Article contributed by Annie McCann
“The truth is found when men are free to pursue it – FDR…
The truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it, ignorance may deride it, malice may distort it but there it is – WC…
Trust, but Verify – RR…”
Imagine a world where paper no longer existed, where everything was run by tablets and words were erased from our world as deemed unnecessary and you were told to just trust what you have been told because any attempt to ‘verify’ could be identified as a rebellion.. Not that far from the real world hey! I thought this book was written very well, easy to follow, and cleverly executed. The concept was unsettling but intriguing… what do you do in a world where you know better?
“Sometimes the most frightening leap is one we make in our own minds…”
Meri Beckley lives in a world without lies. When she turns on the news, she hears only the facts. When she swipes the pages of her online textbooks, she reads only the truth. When she looks at the peaceful Chicago streets, she feels the pride everyone in the country feels about the era of unprecedented hope and prosperity over which the government presides.
But when Meri’s mother is killed, Meri suddenly has questions that no one else seems to be asking. And when she tries to uncover her mother’s state of mind in her last weeks, she finds herself drawn into a secret world full of facts she’s never heard and a history she didn’t know existed.
Suddenly, Meri is faced with a choice between accepting the “truth” she has been taught or embracing a world the government doesn’t want anyone to see—a world where words have the power to change the course of a country, and the wrong word can get Meri killed
I enjoyed following Meri as she’s a strong character but not in a “bad ass” way. Instead, she is dealing with the untimely loss of her mother and her alcoholic father, but she still finds the strength to carry on with her life and even takes on challenges to find the truth in this world. With Meri’s mother, who was an artist, painting a picture to expose the truth, the mystery held my attention as did the characters we met along the way.
“Tablets are just as easy to write on and writing on paper is not only extravagant and unnecessary – it’s selfish”
A great book that demonstrates “words have power” with special thanks to Harper Collins Australia Publishers for sending me a review copy of this book.
Verify is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
