has strong convictions and is well-meaning but the disappearance of her daughter Story also occupies her mind. While some still hope for a future, it much rather seems as if the last day of mankind has arrived.

I was so looking forward to Noah Hawley’s next novel and “Anthem” sounded like a luring effigy of the world we are heading to. Now, in March 2022, I had to start the novel three times until I could finish it. Neither the author nor the book is to blame, reality which has overtaken Hawley’s imagination at a tearing pace is. This was simply not a good moment for me to read a dystopia in which single persons accept the destruction of countries, of lives, to reach their personal goals.

“Anthem” portrays the USA in a state not much different from reality, just a step further. I liked Hawley’s thoughts and direct addresses to the reader in the story, especially that moment where he ponders about how you can write a satirical text while reality is the best satire (referring to people complaining about how masks limit their personal liberty). Well, that was yesterday, if we thought that after two years of pandemic nothing could shock us anymore – surprise, surprise.

Stories of the deep state, a global conspiracy of the rich and the powerful, people living within and yet outside society captured in their own frame of belief built on bits and pieces gathered here and there – there is nothing unthinkable anymore. We have seen all of that wondering where it might lead ultimately – and how the next generation might react to it. The aspect of collective suicide since there is no hope, no future anymore is persuading: what has this world to offer them? News, fake news, alternating news – what can you believe? Bombings, attacks, wars, violence – when is your turn to be hit? There is a small group of teenagers, courageously following their ideals, showing empathy and thus bringing some hope to the plot. Unfortunately, I cannot imagine this happening right now.

There is so much in the novel to ponder about. Noah Hawley without a doubt greatly developed aspects of the present into his dystopian future, showing how closely he observes the world he lives in and touching sensitive issues which should lead us to react before it is too late. Unfortunately, the novel did not come at the right moment for me to really enjoy it.

Anthem is, to put it mildly, rather a strange book. It is, perhaps, the book that 2022 deserves: quirky; darkly cynical; very funny in places but desperately sad in others; simultaneously deeply pessimistic but finally (perhaps unrealistically) optimistic.

The book is set in an America of the very near future with several incidental characters who are named real people and key figures who are given fictional names but who are clearly identifiable. It must have given the lawyers pause.

Hawley likes to take down the fourth wall from time to time and talk directly to his readers. Thus we know that he does not intend to take sides. There are two parties in the USA: the party of Truth and the Party of Lies and they are, he says, interchangeable.

… Right now, the Party of Truth is in power.
Before that the Party of Truth was in power.
(Except it was the other party.)
You can see how this is going to go.
For short, let’s call one side Truthers and the other side Liars.
Which is which depends on you.

Let’s not kid ourselves though. Hawley is a fully paid up member of the Liberal Elite and this book was never going to view Trump (referred to throughout as the god king) in a positive light. In fact, one of the funniest passages of the book is a random, rambling Trumpian monologue which catches his tone exactly and which, sadly, is too long to include here. It includes the line:

“But the omelet comes and the sausage – can I just tell you – the size of my pinkie, okay. Or smaller, ‘cause I got pretty big hands.”

It’s fair to say that this is not a book to appeal to mid-Western Republicans.

But, I hear you cry (because this demolishing the fourth wall is catching), what is the book ABOUT?

Good question, but arguably irrelevant. Is the Lord of the Rings about a couple of midgets trying to throw a ring into a volcano, or is it an epic metaphor about good and evil and the struggle for civilisation? Is Anthem a story about mass suicide amongst the youth of the world (although, frankly, this is so US-centric that “the world” is purely background colour) or is it an extended riff on the failure of modern politics, our refusal to deal properly with climate change and the general unpleasantness of human beings to each other? (That’s a rhetorical question, by the way.)

My personal politics hover somewhere between the Party of Truth and the Party of Lies, which means that I quite often read the Guardian but find that its painful insistence on being continually shocked by the basic unfairness of the world can irritate. Anthem is like reading the Guardian steadily for 427 pages. Fortunately, Hawley is a seriously good writer and his prose carries you along, even when you are losing patience with his remorselessly metrosexual, comfortable, all-American view of life and its woes. After all, the starting point of the book is that we are supposed to feel sympathetic and concerned about all the dear little children of privilege who are killing themselves because – well, we never discover exactly why. Teenage angst gone mad, mainly. It was difficult to care that much before the teenagers of Ukraine found themselves taking up weapons in a doomed attempt to save their homeland but, now that the news is full of young people with real troubles, I find myself struggling to tune up the world’s tiniest violin.

Hawley built his reputation in screen-writing and this is reflected in the style of his novel. While it does take itself seriously as a novel of ideas, it is happy too lurch off into action-packed sequences which show a Hollywood-inspired lack of attention to plot detail. People meet when the plot needs them to meet; escape deadly traps with implausible ease; and, when required, return from apparent death. When all the author’s attempts to get people to the right place at the right time fail, he resorts to having them guided directly by god, who speaks to them via a teen savant who calls himself the Prophet.

There is a figure called the Wizard (not a real wizard and bearing remarkable similarities to Jeffrey Epstein) and another called the Witch (probably a real witch). (You may notice that several characters seem unduly attracted to Capital Letters.)

The Witch appears, with no backstory and little attempt at narrative coherence and tortures a major character over an extended period. She is then apparently killed (more than once) but remorselessly continues, evil incarnate, to pursue our young hero until she doesn’t any more. She vanishes from the storyline as inexplicably as she arrived in it.

The messages from god, the improbable coincidences, characters like the Witch – all these are things that we have grown used to in a screenplay. The sort of thing where you wake after a fun night at the cinema (or on Netflix – this is 2022) and say, “But how did he know that she would be at the nightclub?” Only pedantic people allow this to spoil their pleasure in a good action movie, but one of the things that distinguishes books from film is that the plot of books should try to avoid this sort of thing while Anthem positively embraces it. I’m not going to give examples because even I am not quite that pedantic and, in any case, it would involve massive spoilers, but once you start looking you will see a lot of them.

So is this a terrible book? No, definitely not. It positively bowls along and the prose is a pleasure to read. And it does make some sharp and worthwhile points about the world we live in. But it is not the Great American Novel that some reviewers (and maybe even the author) think it is. It may well be the Great American Novel That Defines 2022, but that’s a bit like being the most cheerful Russian novel about the Gulag: there’s not that much competition and even the best of the field (take a bow The First Circle) is still pretty depressing.

Writing a review of Anthem and trying to say intelligent things about it, all the irritating quirks of the book become much more noticeable, but (though I was vaguely uneasy about some of it) while I was reading I was turning pages at speed and generally enjoying the experience. It’s a long book, but it was a relatively quick read. If you are not a mid-Western Republican and you can get through the Guardian without balling it up and throwing it at the wall, then you will probably find more to enjoy than to hate. Read it and form your own opinion.

I’m finding this review hard to write, not because I didn’t enjoy this book, on the contrary I loved this and think it will stick with me for a long long time…. But more because it’s a story about a post apocalyptic world with terrifying similarities to the one we are currently living in….
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Another reason I’m finding this hard to write it because upon finishing I read through some other reviews to try and find my words, and some people have written the most thorough and well written reviews that say it much better than I EVER could haha
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So all in all, I say read some of the reviews on here but also BUY THIS BOOK! I feel this is a cop out of a review and I apologise, but my words have left me, but this will stay with me for a long long time, the characters got into me in a way I can’t explain…
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Thank you to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the arc!!

Sprawling, complex, ungainly and important

Hawley’s latest book is something of an unpredictable monster. The reader must proceed cautiously, always aware that shock, awe, overwhelm and confusion may arise at any moment

The time is somewhere around now. Looming apocalyptic events have happened, and are happening. Our planet is on fire, literally. Extreme weather events and disasters, global destruction is absolutely evident.

Politics has split almost all into fundamentalist groupings of one description or another

A strange ‘virus’ stalks the land – not the current pandemic – we have moved, as we may indeed have – to epidemic and accommodation with this one. The ‘virus’ is suicide among the young. Teenagers are killing themselves, and this is spreading to other groups.

And why not? What have Governments done to avoid the already come upon us apocalypse.

Hawley’s book brings the end days of cults and oppositional groupings amongst us. Survivalists, dropouts, who may or may not have the ear of God. If God even exists.

Take any of the recent mass resistance movements, and the reader is likely to find them within these pages. And what is being fought against is sometimes very thinly disguised indeed – so the Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and others offences against young women are only changed by the assignation of different names to the perpetrators.

Central drivers of the narrative are a band of variously resisting young people who are outlawed, damaged and vulnerable, but these are the aware ones, their wounds propelling them into struggles to create a better future.

There are both very obvious facings of reality, and some instances of the paranormal

You may find at times that the narrative is confusing, as I did. At times you may also really want to stop reading, as I did. This is far from a ‘perfect’ book – if such a thing exists. It is one, though, which feels hugely relevant, hugely powerful. I had to proceed with it, not to do so would have felt like some kind of denial of authenticity.

Not to avoid facing our worst selves would have seemed particularly wrong in the light of current world events (War against Ukraine)

An extremely difficult and disturbing read. Recommended

So, when I first read this the description of this book it sounded really interesting, set in the near future post Covid-19, with a society that is divided and a political system that no longer works and to top it all off teenagers are committing suicide around the world, and the adults don’t know why!

Anthem started off really interesting but as I continued it got harder and harder to read. I considered giving up on it several times, but because it was an eARC I pushed on in the hopes that it got better, but sadly for me it didn’t.

As I said this book started off good but then it became quiet depressing and honestly a little boring and personally struggled with the writing style.

As for the characters well, to start with there are way too many making it difficult to remember who is who and this also made it harder to connect to any of them.

Now, while there were a few bits of the book I did like the majority of it, it found too depressing and chaotic and I’m sad to say that this book just wasn’t for me.

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publishers Hodder and Stoughton for my eARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

First of all, I would like to thank the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in return for an honest review.

The book tells the story of our world, perhaps a few years down the line, that starts getting plagued by teenager suicides, and teen extremism, as a response for decades of neglect of our environment and society by adults.

I must say I disliked this book fiercely, and could not stomach more than half of it. The simplest reasons have to do with literary form - while the pacing works well, the characters are not sympathetic nor are they well rounded. The story feels more like a caricature of a post apocalyptic novel, written by someone who is convinced they are writing a serious story. The main issue is with extremes. The adult characters are the worst, and are either racist bigots, capitalist monsters, or power hungry politicians. There seem to be no redeeming qualities. I understand that at some level there is a point the author is trying to make here, but I find points are better made with a healthy dose of nuance and sophistication, entirely missing from this narrative.

The more complex reasons have to do with the content. The lengthy paragraphs that meticulously list all the terrible things in the world and the crimes humanity is perpetrating on a daily basis are just tiring. The fact that one of the protagonists mentions "Saint Greta" is all you need to know. To be clear, I am by no means Conservative or right-wing, but this pop-science inspired diatribe of a book is not helpful. Again - it lacks sophistication. The gap between this book and another one tackling these issues seriously is, in my mind, analogous to that between a snuff film and a Jane Austen romance novel.