Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3/5)
Pub Date: 10/18
Genre: Dystopian

This book follows Sonya, the poster girl & child of prominent members of the fallen regime known as the Delegation. Ten years prior during the uprising, she along with many others were imprisoned. Now, the new government is offering her the opportunity to win her freedom back by finding a missing girl.

The dystopian concepts in this story hit a little close to home. There are many parallels to today's society and thought provoking themes around identity, privacy and freedom. However, it felt like SOMETHING was missing. The pace was slower than I would have liked and the tension felt like one note throughout. In my opinion, this book just needed more development to make it better. The idea was there but in under 300 pages, Poster Girl felt almost unfinished? Overall this book had great potential, but it didn’t quite deliver in the execution. I liked it enough to finish, but I wanted a bit more.

**Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for an advance copy. My opinion is my own.**

Overall, this was a solid read. It's been a while since I read anything Dystopian, and I liked the unique perspective that this book had. The pacing in this is fairly slow, yet the story was engaging. I was really enjoying this until about half way through, and then I started struggling a bit to get through it, but I'm very glad I finished it.
What I liked best about this book was the main character, Sonya. Because she has been in prison since the Delegation fell, we learn about the outside world along with her and we get to see the Delegation, the government she believed in, through her eyes.
Overall, a really good and pretty short read.

this is the first Veronica Roth book I read since Allegiant and I’m so happy to have picked this one up! I love Roth’s writing and the way she creates her stories. To read an adult book by her was super interesting.

The beginning was slow in order to understand the world and world building of this story. Once I got into it though I couldn’t put it down. Read this one on my commute to school and instantly was transported to this world. This world is intense and felt a bit like ours in some aspects (where technology tracks your every move) and I was very intrigued. I really liked the romance bits and found that Sonya and Alexander were cute.

Overall I enjoyed this and will be reading more from Veronica Roth. Thank you Harper Collins Canada and NetGally for the eARC.

A decent if not particularly gripping dystopian novel which explores the role of an individual in a monolithic regime.

Sonya Kantor was literally the poster girl for the Delegation (ok, I’ll get it off my chest here, I find the use of a lot of Capitalization to be Quite Annoying), the regime that was deposed ten years ago. As the child of prominent members of the Delegation, she was sent to the Aperture prison. Now, the new regime, the Triumvirate, is offering her the opportunity to win her freedom by finding a missing girl, who was taken from her parents as she was an illegal second child. Helping her on this quest is her childhood frenemy, Alexander, from a Delegation family but who switched sides before the uprising (or is it the Uprising?)

I really enjoyed the world building here. The prison itself is a small community that makes do and mends. The outside world is limited: there’s no explanation of how the USA came to be fragmented but all Sonya knows is the Seattle area of the Seattle-Portland-South Vancouver megalopolis. This makes it all much more manageable in terms of believability: that Sonya knows so many people and can find her way around just feels more credible than other dystopias which try to encompass the whole country.

Other than Sonya and Alexander, there are few attempts at actually creating characters. Despite being in the Aperture for ten years, Sonya seems to know hardly anybody and those she does know are just cardboard cutouts with names. The exception is Nikhil, her upstairs neighbor who was a big cheese in the Delegation and who is a paternal figure in her life.

The Delegation was all about control and everyone had an Insight inserted - like an iPhone but connected to your eye and brain. Citizens are awarded and fined DesCoin depending on their behavior and I was initially a little skeptical about how this would work, but there is a sort of explanation that I agreed to accept. The new regime doesn’t seem too different and they are opposed by the Analog Army who want to go back to pre-cloud technology. Yikes.

On her quest to find the missing girl, Sonya unpeels the layers of hypocrisy of both regimes and of Sonya herself. There isn’t a neat ending - no dramatic overthrowing of dictators and takeovers by earnest young people (this is an adult novel not a YA one) but we can see the change in Sonya and some justice has been achieved.

Thanks to William Morrow and Netgalley for the digital review copy.

Poster Girl by Veronica Roth, 288 pages. William Morrow (HarperCollins Publishers), 2022. $28.
Language: R (31 swears, 31 “f”); Mature Content: PG13; Violence: PG13
BUYING ADVISORY: HS - OPTIONAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE
The Aperture became Sonya’s home and prison when she was 17 years old, right after the Triumvirate overthrew the Delegation. Ten years later, the Triumvirate is graciously allowing those who were only children when they entered – defined as 16 years old or younger – out of the Aperture to reintegrate into the new society. They might be persuaded to let Sonya, the face of the Delegation, out, too, if she does something for them.
I liked how Sonya’s thoughts illustrated how much she bought into the Delegation and what they valued based on how she still sees things – retraining thoughts isn’t easy. Sonya has to dig through the life she thrived in growing up, and she learns that her happy world turned a blind eye to those who weren’t as privileged as her family, that her happiness came at a cost to others. Confronted with new information, Sonya has to decide how to live with her past and what to do with her future. Her story ensnares readers with the promise of untangling what exactly was going on behind the scenes of the Delegation.
Sonya is described as having “beige” skin and is depicted on the cover as White, and Alexander is described as “brown-skinned.” There are a couple of allusions to non-White characters, but the majority of the characters are implied White. The mature content rating is for drug and alcohol use, innuendo, implied sexual harassment and masturbation, nudity, and mentions of sex. The violence rating is for gun and knife use as well as for murder and suicide.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

This dystopian mystery has great world building and great writing. In a post-revolutionary society one girl, who remains unflappably loyal to the old regime, must go on a journey that is filled with hidden truths and long suppressed guilt. I loved this book I would recommend it to fans of classic dystopian novels like Attwood or Orwell.

1984 and THE HUNGER GAMES. It's the story of the fall of a dystopian surveillance state from the point of view of someone who had grown up pampered by the system--only to find out that life wasn't so great for everyone else in their world.many nods and parallels to today’s society, at least here in the USdetective storySonya is your typical YA character too plucky for her own good and bound to make some large realizations about the world that will change her forever.World building

Ever wondered what THE HUNGER GAMES might’ve been like if Katniss was from District two instead of twelve? Something maybe a little like this; minus the actual Hunger Games event.

Instead, it’s more like Best Manners Royale because under the Delegation’s regime — which utilized eyeball implanted computers ala GoogleGlass (because people got too lazy to carry phones) that also tallied up infractions/awarded you points for good and bad behaviour — they wanted you molded into a compliant citizen. But after the Delegation fell, those who had enforced the rules, even the children of those families, they were all locked away.

Sonya Kantor is one of those children. Worse, she was actually the literal poster girl for the institution that had ruined so many lives. Now an adult, years after having lost her family, and most of the people she loved, she’s offered a chance to leave the prison she and other Delegation members/sympathizers, etc, have been locked away in; even though she’s deemed just too old to qualify for the new law that has passed. But she’s given a chance anyway — help track down a young girl, a second child (illegal for most people to have) who had been “re-homed” to another family, and she will earn her freedom. Along the way, though, she has to confront a figure from her past and realities she hadn’t known.

The concept of this story, which I’m actually loathe to call dystopian because some days it feels like we’re on the cusp of something this scary (whereas ten years ago it wouldn’t have felt that way!), was interesting.

There is some thought provoking discussion and allegory to be found in these pages but, let’s break it down into elements, as a mystery I would’ve liked more tension. As a dystopian some extra worldbuilding would’ve been nice. And for the little bit of romance we get I would’ve liked more chemistry — though to be honest the whole thing could’ve been ditched altogether.

While there is no overall satisfaction from the story, or at least I didn’t feel that way, POSTER GIRL is a quick read and might just be worth your time anyway.

2.5 stars

I feel like I rarely read any adult dystopias, so I had high, even if they were reserved, expectations for Poster Girl. But I gotta say, I was disappointed. If you asked me before hand what I was expecting, I would have said a gritty complex dystopia. And while there were some things I did enjoy - the setting and the thought put into the world building - I felt like Poster Girl lacked the depth I was searching for. Let me begin with the world since it was my favorite.

I enjoyed the gritty feel to Poster Girl's setting even if it felt a bit *cough* familiar. There's this hyper vigilant 24/7 surveillance which is codified and gamified for obedience and control. These elements alone aren't particularly unique, but Roth's spin is that our MC, Sonya, is actually part of the old dystopian baddie government which was overthrown. And so Sonya and the other 'previously law abiding' citizens are now thrown into a complex where they live in a pseudo jail except with a bit more free reign.

But my main critique with Poster Girl is that it doesn't go far enough. That the unique world doesn't quite go far enough. This dichotomy between the previous government and this new one felt a bit too idealized and 'black and white' for me. I'm not sure if it's just to plainly - for the reader - illustrate this contrast. However, for me it felt just a shade too surface level. Additionally, I realize that part of Poster Girl's story is Sonya's own journey - into her past and her own beliefs.

After the fall of the Delegation government, its top members and families were locked in the Aperture, a prison city. Sonya, the Delegation's poster girl, has been imprisoned for ten years. When she is offered a deal, find a missing girl in exchange for your freedom, she reluctantly takes up the challenge.

I'm not sure that I loved this book, it was overly nostalgic and a bit bland. I would have loved to learn more about the Delegation and the revolution. I would love to read a prequel or something set earlier in the world. Overall, 3 out of 5 stars.

It's been a long time since I read anything by Veronica Roth - in fact, I barely remember the plot of Divergent. I was excited to read something of hers again. Poster girl is a short yet thought provoking read set in a dystopian universe that is a little too similar to our current reality for comfort.

Poster Girl is genre-bending and unique. This book is raw, thrilling and incredibly eye opening - perfect for when you want to get that heart pumping a little harder. I'd definitely recommend to anyone who enjoys books that make you question your own reality.

Thank you to netgalley for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

This book is a really interesting, dystopian look at the world post-revolution. As someone who studies Russian history, some parts reminded me of the time in Russia just as the Soviet Union fell. And, as many reviewers have pointed out, there /is/ a certain Russianness to this novel. I think many comparisons between the Delegation and the Soviet Union, and the Triumvirate and the Russian Federation, can be made. Obviously, they're not the same, but I can't help but wonder if Roth took inspiration from historical events. I think it really gave this dystopian novel a unique flavor that I hadn't seen before.

Dystopian is ultimately what Roth does best. This novel made you think about upbringing and brainwashing and moral codes. Probably my favorite thing was watching Sonya unravel the beliefs that she'd had as a child of the Delegation and trying to come to her own conclusions as to what was right and wrong. While I was indifferent to her character at the beginning, by the end, I really started to like her. I couldn't put the book down for the last 50% or so of it.

The reason I rated this four stars instead of five was that the major plot point that was driving the plot sort of fell flat, and the ending seemed rushed and a little out of place. I also think that the author could have done a better job explaining the world she'd built at the beginning of the book because I was so confused reading the first few chapters. It's not until later on that you understand what the Aperture or the Delegation or the Triumvirate are. Obviously, we're supposed to figure out things on our own as well, but I think a little more guidance was needed so it didn't feel like I was completely in the dark.

Overall, however, I enjoyed this novel and found it engaging and thought-provoking. It's a fascinating look into who controls what's right and wrong, and what happens when that old system goes away.

This is true Veronica Roth dystopia without the level of world building and character development of her Divergent series. That doesn't make it bad, it makes it able to sit in a single volume with a beginning, a middle, and an end. If anything, I felt this was more of an allegory about the dangers of letting too much technology into your life and being complacent. This story is told from the point of view of a teenage girl who was the "poster girl" for a society that was overturned, and as a result, has spent the last ten years of her life locked up. She is given an assignment that would allow her to leave prison but it involves facing the damage done by her and her family in the past. It is a thought provoking read with a number of twists to keep your interest.

Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for an advance copy. My opinion is my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and WilliamMorrow and Company for the eARC of Poster Girl!

Sheeeeeesh. No one does dystopian quite like Veronica Roth. Poster Girl will keep you at the edge of your seat, dying with anticipation to turn to the next page. Incredible word building, twists and turns, and moment where you find yourself questioning everything- Poster Girl is absolutely stunning!

A new kind of dystopia written in a way you can’t put it down. Thoroughly enjoyed this read - my first Veronica Roth book but I’ll be back. Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I wanted to love this book, as I've truly enjoyed Roth's past books, but I struggled with Poster Girl. The big "wow" factor was lacking. It felt like there was information missing, and the overabundance of secondary characters made it confusing to follow. The pace was much slower than I expected, and the tension was minimal. While it was dystopian, there are links to today's society in the US. The book was a bit too predictable and lackluster for me.

An enjoyable read with a satisfying conclusion. I did feel like the pacing was a bit off so my interest in the story was not as strong in the middle as in the beginning and end. Veronica Roth is a great writer so I'll continue to keep an eye out for her future books.

This was a really interesting read, particularly coming from Veronica Roth! I was a Divergent stan in high school/university, and the last book....destroyed my entire LIFE.

The way that she crafted this story was very unique, with the plot coming AFTER the fall of a totalitarian regime, and from the perspective of a teenager who was involved in the totalitarian regime rather than its overthrow.

Sonya was very interesting to follow, she was not perfect which I found more compelling than the usual dystopian heroine narrative.

However, the pacing was a little bit off, and after a great introduction I found myself a little bored in the middle until the action picked up at the end.

Overall, a worthwhile read but not a new favourite.

I feel like this book was missing something. Like a twist or some bombshell or something. I liked the dystopian world that it was based in but I do feel like we missed a lot of information that could have been helpful to round out the story. Also I felt like their were too many side characters that didn't add to much or was confusing to manage.

I’ve read pretty much all of Veronica Roth’s books and this one did the least for me.

Poster Girl is true dystopian, however there are many nods and parallels to today’s society, at least here in the US. In fact, there were times during the book where I could have sworn I was reading something by Margaret Atwood, who also strongly has such parallels.

What was missing for me? I think it was a mix of the slower pacing and the somehow lack of tension. Maybe it didn’t feel tense because I kind of knew where it was all going, maybe not. Or maybe it was that it all felt the same level of tension, not the ebb and flow of other books.

I truly don’t this is a bad book, but it just wasn’t for me.

Thank you to @netgalley for the opportunity to read this book. The review expresses my own personal opinions.