The Future Will Be BS-Free by Will McIntosh

Synopsis (via Goodreads): In this terrifyingly timely tale for fans of The Eye of Minds, a teen and his group of friends find themselves on the run after using a genius lie-detector contraption to expose their corrupt government.

In a Putin-esque near-future America, the gifted and talented high school has just been eliminated, and Sam and his friends have been using their unexpected free time to work on a tiny, undetectable, utterly reliable lie detector. They're all in it for the money--except Theo, their visionary. For Theo, it's about creating a better world. A BS-free world, where no one can lie, and the honest will thrive.

Just when they finish the prototype and turn down an offer to sell their brainchild to a huge corporation, Theo is found dead. Greedy companies, corrupt privatized police, and even the president herself will stop at nothing to steal the Truth App. Sam sets his sights on exposing all lies and holding everyone accountable.

But he and his friends quickly realize the costs of a BS-free world: the lives of loved ones, and political and economic stability. They now face a difficult question: Is the world capable of operating without lies, or are lies what hold it together?

𑁋

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts and opinions are my own.

First of all, the synopsis is a little misleading. It did not feel like a "Putin-esque near-future", but they did mention Russia and cyberattacks a few times. If this was supposed to be satirical, it needed more oomph. For example, the president is super shady and tortures teens by bursting their eardrums with excessively loud music. She also asks civilians to take up arms and hunt down innocent people on their own. Those people felt empowered and easily justified their actions with no evidence. Oh, and she rhymes everything she says to the public, but I have absolutely no idea why. I don't even know if the characters noticed.

After about seventy percent, I started skimming through to the end. It just became a tad too ridiculous and unbelievable for me. The previously mentioned ear drums, the lack of adulting from parents and teachers (they just went along with teenage shenanigans and barely questioned anything), and the way everything just sort of fell into place made me lose interest in the story. I also have no idea how the president managed to stay in power.

I liked the concept for the story, and I was curious how their portable lie detector would work. However, even that is only vaguely explained. The reader is supposed to believe something is possible just because someone says it is, but I want the facts to back it up. If you want me to believe something, make me believe it with the writing. They somehow ended up with two rings and used facial recognition, but I have no idea how it worked. It's set in the future, so some of the technology they were using and referencing wasn't familiar to me.

I would have enjoyed more details about their initial escape, but that was over way too quickly. The characters body-shame themselves quite often, and even one of the adults makes fun of a girl for being overweight. The author mentions her being carried multiple times, and not because she's weak or tired. It's implied that she's slowing them down because she's too heavy and slow to keep up. 

Some of the characters formed instant attachments to people, and in the end I just couldn't do it anymore. It's hard to explain exactly how I felt... there was just something off about the entire story. It didn't flow together or hold my attention, and I can't get lost in a book that I don't believe in.