Ohio 2029 by D.A. Winstead

By Daena

Those with open eyes knew the inevitable would happen one day...that economic implosion would put an end to our small world.  But when the United States learned that the Black Crash of 2015 was planned and carried out by Washington insiders, people simply stopped wondering why, rose above the fray, and learned how to move on...with some conditions.  What happened in 2015 was not just an attempt to bring on a financial apocalypse; it was an attack on our way of life carried out by progressive ideologues...insiders...and it left a poor and angry nation seeking revenge, and a conservative force determined never to let it happen again.

Fourteen years later, a very different United States has taken shape.  Led by a coalition of conservative Southern states credited for forging the greatest economic recovery in our nation's history, the national economy is strong again.  New laws have minimalized Washington's power and placed progressive troublemakers in ghetto-like reform zones.  Still, most Americans remain unwilling to forgive and forget.

Much of the nation is still suffering and ready to move on.  But first, two families must do so.  Mary Catherine Marshall is the daughter of a powerful Red State senator living in Atlanta; Maddy Garner is the son of a Blue State refugee hidden away in dangerous and violent Cincinnati, a national reform zone known as Hell Town.  With four of the last five reform zones set to be closed, leaving only Cincinnati to remain for the long-term, Mary Catherine goes there to be with Maddy, the only one she's ever loved.  When she goes missing inside the zone her father created, the two families find out quickly that getting over political ugliness isn't their biggest problem.  Deep in the bowels of the nation's most dangerous and violent reform zone, where a hateful roamer has taken over, the two families must forget the past to unite and fight an even uglier and more revengeful reality.  (taken from the back of the book)

Author D.A. Winstead has brought political reality to life in his latest novel.  Two families wth extremely opposite political beliefs are bound by friendship and true love.  However, when the economy fails, those ties are tested and undone between two opposing families.  They go from living similar lives with differing political views, which seemed irrelevant as long as they didn't talk politics too often or too deeply,to not speaking and living completely different lives.  One family recovers magnificently.  The other is forced to live in poverty-like, oppressive conditions.  The remaining love between the children of these two families would eventually reunite them when they have to fight to save the daughter of the wealthy family, Mary Catherine, whom they believed had been kidnapped in the most dangerous town in the United States.

The novel begins with random newspaper clippings to bring the reader up to the present day and time and was just slightly confusing for me, but made sense once I was past the clippings.  Due to the clippings not giving a lot of details or introducing the characters, I found it difficult to dive into the story until I was about a quarter of the way through the book.  This is a very well written book, with a very believable plot.  I enjoyed Winstead's style of writing and the intelligent way it was written.  I thought he offered insight regarding political affairs to the novel due to his political/military background.  This added a realness to the novel other authors may not have been able to offer.  I do wish the ending of the book had been a little more traumatic.  I felt like there was a big build up for a sort of uneventful ending.  Over all, it was an interesting novel and I would recommend it to someone whom enjoys political fiction.