84K, Claire North

“What if your life were defined by a number? What if any crime could be committed without punishment, so long as you could afford to pay the fee assigned to that crime?”

Just reading the synopsis, this story raises all sorts of thought provoking measures, all relational to moral and ethical dilemmas. 84k, takes place in a dystopian-esque future, in England. England, is in a poor state, since a corporation known as ‘The Company’ joined forced with the Government, and therefore took over everything – it’s important to say, that at this point the novel began reminding me of Resident Evil. Life, is now monetarily dependant (even more so than now, and in different ways). Our MC Theo, with a plethora of character flaws ranging from self-serving morality, to weakness/lack of courage, fights the man and attempts to break the world.

I am, fundamentally, a failure. I’ve known this for most of my life. Since I was a child, it was always clear to me that the world I inhabited was not one I had contributed to. Everything that was good, other people made and paid for with their own sacrifice. Everything that was bad, I couldn’t control. All the ideas and dreams I thought were mine were in fact someone else’s, and the more I talked about taking control, being my own man, all the things you’re meant to say, the more I was talking to cover the very simple truth, that I wasn’t. I am not. I made some choices, of course, but they weren’t defiant acts of judgement. They were made because the alternatives were significantly worse. I coasted down the path I had with the feeling that it was the only path that was really before me, and when I chose to choose to do nothing, it felt like a kind of release, an admission that this was my life and I may as well live it. Nothing changed. Murderers walked free, people died and begged and grovelled and lives were destroyed for so little, for fear and anger and…but it didn’t matter. None of it mattered. Because it was just the way the world worked.

The premise was ambitious, attempting to pull of a spectacular intertwining of morality, and corporate control, in a dystopian fantasy with all to realistic aspects. It leaves somewhat of a bad-taste in your mouth, one that makes you think what if this was something we were experiencing, and really the idea isn’t far off.

Theo – our MC – is working for the Criminal Audit’s office, where each crime that crosses his desk, is assigned a ‘debt’ to society. But – and this is where the self-serving morality comes into question – when Theo’s ex-lover is killed, its different (funny that its not so black & white, no can you be impassive when its someone you love), this is one death he can’t let become an entry on a balance sheet. Because when the richest in the world are getting away with murder, sometimes the numbers just don’t add up.

Clair North, really digs into the intricacies of this concept, weaving a complex and yet oddly satisfying narrative, where the novel fluctuates between personal, and emotional ideas. She takes the innate apathetic nature (similar to our current society), and draws the MC from his cocoon of comfort. She applies value to life, 84k, in this sense, is all this women was worth.

Its conclusion, isn’t one that’s easy, and its easy to come-away with a bitter taste in your mouth – it calls a spade a spade, and unfortunately this spade isn’t hard to imagine in our own world.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. For more, visit https://ljkastermanslibrary.wordpress.com/