Rockstar Ending

The concept of assisted suicide is pretty bleak...but if you throw in a user-friendly app, a futuristic stretch limo, huge tax breaks for your kids, and a little bit of rock 'n roll, it starts lookin' real nice.

Set in the near future, Rockstar Ending centers around the exploitation of the elderly and the commercialization of death. The younger generation has instituted a new political party, Yuthentic, which has determined that the wealth of the older generations should be redistributed to the young. To private sector companies, that translates into coercing the elderly into an early death with promises of going out with a (head) bang. 🤘🏼

At first glance, the plot completely fascinated me, mainly because it paints a detailed picture of a frighteningly possible future. There are sci-fi books with spaceships and aliens, and then there are sci-fi books like these that sit right in the uncanny valley of what society might look like with just a little push. It's damn near unsettling to think that we are well on our way to making the plot of this book a reality, which is what makes it nevertheless enjoyable. Beyond telling a story, Rossi uses heavily debated topics to force the reader into considering the orientation of our current society and how their own ethics and moral philosophy fall into that space.

The writing itself flowed nicely, switching perspectives between various characters in the story. Usually, I'm not a huge fan of more than a couple of perspectives, but in this case, I think it was almost necessary to show the differentiation of thoughts and opinions to establish a spectrum of moral convictions. However, I wish the character switches were more obvious as they tended to happen within chapters and made the narrative a little chaotic.

The one disappointment that I did have was that I assumed a certain level of thrill and excitement as suggested by the synopsis, and it didn't really live up to expectations on that front. Scenes that I expected to be colorful and sharp came across as somewhat muted. Don't get me wrong, exciting events definitely ensued, but the execution of them wasn't what I had hoped. I'm not sure if that's attributed to writing style, plot development, or a bit of both, but since this is the first in a series, I don't hold it against the book as much as I normally would.

Long story short, I enjoyed this book immensely, not only in its ability to entertain but also morally challenge. Also, as a huge fan of all things rock and roll, the added musical references were a nice touch.

Thank you, NetGalley and Cameron Publicity & Marketing Ltd., for providing the e-book!

P.S. The entire time I was reading this book, I could not stop thinking about the episode of Futurama where Professor Farnsworth schedules to be picked up by a robotic grim-reaper and taken to the Near-Death Star (Season 7, Episode 10 if you're interested in watching).

Link to Goodreads review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4499429013

Ahhhh, Dystopian Fiction. Oh how I love thee.

When I was far younger and beginning my journey into the twisting disillusionment of how society could potentially crumble upon itself, the general themes of Dystopian Fiction were either rooted in the past (e.g. post-World War II era), or set just out of reach in the near future.

I feel, now, that advances in consumer digital connectivity have bridged that gap and make Dystopian Fiction that much closer to a current theme than we could previously visualize. I’m not even going to touch on how modern politics pushes hard against those previously fictional themes.

That’s where Ms. Rossi slides right into the picture with Rockstar Ending. The setup is completely plausible. Our story opens with Meg: a woman approaching 85 who has lost her husband, has grown kids who have moved away, and is now approaching the cutoff of NHS benefits due to her age.

In Meg’s world, the “Yuthentic” movement has taken over the political climate in the UK. Younger people, who have become politically active, and see the older generation as more of a leech on the system than a resource for inspiration, have set into place laws that, effectively, remove health and welfare benefits for all citizens over the age of 85, and increasing restrictions for those over the age of 70.

The icing on the cake is the new “benefit” the government — and the corporation — are pushing as the “One Last Gift,” a.k.a. sanctioned euthanasia.

Rockstar Ending tackles the development, marketing and sly execution (if you’ll pardon the pun) of a complex, and very technology-driven, propaganda machine targeting UK’s aged population: leveraging hopes and fears, and exploiting some very grey areas of ethics.

At the same time, we have the story of Lexi and Bob: two (among many) individuals who are trying to fight the system against all odds.

I’ll leave the synopsis at that because this is a novel that is well worth discovering on your own.

Ms. Rossi is a natural storyteller. While there are, seemingly, many threads winding about the London setting of the story, all slowly begin to weave together in an intricate interconnection that pivots viewpoint and reader perspective. It’s a device that I absolutely love from authors like William Gibson, and Ms. Rossi uses the mechanism deftly.

Another thing I greatly appreciate is the likability, but also fallibility of just about every character we come across. None of the heroes are particularly shiny, and the villains (if there really are any) aren’t really the puppy-kicking variety. Rockstar Ending is a grand example of the snowball effect of bureaucracy and how the bounds of greed and success are not necessarily defined by ethical borders.

I feel like this was a very relevant novel to read, and gave me pause many times to consider how such steps were taken, and how they could easily be actualized.

Ms. Rossi has already written two sequels to Rockstar Ending, and you are damn sure that I’m going to be reading them very soon.

I don't know if I skipped reading the summary and just picked this book because of the cover. The story inside completely surprised me. The author did a good job of telling the story through several different characters. I liked that I was interested in everyone and their feelings and views about the social and political world the book was set in. The ending was not what I was expecting, which in this case is a good thing. I never knew what to expect or where the story was going. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

I'm not a fan of Handmaid's Tale, but I liked this. It didn't seem to move along very quickly, but that didn't stop it from being interesting most of the time. Although set in the future, it seemed quite realistic, which added to it's impact as a story. Good stuff. Recommended.

I really appreciate the free review copy!!

I usually like dystopian fiction, but I think I just was not in the zone for this book. It's well written, and did its job well, which was kind of the problem. It's so bleak that it took me several attempts to read it because it just made me miserable.