The Supreme Lie - Geraldine McCaughrean

Genre: Young Adult | Dystopian | Fiction

Release Date: Expected 15th April 2021

The Suprema of Afalia has fled the city. The entire city of Praesto is in imminent danger of flooding and destruction, and now their leader is gone. Left behind is her maid, her husband and her dog - and they may be the only ones who know the situation deeply enough to try and fix it. Convinced by Madame Supremas husband, her maid Gloria agrees to wear the Veil of the Suprema and pose as their leader - the city needs to believe they have a leader if they have any hope of surviving.

Soon, the evacuation begins - pets are rounded up in the streets, the children are sent to safer places, businesses are closed and the politicans continue to do as they always have - lie. For Gloria, the answers are simple - do the right thing for the people. But she hasn't accounted for how just how corrupt and twisted the systems put in place to protect her really are.

This book is technically Young Adult fiction, but The Supreme Lie covers so much that it's almost impossible to categorize. Just a teenager herself, Gloria is forced very quickly into a world she had no idea existed and the fate of everybody is very much in her hands. Her eyes are opened to the horrors and manipulations of the world she lives in and it's up to her to fix it.

As we follow her journey as the new Suprema, we also get a first hand view of the broken city she is trying to protect through the eyes of a dog who lives in it's streets and sees everything. The narration was so uniquely engaging and vivid - each voice so distinct.

Sharply witty, dark and wickedly clever - this was an uncomfortable close examination of human nature and definitely felt a little too real, with thinly veiled parallells to the world we are living in and the fictional world Gloria calls home.

RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to Geraldine McCaughrean and Usbourne Publishing for an ARC in return for an honest review.

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