I really wanted to enjoy this book. It has a very interesting concept and the world building was actually done pretty well. I just felt like the characters were very "cookie cutter" and I didn't see much real growth among them, not even with the main character. I found it difficult to actually root for the main character. He routinely said misogynstic The and really seemed to have a complete lack of respect for women. And, he did so many cringeworthy things, like when Molly thought their video call had disconnected, he just muted his end and watched her in her bedroom for a couple of hours without her knowing. He didn't even disconnect when she showered, he just sat there and watched her. How am I supposed to get behind a main character like that? He'd make a better bully or antagonist. The main character really colored my opinion of the entire book and made it impossible for me to enjoy.

I tried reading this book but sadly I didn't make it very far while reading this book. I think that the different point of views made it a bit difficult to understand . I usually love this author's books and I hoped that this one would work out for me.

This book had so much potential. Firstly, I loved the whole concept of the novel where you have an app that will tell the truth. Add to it a dystopian world where people will do anything to steal this app. The world building is done pretty well and I really enjoyed the author's style of writing too.
However, I feel like the story failed in its execution. The characters are not very well-developed and I did not like the love triangle angle that was included and thought it was unnecessary. I was also irked by the body-shaming and some of the comments the main character Sam mentions. I also felt like the ending was a bit too convenient considering how deep some of the plot holes were.
Overall, this is one of those books that has a great concept, but could have been executed in a better manner.

The premise of this book seemed AMAZING! A putin-esque dystopian world and a group of teenagers trying to buck the system. I am a sucker for dystopian books. I love them. But the characters seemed so cookie cutter and stereotypical, that I quickly became bored and I just didn't care what happened to them. Also, why does every YA title have to have a romance???? It drives me insane. The world is ending, oh let's kiss!

Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for this early copy,

It was a okay read for me. I struggled to get into it.

“Powerful people aren’t smarter or more capable than the rest of us; they’re just more willing to lie, cheat, steal, even kill.”

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

One of the scariest things about this book is that it doesn't feel too far off from what I think America will be like, but that's besides the point.

McIntosh brings a version of the United States to life in this book, where the country is so devastated financially that even high schools are shut down because they lack funding. Once the funding is gone, the students aren't allowed to come back, and the teachers are quickly displaced. People are homeless in the hundreds, trying to survive in a place where there is barely anything to work for. It's a nightmare, and it seems like it's thanks to their current President. For one, President Vitnik had no political experience prior to being elected (sound familiar?) and has convinced the Legislature to get rid of the two term limit enforced after FDR held a record four-term Presidency. Now the county is in the hands of this president that has monopolized on the country's lack of resources by being one of its main suppliers - literally everything has her face and name - while the country continues to suffer.

In comes Sam Gregorious - lovely name - and his five friends that now have a lot more free time on their hands to invent a lie detector that doesn't rely on someone's heart rate, but is 100% more reliable than anything we have ever seen before. Dubbed the "Truth App", Sam and his team started off their journey to create the truth app to make a boat load of money and get their families out of poverty, while Theo wants to create a "bullshit-free world" where corruption will fall and the honest will rise. Theo was the only one that saw their invention as something more than an instant cash cow, and of course he was the one that was murdered by those that sought to shut their invention down. FYI, that's not a spoiler since it's in the synopsis, but it still sucks.

Throughout the entire journey, the book moved way too fast for me. Not one that made me want to find out what happened next, but one where I was always wondering why a chapter ended the way it did, or started the way it did. It didn't seem cohesive, but I could at least follow what was happening. Scenes jumped so quickly that you were left wondering what happened in the middle - or why it seems like those specific scenes were deemed important.

It was also difficult to sympathize with Sam, or wonder why he was the one that was "in charge" of this whole thing. Theo truly was the brains, and throughout the book I didn't see what made Sam the leader, if he ever was one. He was the scapegoat, the one that the others chose to blame when "shit hit the fan" and all other disastrous events took place, but did they really show him respect at all? Not really. Was it just because Theo was murdered and they had nobody else to fall behind? He didn't seem like the type that his friends really rallied behind at all. Not to mention he seemed completely obsessed with Molly, his crush since forever that didn't like him back, and that seemed to have gotten in the way of a good storytelling. There was a love triangle for no reason, and the only reason why it had any merit was because it fractured the dynamic of the group for such a ridiculous reason. It was not needed, but teen boys seem to be girl-centric when the world is going up in flames.

I think this would have probably made an interesting TV movie, or movie in general, and while I liked the concept of the story, I felt like it could have been explored more. The ending was nice, and I'm glad things will hopefully start to work out again for the United States, but maybe having more of what happened before, and why Vitnik did what she did could be some bonus content for us to feel better about this story.

Got it from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review!

It’s a cringe fest. I DNF’ed really early on. The main (and unfortunately, narrating) character is a self absorbed teenage boy. I think in an attempt to make each character unique, the author had Sam talk pretty candidly about his friends’ quirks and flaws and strengths. But it just comes off as creepy and judgmental. Also Sam LITERALLY a peeping tom, plus the first person perspective also makes the reader step into the shoes of this creepy, scrutinizing, narcissist. I think because Sam is a teenage boy, he initially appears innocuous, but the more I learned about him, the less I wanted to root him on.

Upside: Interesting world building. I think political dystopian scenarios are hard to set up, so credit is due here for the whole thing being subtle and believable.

As with any YA book, I had to keep in mind that I was not the intended audience for this book. I am not a teen, or a young adult, so as I was writing this review I kept that in mind. Also keep in mind when reading this review! Here are some thoughts I had. First, the concept of this book was fantastic and the premise made me want to read it immediately. Second, I had trouble distinguishing the characters from one another, which is one of my biggest struggles when reading a book. I need unique characters that stand out and have a unique voice in order to get my bearing in the work and for a book to really take hold of me and I didn't feel they were flushed out enough for this book. All I really felt from the characters was pure annoyance. Third, the book mentioned interesting topics and ideas that teens (and honestly, people of all ages) struggle with-eating disorders, lying, greed, social and emotional disorders, suicide, but again...they didn't seem to delve into these issues enough for my liking.
Overall, this book fell flat for me. I wanted to like it, but it just seemed like a surface telling of a story. I wanted more depth. Thank you for offering me a review copy!

This was such a neat concept that fell flat. I didn't enjoy it at all. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend it.

The world in Will McIntosh’s The Future Will Be BS Free isn’t that hard to imagine. An authoritarian wannabe is president of the United States, she has close ties to Russia, the rich are getting richer, and lies spewed directly from the White House permeate national conversation. But what if those lies could be more easily rebuked? What if they couldn’t lie at all?

In this future world, Sam and his friends are determined to make the world a better place by making lying a thing of the past. They spend all their time after school working on an infallible lie-detection app, and the closer they get to finishing it, the more dangerous things become. They start turning on each other, the president offers them millions, one of them is murdered, and they have to go on the run. Is the truth worth it?

At first the idea of no lying sounds fabulous. We could hold politicians accountable and people would start trusting the news again, and this is exactly the hope for Sam and his friends, but just imagine not being able to lie at all. If we think family dinners are difficult in our current political climate, they would be ten times worse with a truth app. But what about on a bigger scale? What if all the conspiracy theorists felt like they could be truth vigilantes?

Questions like that are explored in this story, making it much more intriguing than I thought it would be, but it didn’t go as far as I would’ve liked. At times it was a bit outlandish and silly, but if the silliness were more fully explored I think I would’ve liked it more. I wanted the story to dive into the upending of society that the app brings about, but it all felt a bit rushed. It was a great start, but it needed more to pull off a completely fulfilling ending for me.

Overall it was fun, the friendships between the kids were sweet and realistic, and the effects of the truth app are thought-provoking, but don’t go into it looking for anything more than a fun ride.

IN A WORLD... where a totalitarian government had taken over, Sam and a group of his gifted-and-talented friends work in secret to create a lie-detecting app. They think this will help solve their money problems, and, for one of the group, change their new world order for the better.
The premise for this book grabbed me right away: A bunch of kids aimed to take down a corrupt, hostile government? Sign me up! However, the way this book played out didn't live up to my expectations. First was the motivation behind the Truth App - most of them are in it for the money, which made their characters super self-centered from the start. Second, the crushes and relationships between the teen characters seemed inauthentic to me - and borderline creepy. Perhaps this is because I've never been inside the head of a teenage boy before, but if simultaneously fat-shaming and sexualizing friends is commonplace like it was in this book, that's not a place I want to hang out. Finally, I also felt like there were a whole lot of hot topic issues (vets with PTSD, eating disorders, suicide) that were used as plot points and not handled in a sensitive way. That was my biggest issue with this book.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the e-arc of this book.

I liked this book. A lot. As it sort of lines up with the current climate of the world, I thought it was an interesting read.

The story follows Sam and his friends as they work on a Truth App, a device used to. well, see if someone is lying. But they soon learn that the truth isn't so simple and sets off a turn of events that they never imagined. I think that is what I really loved about it, that we see them make these disastrous mistakes and suffer the consequences. This book was raw and touched about subjects like suicides and eating disorders, subjects more shy away from..

I did wish I liked the characters a bit more. They did seem a tad selfish and didn't really change much so it's a good thing that had adults there to aid them. I wasn't a fan of the ending, but overall the book was fast paced and interesting. I look forward to what else Will has to offer in the future.

In the near future, some teens create a lie detector to make money but not all of them realize how it could change the future. Imagine if you could use a foolproof lie detector on the leaders of a corrupt government? Cheating spouse? Murderers? Would it be a change for the betterment of the country? Or would it threaten everything as we know it? These 5 teens learn the hard way that nothing is as clear cut when it comes to telling the truth. Sam, one of the teens, shows a lot of character growth as the stakes climb higher. I liked that he and his friends decided to get all of their secrets out in the open before anyone could force it out. It made the story feel raw when you knew what they were hiding about themselves.

I really wanted to like this book more, but it felt disjointed and disorganized to me. The main character wants to be unlikable, but there's so much about him that's trying too hard and hoping for approval that he just comes off as an annoying pain in the neck. The plot seemed really intriguing, but the climax and resolution tied up way too quickly and neatly, and the trouble that the characters had to go through (running for their lives--which didn't seem to bring much hardship--and the death of one of the characters) either wasn't described well enough to sound difficult, or they were incredibly lucky and didn't have many consequences for their actions. This felt like a story that was written as an homage to the current moment in our culture, but it mostly felt like pandering to me. It did bring up some interesting questions about trust, honesty, and loyalty, but it just wasn't for me.

If you’re looking to read some YA genre fiction, you’ve got plenty of options. You can’t swing a cat in a bookstore without hitting half-a-dozen sci-fi/fantasy/whatever books aimed at younger readers. If you’re looking to read some GOOD YA genre fiction, well … you’re going to need to put the cat down.

The point is that there’s a glut of content out there, so don’t be afraid to shape your expectations accordingly. Look for something that speaks to you - whether it’s an author or a plot or a theme or an idea - and take a swing.

Will McIntosh’s “The Future Will Be BS Free” promises something that feels a little different. It’s the story of a near-future America under the sway of a despotic and corrupt President, one in which the truth has become so malleable and subjective as to be almost meaningless as a concept. Into this America, a group of gifted teens attempts to bring a beacon – an unfailingly accurate and foolproof lie detector. But their initial dreams of societal (not to mention financial) gain soon fall by the wayside as they discover that there are plenty of people out there with little interest in the truth.

The local gifted and talented program has just been eliminated, leaving 17-year-old Sam and his friends with plenty of time on their hands. They decide to undertake an independent project – a lie detector. Under the guidance of Theo – the true genius of the group – the device slowly begins to materialize. The others - Boob and Basquiat, Molly and Rebe – all bring their own talents to the table, but it’s Sam who’s more or less the leader.

It doesn’t take long for things to get out of control, however. When the group develops a working prototype, they decide to test it out on themselves. They quickly discover that a veneer of gentle dishonesty has long been a significant contributor to functioning interpersonal dynamics. Some dark and sad secrets are dragged into the light. Plus, some shady character has popped out of the woodwork with a not-insubstantial offer to buy their work … along with some thinly-veiled threats with regards to what happens if they refuse.

Suddenly, Sam and his friends are swept up into intrigue that reaches all the way to the White House. The world isn’t ready for the repercussions of total honesty; their lie detector threatens the very fabric of their society as it is constructed. The consequences are potentially dire, leaving the group struggling to save themselves from the many forces mustering against them.

“The Future Will Be BS Free” succeeds on the strengths of its ideas. It’s a hell of a notion for a story – particularly during a time when our understanding of truth appears to be evolving. The thought of a world in which no one can lie does seem appealing on its surface, but McIntosh digs a little deeper and illustrates the unanticipated issues that might arise from such a device. It’s a paradigm that isn’t just shifted, but shattered.

And the world into which this lie detector is born is a fascinating one; McIntosh has given us a portrait of a society that has been broken down by the manipulation of truth and unfettered corruption. There’s a heft to the circumstances – both general and specific – in which these kids find themselves.

The book is not without its flaws, however. The characterizations are a bit thin and the motivations that drive them can be a little murky. Our protagonist Sam is the most fully fleshed-out of the bunch, but even he sometimes feels more like the concept of a teenage boy rather than an actual person. The rest of the kids are largely defined through their relationship with Sam, which is OK – he is the main character, after all – but I found myself wanting just a bit more of a sense of agency from the supporting cast. The resulting flatness slightly undermines the narrative’s overall impact.

Minor issues aside, the book’s successes far outstrip its relatively few missteps. “The Future Will Be BS Free” offers readers a look at a compelling world and an exploration of what might happen if we were to be granted something that we think we want. McIntosh allows his adventure to unspool with a delicious deliberateness, packing each page with details that make for a rich world that is both relatable and repulsive. There’s a challenge at its core that many readers will likely find quite engaging; it’s a smart and thoughtful book in many ways.

You know what they say: the truth hurts.

I wanted this book to be political intrigue and technological advancement and fighting against big shadow government. That seems to be what McIntosh wants as well, but it doesn't really get there. Theo's death, the inciting incident, doesn't have much emotional impact. We're TOLD that the group is devastated but we don't really see it. We don't experience that devastation with them. Really, Theo existed only to die and fulfill a sort of "too good for this world" role. He never feels like a real person, but rather an ideal. The lack of connection is the basis of most of my complaints. We see events but they never really matter to the reader.
McIntosh does raise some interesting ideas. We've got a severely economically depressed future, funding cuts to vital services laws governing who can work, totalitarian government. All of this is fairly standard. The more interesting part is the exploration of truth and lies, of kindness and cruelty, of honesty and etiquette. The idea of radical cultural change and how something meant to help can cause immeasurable harm. These ideas make it worth reading, especially in a group setting.

I really wanted to like this. It seemed like a clever idea. It really fell apart for me when the mom says, "now get me some goddamned legs." Yep, because in this world, an army vet used to have two legs, then one, then none, but then her fake legs allowed her to run 30 miles an hour and then they stopped working and that is that. Also, in this world, everyone is broke, except for people who live in a super rich gated community, yet, the team is able to have a yard sale and sell a car.
Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC and thanks to Mr. McIntosh for creating art. I am glad someone liked it. That someone is just not me.

What would the world look like if a completely foolproof and almost undetectable lie detector existed? How would the inability to get away with lying about anything, no matter how insignificant or life-changing, affect politics? Or business? Or relationships? These are the questions Will McIntosh tackles in his new YA novel The Future Will Be BS Free.

A few decades from now, the U.S. is recovering from the recent Sino-Russian war, in which major metropolitan areas were bombed to ruins and the West Coast was occupied by foreign aggressors. The country is now controlled by President Vitnik, an authoritarian demagogue who’s not averse to enriching herself by selling ubiquitous (and tax-free) Vitnik-branded products. Income inequality has skyrocketed, law enforcement is corrupt, and life for the average citizen is nightmarishly close to something you’d find in a post-apocalyptic novel.



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As The Future Will Be BS Free gets started, a group of gifted teenagers is close to finishing a prototype of a foolproof lie detector. There’s a vaguely scientific-sounding explanation for the technology behind it, which involves MRI machines scanning for activity in the anterior cingulate cortex—the part of the human brain that supposedly handles lying—but it probably would have made just as much sense to power the device with Handwavium and call it day. The technology isn’t the point.

Its effects, on the other hand, very much are the point, as the young inventors find out soon after they get their lie detector to work. They quickly realize, even during the first test run, that maintaining friendships is a challenge when every lie, big or small, can immediately be exposed. Soon after, they also learn that the Powers That Be might not be crazy about the concept either…

Will McIntosh has written a slew of dark, emotionally wrenching and often dystopian novels for adults, most of which I’ve reviewed for this site in the past, but two out of his three most recent novels have been geared towards young adult readers. While I always appreciate authors who flex their writerly muscles by exploring different genres, in this case I feel that neither Burning Midnight (2016) nor The Future Will Be BS Free really live up to the potential we’ve seen in McIntosh’s “adult” novels like Soft Apocalypse, Defenders, and especially Love Minus Eighty.

Part of the problem with The Future Will Be BS Free is that it deals with an incredibly complex concept in a somewhat limited, even simplistic way. James Halperin’s The Truth Machine (1996) wasn’t a great novel at all, but it dealt with the idea of a foolproof lie detector and its applications and effects in a much more thorough way. The Future Will Be BS Free takes a different tack, looking less at the sociological effects of the technology and more at the way it immediately impacts the main characters’ lives. That’s not surprising, given that this is a very different novel, but it’s hard not to be at least a little disappointed that the novel ends before it can extrapolate some more of this technology’s eventual impact on society.

Instead, The Future Will Be BS Free focuses more on the characters and the chaos that envelops them almost immediately after completing their invention. Narrator Sam Gregorious is a somewhat bland (and occasionally unlikeable) main character, but the others form a fascinating and diverse group, including the team’s visionary Theo, who has cerebral palsy, and a young man named Boob (really) who struggles with cripplingly low self esteem. Rounding out the team are Sam’s unrequited crush Molly and their friends Rebe and Basquiat. Reading about this group’s friendly and not-so-friendly bickering sessions (not to mention romantic entanglements and occasional minor rivalries) is probably the best part of the novel. The story also features several disabled war veterans, whose no-nonsense attitudes provide a refreshing contrast to the teenagers’ occasional awkwardness.

On a different note, this is probably Will McIntosh’s most political novel to date. Some of the parallels to current events and political figures would not be out of place in, say, a Cory Doctorow novel. As a matter of fact, you could draw a line straight from Little Brother (Doctorow’s YA novel for the Bush era) to its sequel Homeland (the Obama years) to McIntosh’s The Future Will Be BS Free, with its references to fake news and “deepfake” videos—not to mention the obvious parallels between President Vitnik and, well, I don’t have to spell it out, right? Suffice it to say that, if you prefer your science fiction free of politics, this novel should probably not be your first choice.

In the end, The Future Will Be BS Free was a mixed bag for me. For every positive, there’s a “but.” The story’s breakneck pace is perfect for a YA novel, but some plot elements are so improbable they’re borderline silly. (I’m being intentionally vague here to avoid spoilers.) The novel throws some genuine surprise developments at the reader, but it’s at times also painfully predictable. The foolproof lie detector is a neat concept, but its impact doesn’t get fully developed.

All of this makes The Future Will Be BS Free, while mostly enjoyable, a bit of a disappointment compared to Will McIntosh’s usually stellar output. Still, even a minor McIntosh work is worth checking out, especially for—but by no means limited to—younger, politically conscious readers.

The Future WIll Be BS Free follows Sam and his friends after they have created the Truth App, which is a lie detector in a time where just about everything is being lied about. I thought that the premise of this book was rather interesting, and the book did give what I felt like was a good glimpse at what our nation could become. Our country is so corrupt and the media and most politicians are lying about everything. This book is kind of an exaggerated example of that, but it isn’t too far off what could happen. This book was full of cliches and a lot happened in the beginning, but I still enjoyed it. I didn’t however, like the fact that the female president was portrayed as an evil person. I would have wished to at least know more about her other than that she wasn’t a good president. I also didn’t really like Sam as a main character (and I didn’t even know his name until I checked the synopsis), but the story was still enjoyable enough told from his perspective. I would recommend this book, but only for people who are looking for a more cliche dystopian about our corrupt country.

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.

Originally posted at Do You Dog-ear? on July 24, 2018.