Squee

This novel depicts a town that is severely damaged by a tsunami. Due to the mayor's expulsion of most of their government-run services (like the police and fire department) in favor of some nebulous free-market private-sector-worshiping magic, the town infrastructure is so crippled that chaos ensues and a lot more people end up dying than should have.

The book is a pretty damning condemnation of certain breeds of "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps" libertarianism and conservatism, and that's great and all, but I just wasn't impressed. It was brutal, felt rushed, and the parts that followed the "bad guys" had an awkward point-of-view. I never really grew to care about the characters and I wasn't convinced by the character development.

I just didn't like this book as much as I thought I would. I'd love to see this concept done better.