PLASTIC by Scott Guild

5 stars

This futuristic, dystopian fantasy novel features a far-from-ideal world of plastic people (think Barbies and Kens) who live lives very similar to humans, but for their creaky plastic joints and chips in the place of injuries.

A generation ago, 50 million plastic people have been killed in a nuclear war, and a tech-forward surveillance state has taken over governance. While nukes have been taken off the table, a young group of eco-terrorists have formed a collective known as Sea Change who worry that the lasting effects of nuclear war along with climate change has reached a tipping point and radical action is needed to save a dying planet. Given an indifferent government and apathetic population, Sea Change has decided to make their point through increasingly violent explosive terrorist attacks on civilians.

Our lonely heroine Erin works in a large shop called Tablet Town, but mainly lives for her life outside of work wearing a Smartbody and living in a Virtual Reality World. For years she’s created a virtual world around a young man she never met, but who caught her eye with interest right before dying in front of Erin in a Sea Change bombing. One day while a work, Sea Change launches a terrorist attack on Tablet Town, which Erin witnesses in the parking lot. On social media Jacob, a shy boy, puts out a SOS, and she works her way to his car to comfort him, launching them into a budding relationship.

Meanwhile paralleling the political divide of America, the society has become split between highly conservative waffle people (looking truly like waffles and made of carbs) who have dominated in politics and the more liberal plastic people. The plastics see the waffles as merely craving “the syrup of power.” These two rarely cross socialize, though there is a highly popular TV soap called Nuclear Family, featuring a best friendship and same sex relationship between a plastic boy and a waffle boy.

Written as a movie script or screen play, the narrative creatively jumps between staccato conversations where spoken language has been reduced to texting shortcuts, longer first-person internal narration in regular language, monologues facing the camera, and spotlight moments where a character bursts into song as if on stage. All that’s missing is the great next plastic movie aka Barbie that this book calls for.

Thanks to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage and Anchor and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy.

Stacy DeBroff

Stacy DeBroff, founder and CEO of Mom Central.com and social and digital consultancy, Influence Central, is a social media strategist, attorney, and best-selling parenting author. A sought-after expert for national media, she trend-spots regularly with national brands and speaks frequently to national and international audiences on a wide range of subjects, including influencer marketing, social media, entrepreneurship, and consumer trends. A passionate cook, gardener, reader, and tennis player, she adores this new chapter of post-college-age parenting.