2 out of 4 stars
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Freedom Compromised by Melissa Miceli is a gritty and raw fictional story depicting how humanity reacts when the United States is attacked. Although the author touches upon who caused the calamity, the focus is on formed relationships through it and those shattered by it.
Tom is a single dad and is at home when a bomb explodes in his city. At first, it disorientates him, and he runs outside to figure out what happened. With seeing a mushroom cloud in the distance with hot ash falling, panic overwhelms him. He realizes his daughter Emily is still at school and rushes off to locate her. Along the way through the city Tom encounters two men assaulting a woman, and he comes to her rescue. Since Tom showed such kindness in saving her, Melonie goes with him to search for his child. Is Emily still alive? Can they make it to a safe place to receive medical treatment before the radiation ravages their bodies? What follows is a neck-breaking race, overcoming obstacles of human and natural destruction, to get help.
The story drew me in with its exploration of the human psyche. Fear, rage, shock, compassion, and despair are all exhibited in the characters. Disasters can bond the most unlikely people together. In the chaos, others cause havoc and prey upon the weak to satisfy their own desires. I think Miceli's depiction of a world after a nuclear attack is realistic although the emotion of anger seemed overplayed sometimes. Seeing how the attack affected children was the most heartbreaking and moving part for me.
This work has potential. However, there were various punctuation errors, and the writing was choppy with short sentences. Some characters get injured legs, but the author describes them as running to retrieve an item. Melonie and Tom display scorn for other people taking advantage of the situation to benefit themselves, but I found them to be hypocrites when Melonie steals a ring from an abandoned home. The storyline becomes redundant with Melonie always playing the damsel in distress, and everyone is out to get them. I also thought to have in-depth sex scenes were unnecessary, and it added no value to the storyline.
Most baffling for me, though, was the story being broken up into two sections. At the end of the first section, the author wraps it up by explaining what happens to everyone. I thought the second part was a different story, but no, it was a continuation of the first. The author gives the end of the story and then the middle, causing a disjointed narrative. It would have been better to do away with the sections and tell the story chronologically.
I give Freedom Compromised 2 out of 4 stars. Anyone keen on psychological thrillers dealing with disasters might prefer reading this story. There are dark and disturbing moments throughout the narrative, along with multiple sex scenes. Because of those, I would recommend this book to mature audiences only.
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Freedom Compromised
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