Hardcover, 480 pages
Release Date: May 5, 2026
Published by: Random House Books for Young Readers
Read from: April 1-19, 2026
Stand-alone
Source: TxLA (I received this hardcover free from the publisher and the author. This did nothing to influence my review!)
Content Warning: Adult/Minor Relationship, Sexism, Murder, Gaslighting
For Readers of: Contemporary, Most Anticipated, Mystery, Own, Thrillers, YAFrom the international bestselling author of the School for Good and Evil series comes a renegade thriller, about a teenager elected President of the United States, sparking a global revolution of young leaders—until one of them is murdered and he’s the prime suspect.
Presented in brilliant neon color, with over 150 nuke-orange visuals, fizzy orange-and-blue stained edges, full-color designed endpapers, and a neon-orange cover case.
*MY THOUGHTS*
When I say this was all over the place, I don’t mean it in a bad way. This really was all over the place and it was crazy lol There’s literally something for everyone. There’s a couple different genres, there’s a couple different formats, and there’s some mixed media pages. It really does have something for everyone.
So what I mostly liked was the government representation. Listen, I’m not going to lie to you, at this point where we are right now, I think I TOO WOULD VOTE FOR A TEENAGER IF GIVEN THE CHANCE. Especially if they act like the MC in this book. I think the best part tho, is the way this book also had him still ACTING like a teen. He did have to do some growing up at some point, but for the most part he was still a teen. Especially the reason he did it in the first place. I was so annoyed when I first read it lol
I also liked the way it felt like it had so many different genres lol The beginning seems like a political romantic thriller, then the middle starts with a mystery thriller, and the ending seems like a political contemp novel? Idk how to explain it, but there really did feel like there was something for everyone. I will say tho, it took FOREVER to get to the actual thriller part. I think I might have been overly anticipating it, so it seemed like it came slow to me, but I do understand that they had to get to the how and why part of him being President.
The actual thriller part was actually very good too. I loved seeing the countries and their child leaders come together and figure out what was going on and who was in the wrong. And let me just tell you, the plot twist will have you like WTF?! I still don’t get it fully because how in the world did this end the way it did? Something should have happened LOL It was a mess.
The thing that stood out the most tho was the mixed media that was in there. I LOVED seeing the pictures of the propaganda and the signs and stuff. And then there was the graphic novel part that talked about that strip of land. So yeah I would advise you to read the physical, but if you can’t wait or want to finish it fast, grab the audio, but also get the physical or e-book and flip through it. It was definitely worth it.
This was a hella weird experience LOL But it was so good! I wanted really hope y’all pick this up. It’s a crazy, wild time. I don’t think I’ve ever read anything like this before. So yeah, do yourself a favor and pick it up and let me know what you think. And tell me if you think we should all be governed by teens in the comments. Because let me tell you this book made for a very compelling argument LOL
Overall, I give this