I’m always amazed at writers who can write intricate storylines with multiple twists and turns. They possess a gift for world building that far exceeds my own. What’s even more daring is when they draw from the real world in order to create a new one in which they can filter their ideologies to their readers. It’s a much more entertaining format than a preachy nonfiction read. Author Katie Gompertz has achieved this with her political detective thriller, None So Blind.
None So Blind plot summary
In an alternate but eerily familiar 2016, Australia has been cut off from the rest of the world. Art and music are forbidden. Internet access has been revoked. And any non-white citizens are forced to live in ghettos.
When a burned body is found in one of these ghettos, Detective Chris Nash of the Australian Federal Police is assigned to investigate. This investigation leads to a maze of characters, events, motivations, and allegiances fueled by this toxic climate and its oppression. Now, the country has split into those working towards an exclusively White Australia and those who fight for equality for all.
The plot
None So Blind is a chilling piece of speculative fiction. It feels like it could one day be a political TV series that one day drops on a popular streaming service. It’s an intricate, weighty tale that takes a lot of concentration to absorb and process.
Author Katie Gompertz has clear cut feelings as to the real world slippery slope that could potentially lead to the world she has built within her novel. She draws from real life events in order to paint a realistically gruesome atmosphere that’s rooted in very relevant topics. These include: racism, immigration, trolling, cancel culture, and censorship. It’s a lot to swallow but easy to submerge within its deep-rooted fears.
Characters
There is a large cast of characters in this story, all with significant parts to play in the plot. What helps is an introduction to all of the main players via files that Nash reads through in the first few chapters. Here, we get detailed back stories of each character.
Where Nash finds these characters in the present day varies differently from these back stories. All have their own secrets, values, and identities they are trying to protect. It’s easy to get lost in this giant cast. I found myself taking notes at one point just to keep them all straight.
The narration is also heavy in exposition, rushing to catch up the reader to current events, standard for a detective story. It’s a lot to devour and keep straight on top of the realistic yet fictional world building that’s established at the same time, similar to fantasy storytelling which I personally have a hard time following.
But in the end, the book’s heroes are easy to root for. The villains are easy to hate. The stakes are high, and the tension is thick.
My recommendation
I recommend this book to anyone who loves political thrillers, detective stories, and dystopian speculative fiction. It’s not a breezy beach read, Instead, it’s a slow burning story that makes you think and draw comparisons to real world events. Only in this reality, we see a team of heroes who resist the evils of the world from the shadows. They infiltrate where they can and ultimately working to restore the world to some version of fairness, or at least one that gives every citizen a fighting chance at freedom.
Buy a copy of None So Blind here (not an affiliate link).
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Amazing review!!! Sounds like a fantastic page-turner!!
Great post!