Stockholm by Kian Kaul

Summary from Amazon: A struggling and not-so-young advertising creative, Anakin Carver meets Natasha von Ottmann, an up and coming actress working on his new campaign, and accidentally makes her famous. Now romantically involved with a celebrity, Carver finds himself connected into the landscape of popular media and entertainment; a labyrinth of mistrust, petty politics and desperate grasps for power. As he becomes instrumental in the struggle for cultural dominance, Natasha must choose between fame and idealism.

Stockholm is described as a dystopian comedy and a satire about modern media. The author definitely has an intriguing storyline and a delightfully acerbic wit; however it wasn’t enough to redeem this story for me. A 2.5 stars out of 5.

I felt that this book suffered from a lack of balance: between voice, detail, characterization, and plot development. It’s meant to be a satire however the employment of scathing and sarcastic commentary about everything, all the time, caused what could have been the books unique edge to become trite. It consequently developed a preachy feel I doubt the author was going for.

The main conflict, Anakin’s entanglement with Natasha, was promising but something needed to happen sooner (not necessarily with Natasha) to make the reader invested in Anakin. I found myself not liking the main character for his propensity to ramble and think himself better than everyone else. In ordered to become invested in his character, I needed a really strong conflict to hook into, or a glimpse into some sort of major/traumatic event that made him this way.

The plot of Stockholm is bogged down with details and would’ve benefited from a serious streamlining edit. The description needed to flow more organically; there was too much description of inconsequential things and not enough of character motivations, thoughts, and plot development. While I don’t necessarily prescribe to the “if it doesn’t move the plot ahead, take it out” philosophy, too much extra detail makes the reader lose interest.

I did enjoy the idea of “profiles” and everyone being rated (kind of like a universal Facebook page others could edit about you), however I would have loved if it was explained more. The concept was interesting especially with society’s growing use of, or argued dependency on, social media. I also very much enjoyed the “do you want to be right, or do you want to be successful” angle, and this was a theme that could have unified the book if incorporated throughout.

The core of Stockholm (as described in the summary above) would engage any reader. With some refinement and streamlining to better showcase the main conflict and additional work to engage the reader quicker and more thoroughly with Anakin’s character, Stockholm could be a great dystopian read.

Purchase
Amazon Paperback ($14.39)
Amazon Kindle ($2.99)