Official Review: The Ex-Pat's Dinner by Nathan Izzo

[Okafor Prosper]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Ex-Pat's Dinner" by Nathan Izzo.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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"If you don’t own your wrongs and fight the wrong you see, the wrong will own you and fight you when you are weakest." - Page 113.

World War III had just ended. The fear and panic in the United States gave the "Reformist Party" a means to exploit in rising to power. Martial law was enacted, taxes increased, affecting even corporations, poverty rates increased, and people were placed in blocks with little pay and rations for their work, while extremely harsh punishments were dished out for little to no crimes. Amidst all of this in this world was Marc de Jude, who had no family and was content with a simple life. As The Ex-Pat's Dinner by Nathan Izzo revolves around Marc de Jude, we watch how this system created by the Reformists oppresses the poor like Marc and his friends. At what point will the people decide that enough is enough?

The story is told from the third-person limited perspective while we follow Marc in two different timelines: the present, which involved the main characters' fight for survival against an oppressive system, and the future, which detailed forty years after the present. While I found the author's decision to narrate the story in two different timelines concurrently intriguing and even enjoyed it at the start of the book, I have to say that giving me glimpses into the future at the start exposed the result of the conflict too early; therefore, there wasn't a lot of suspense throughout my read, as I only looked forward to the methods that would be employed to achieve that result.

The strongest points of the novel, which are the aspects I enjoyed the most, are the world-building and character development. The author expertly captures a fascinating world that explores the good and evil nature of man. We get to see how greed sets in as the Reformists exploit the common people, making false promises and capitalizing on their fears after a difficult period. We also see the main characters come and work together against difficult odds.

The story also follows a good balance of intriguing male and female main characters. From Marc, who had to assume a leadership role in the revolution against the Reformists after moving from being content to questioning why things were the way they were, to Toolz, the tech expert, and Henny Renault, Marc's love interest, the novel did not lack in characters that readers will enjoy growing with and rooting for. There was even an interesting conflict in the future timeline to look forward to that I will not reveal here.

On a negative note, The Ex-Pat's Dinner is not a well-edited book. I found a lot of distracting errors while reading, which mostly revolved around run-on sentences and misspelled words. This was what I disliked the most about the book.

Overall, I enjoyed reading the book. I would have considered giving The Ex-Pat's Dinner the maximum rating if it was professionally edited. The execution of the story in two different timelines was also a drawback, in my opinion. The author could even have separated both timelines to create two books. I rate The Ex-Pat's Dinner two out of four for these reasons. Readers who enjoy dystopian novels will enjoy reading this book.

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The Ex-Pat's Dinner
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[Jemima Ajibade]

The book is nice and okay, but I feel too much different points have been joined together which makes it somewhat difficult to comprehend.

[PeterRabitt20]

The storyline seemed dramatic and promising with the end of WWIII, high poverty rates, and so on. It is too bad that the simultaneous timelines didn't work out. Thanks for your candid review!

[Kristy Khem]

It sucks that the suspense is lacking. And, I am sorry that the book wasn't well-edited. I'm not really a fan of dystopian books so I'm not motivated to read this story. In any case, thanks for writing this review; I think you analyzed the book nicely.

[Becca Olsson]

It sounds like another round of editing is due. I hope the author takes your critiques into consideration and maybe build more suspense. Thanks for your insightful review

[SweetSourSalty AndSpicy]

Its unfortunate that the two timelines did not workout as intended and the editing needs improvement. Thanks for the comprehensive review.