Though homeless and poor, Briony gets a travel writing assignment and lives the life of the rich aboard the lucury cruise liner The Emerald Tranquility. But all is not well aboard the ship. The overworked and underpaid crew, led by the mysterious Mrs. Moore stage a mutiny and the roles are quickly reversed. But when pirates from a so called “utopia” take over, things get even more complicated.

This book was wild! Even though I thought the tail end of the book packed a little much plot in there, it was overall an interesting satire. I liked Briony well enough and her weird relationship with Mrs. Moore ended up being interesting. Not one I loved, but I definitely enjoyed.

I've really struggled with this book, and to be honest It's put me on a bit of a book slump. I'm not sure how to rate or judge something when I don't have much nice to say about it. I think some of the description used in the novel was truly well done, there was just something that didn't feel refined in what the storyline was really trying to do. I wish I could have loved this so much more than I did, the characters were ripe for a solid book, I think it could use one more pass of editing.

This book was just not really for me. I appreciated what the author was trying to do re: class dynamics, but it fell flat. I had such a hard time with some of the dialogue that was meant to be funny (like the opening conversation between Briony and her boss), and the humour often felt dated. I think the book could have very well been a satire about class and privilege without the prose trying so hard to convince of that fact.

Published by House of Anansi Press on January 4, 2022

People of wealth and privilege are an easy target. They may be a deserving target, but it may also be difficult for a writer to poke fun at them without coming across as a bit envious. In an apparent attempt to be even-handed, The Swells takes a satirical look at class distinctions that satirizes everyone. The working class and the upper class are equally deserving of mockery. At least, that’s the message I took from The Swells.

Briony is a luxury journalist who writes for the rapidly downsizing magazine Euphoria. The magazine is going online and, in its new incarnation, Briony will be its managing editor and only writer, all as an independent contractor earning a pittance for her trouble. She will soon have no possibility of paying rent, but travel writing allows her to stay for free at luxury accommodations. There might have been a promising story in that concept, but Will Aitken doesn’t pursue it.

Briony takes a cruise on the Emerald Tranquility, a luxury liner that caters to the elite. The Swells starts as a sendup of the wealthy, going through a checklist of things to mock. Heteronormativity, check. Conspicuous consumption, check. Children who purport to reject the parents whose wealth they are spending, check. Tea ceremony, tango lessons, and other classes that wealthy people take until their ephemeral interests move elsewhere, check.

Eventually the ship is boarded by pirates and later experiences a mutiny that is incited by an older passenger named Mrs. Moore, a woman to whom Briony is inexplicably attracted. But Briony is also attracted to Teenah Tri (formerly Terrance Tri), an Asian born into wealth who professes to be rejecting the concept of inheritance. Teenah has a bigger thing for Kurd Fenstermacher, a famous starchitect who, as Teenah explains, “takes a bit of getting used to.” Other passengers who might take some getting used to include a Parisian named Gigot and a fellow named Praun Thalat whose followers call him Little Buddha.

Perhaps The Swells is meant to be a subversive commentary on class privilege or an acidic criticism of social movements. Perhaps it is merely meant to be funny. To a limited extent, it is all those things, although it tries so hard to blend pointed commentary with humor that it shoots over the top of each goal it targets.

Mrs. Moore delivers tiresome lectures about the oppression of the poor by the wealthy and the social forces that cause lower classes to believe themselves less worthy than the rich. Her lectures have some merit but they feel out of place in a comic novel.

Inhabitants of the Asian ports of call are depicted only as stereotypes, as are repressive government policies (“one son, limitless daughters”). Exploited Asian factory workers are the object of comedy (children use squirt guns to cool the backs of garment workers) that makes exploitation seem rather fun. When the wealthy travelers encounter something unpleasant (the suffering mother of a kidnapped child, a collapsing building that crushes workers), they spend a few moments wondering if there is something they should do before they return to the ship, “eager to be unreflective once more.” This strikes me as more tragically truthful than satirical. In any event, Will Aitken seems to be indirectly mocking the problems of poor countries so he can mock the indifference of wealthy Americans.

Aitken crafts funny moments, although not often enough to make the story truly enjoyable. By taking a shotgun approach to mockery, targeting the upper class and the working class with equal vigor, the story never quite finds an identity. The piracy and mutiny are silly, but silliness was probably Aitken’s goal. The novel’s flaws and charms are roughly in equipoise, making it impossible to condemn or to recommend with enthusiasm.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

I hate to give feedback that it's glowingly positive because I know how many people work so hard to bring books to market. That said, I simply did not like this book.

I know it's meant to be a satire about class and capitalism, but it felt more like a satire about writing about rich people and class and capitalism. The characters seemed more like under-developed caricatures than well-constructed satire, and for a book described as "darkly hilarious," I really didn't think it was funny.

I think the concept of the story is really excellent and has the potential to be a really fantastic novel (which is why I gave it 2 stars), but the execution missed the mark for me.

It just didn't hold my interest and I feel like it was further hampered by the disastrous formatting of the e-ARC. I know that when we accept advance copies we understand that they are not fully edited, but nearly every single page had at least one sentence with no spacing which required multiple read-overs to decipher what it was meant to say.

Briony is a travel writer who's given up her apartment to travel full time. On an expensive cruise, she navigates blending in with the wacky rich people aboard. There's a mutiny of the crew against the passengers and high ranking staff in the middle of the ocean.

I was excited for this novel to have the snarky tone of something like Crazy Rich Asians, but I found the writing style too terse for me, the characters hard to follow, and the plot a struggle to keep up.

Unfortunately couldn't finish this. Writing was choppy and unorganized - very fake deep. Not as funny as it thinks it is.

What happens when the world turns upside down for the crew and passengers of a luxury cruise ship? That's the question posed in this satiric novel that wasn't as funny as I'd hoped but which has a. bite. Briony, a travel journalist, isn't sure where she belongs when the crew overthrows the captain with a nudge from Mrs. Moore. You'll likely recognize a passenger or two if you've been on a high end cruise but I liked the crew perspective. This packs a lot into a slim volume but the conceit would have run thin in a longer one. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. An interesting read.

I thought this book was okay overall, i didn't love it but i didn't hate it either. I think a lot of people will love this but it just wasn't for me personally.

I really wanted to read this book because I found the premise really interesting. The humour is definitely dark but it explores real world themes but it was definitely missing something.

Briony is a travel writer who finds herself on a work assignment on board the Emerald Tranquillity; a luxurious cruise liner. The cruise begins normally enough, but as they head towards Japan, the crew stages an uprising and starts a class war against the wealthy passengers. Thrust into this new situation, Briony has to decide who she should align with.

The Swells is a satirical commentary on the world we live in, capitalism and privilege, but sadly, I found it very difficult to follow. I couldn’t connect with the characters and I was confused by the plot (the formatting, which was really bad, might’ve been an issue). There were scenes I enjoyed, but overall I wasn’t impressed with this book.

I really like the play on the upstairs/downstairs narrative and the commentary on class but I found the writing style to be pretty tiring. It took me out of the story and prevented me from connecting with a lot of the characters.
This is a relatively short book and I struggled to get through it.
I do really love the cover!

Unfortunately, this book failed to hold my interest. There was too much scene setting and not enough action for me.

I wish Aitkin all the luck, but this book wasn’t my cup of tea.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced e-ARC. There was an issue with the formatting that was really distracting and I wasn't able to finish. There were whole sentences with no seperation between words. I tried my best to get through it but had to put give up.

Unfortunately, I was not able to complete reading this book since the formatting was so poor. I would love to read and review a physical copy of this book since the plot still sounds so compelling to me. But, as it stands, the formatting is just too tough to get through.