This was an amazing premise and an interesting take and a very cautionary tale. Really intense. Cant say I enjoyed it but glad I read it.

A dark, political thriller set in the near future where extreme corporal.and capital punishment has been brought back to reduce crime. Badly written in places and the scenes of violence against women and young children were especially graphic. A short novel and not for the faint hearted.

This is a stark and sometimes sadistic look at a dystopian near-future UK in which unpalatable scenes include graphic details of young naked children being caned until they are raw and bloodied. We have every reason for being scared of what the future may hold but I would much rather risk the aliens from The War Of The Worlds than see the common sense party in power. I'm getting my placard ready to go out chanting: "Bring back Boris ... All is forgiven"!

Common Sense is a quick but intense read. The ending is a curveball that comes out of nowhere and makes you wonder if the author is a genius or they got bored writing and decided to end it quickly. I think the former as the ending really suits the book.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. It is hard to say you enjoyed a book based on so much brutality and surely the product of a disordered mind. It reads quickly - maybe because the eye is trying to skirt over some of the most demeaning and frankly nauseatingly violent depictions of supposed justice.

Perhaps the author is trying to counter some criticisms of what we have by showing that what we can get could be so much worse.

The ending mercifully came quickly but was truly terrible. This is not an author i shall be seeking to read again

This book is set in the not too distant future - the coronavirus pandemic has just finished and Boris Johnson’s conservative government has just lost the election. The idea of this book was good but I personally really struggled with the strong punishments and beliefs in this book. There were some very brutal beatings in this book on some young people and teenagers and this didn’t sit too well with me.

Thanks to Colin and NetGalley for allowing me to read Common Sense before the publication date.

Set in the future, the Common Sense Party have gained a landslide victory in the 2029 general election, based on a manifesto which included reducing crime and removing the House of Lords.
The party had been set up 3 years earlier by David McDougall who led the campaign whilst sharing the leadership with Bob Godwin.
However Godwin quickly stepped in to take the role of Prime Minister and ensured that McDougall was sidelined.
After giving one interview with TV presenter Sara Molan, Godwin disappears from sight whilst issuing “pronouncements” via his spokesman, Andrew Forrester. (Does this remind you of another dictator?)

As each day passes, the pronouncements become more and more bizarre and extreme including the introduction of Capital punishment by military firing squad, corporal punishment in schools and invading personal and family life. ( I wonder whaur Colin got the latter idea frae?).
When McDougall speaks out and tells the public that such decisions were never even discussed by the party, Godwin promptly expels him from the party for “unhelpful comments”.

The power which the new laws give to people in positions of authority are allowing them to act out, and even enjoy, truly horrific acts of violence in the name of the law.
Whilst I think that I understand that Colin is making a point in the chapters which describe the punishments, I think they were too explicit.

This is truly a tale of absolute power corrupting absolutely.
Perhaps we need to question the ‘what’ of political manifestoes and ask how they aim to deliver them.

Dark, dystopian political novel, set in the not too distant future.

It is 2029, the UK is still reeling from Covid and Brexit, and the Common Sense Party has won an overwhelming landslide general election victory.

However, as soon as the Party takes power, they enforce increasingly draconian and authoritarian policies, taking their manifesto to extremes and eschewing challenge and debate.

An interesting, scarily realistic and thought-provoking read.

It is 2029 and Boris Johnson and his Conservative Party have lost the election in a landslide victory for the new Common Sense Party.
The new PM, Bob Godwin, with a 400 seat majority, gets straight into action, stating that he won't give any interviews or public speeches during his tenure at No.10, and rapidly introducing new laws which are announced daily by his representatives.
Bob stands for all the things that many are calling for now in 2022 - reduction in crime rate, tough sentencing for crime, bringing back the death penalty for murder, corporal punishment in schools, allowing parents to smack their children, castration for sex crimes, a higher moral standard around sex and relationships and brave new trade deals.
He makes the popular decision to remove the House of Lords - which by turn allows him to make any laws he likes, without challenge, such is his majority.
The story develops in individual chapters, telling of people affected by the new laws by their actions. It aims to show how "one size fits all" won't always work. A '1984' for 2022, if you will.
I have mixed feelings about Common Sense. The ideas and "be careful what you wish for" message is interesting and strong - 5 stars. The style in which this book is written however, is clumsy and voyeuristic - 1 star. So for my review I'll settle on the middle of those at 3 stars!

I torn as to whether I enjoyed this book or suffered this book. It was so good in parts but in other sections it seemed to drag on and keep you hanging.

A thought provoking novel….. Dark dystopian novel surrounding politics and power set in 2029-2034. A story with the power to move readers in every possible way….

I would like to thank the author, the publisher and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC of this book. It was an interesting read and very different but I was a little disappointed at how abruptly it ended, I can only assume the author was leaving it for the reader to decide what happened.

Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC in return for an unbiased review.
This book took my particular interest as I have often thought that at some point a political party would stand in the UK with law and order as their leading policy.
I admit on that basis that I had extremely high hopes for this book given the above but if I'm being honest I felt that the author took it too far which really spoilt the story for me, and I beleive it just became more than a little far fetched.
Don't regret reading and a three out of five.

I love a good political thriller; what I don’t like is a poorly written book with stilted conversations and graphic descriptions of corporal punishment which really added nothing to the progression of the plot. If anything the author just seemed to be wanting to titillate the reader.

I can only say that this is a nasty, unpleasant and thankfully short novel.

My usual thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

Completely frightening! The premise reminded me a little of the tv series 'Years & Years'. Our near dystopian future, close enough to our current lives to be far more of a horror story than any 'monsters or aliens'. Like real life a most unexpected ending. Thanks to Netgalley.

I'm really torn over this book - on one hand I did enjoy it but on the other hand the storyline was appalling and left you going :o for most of it and you really hope what does happen in the book never comes true in the UK!

Once again, a great premise has sadly fallen short of expectations. Set in the near future, Common Sense chronicles the rise to absolute power of Bob Godwin, a megalomaniac dictator and the effect of his legislation on the population of the United Kingdom. Godwin re-introduces both capital and corporal punishment and the book goes straight into the repercussions of these Draconian measures through a series of vignettes where people are branded and flogged for their (sometimes non-existent) misdemeanours. We are never given any background information on why Godwin behaves as he does – he is the most one=dimensional of characters I have read in a long time.
There are many descriptions of brutal multiple floggings, some of which – in my opinion – would have resulted in permanent physical damage, but somehow the mutilated victims are able to resume their lives in a short period of time. Some of these punishments are meted out to small children, whose parents seemingly accept this state of affairs, with the exception of one fleeting reference to an unhappy mother. I was particularly uncomfortable when reading about the death of a mentally incapacitated young man at the hands of a firing squad.
Mercifully, this is a short book. The ending comes out of nowhere and left me looking for the next chapter in the hope of some sort of resolution but, alas, it wasn't to be. I am not normally in favour of books carrying trigger warnings but, in tis case, wish there had been so that I could have avoided it.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Common Sense is a dystopian novel set in the very near future but unlike some other books of this genre, you get the feeling that this really could happen. This book is a cautionary tale of how much power we allow our government to have and to think about what our prejudices and desires for criminal punishment really mean. Reading this book gave me Black Mirror feels!

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

3.5/.5

A very different type of political thriller which although interesting I found it uncomfortable reading about fascism in politics. Not an enjoyable read.

Common Sense could have been so good as I really liked the premise. A common sense party elected by a majority who blindly voted for the Party promising to reduce crime.

But this promise leads to fascist politics, draconian measures and extreme punishments for anything deemed immoral.

Where this novel falls down is in the execution. The descriptions of corporal punishment (mainly against women) make for extremely uncomfortable reading and are so ridiculously over the top, they become farcical.

And if the aim was to present the nightmare of an extreme political party being challenged and brought down by a public unified in their condemnation, this also failed. What we had instead was further violence against a woman, and an abrupt and disappointing end. A good idea, but not a clever or enjoyable read sadly.