Friday 5 August 2022

Cake Eater by Allyson Dahlin


She has a million followers on social media.

She uses her fashion-forward eye to pick the perfect angle and filter on every photo.

She’s iconic.

She’s a trend-setter.

She’s Marie Antoinette, the year is 3070, and she’s arrived in the Franc Kingdom to marry the prince, secure an alliance, and rake in likes from her fans.

Versailles is not the perfect palace Marie’s seen on The Apps. Her life is a maze of pointless rules, and the court watches her every move for mistakes. Her shy husband Louis is more interested in horses and computer-hacking than producing heirs. Versailles seems like a dream full of neon-lit statues, handsome android soldiers, and parties till dawn. Under the surface, it’s a creepy den of secrets: surveillance in Marie’s bedroom, censored news feeds, disappearing courtiers.

When Marie and Louis become king and queen long before they’re ready to rule, any efforts to aid their suffering subjects are stamped out by the mega-corporations of the First Estate. Between riots in Paris and image-wrecking social media firestorms, Marie can’t afford to lose her head. Using her social media savvy and Louis’ hacking knowledge, they try to fix their reputations and change their kingdom for the better, but the royals may find it’s already too late. They’re ruling over the end of an era.

I know a little bit about Marie Antoinette, the same things most people do, I think. I read a bit about her in preparation for this novel. I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this; what I got is a fictionalised account of the life of Marie and Louis, or at least their marriage and reign compressed down very tightly. I'm still not sure what we're meant to think; is it a coindicence that everything mimiced the first Marie so closely? Was someone deliberately recreating it, on a huge scale considering that two families across two countries and everyone around them were involved? Are we stuck in a huge 'those who do not remember' loop, since apparently something terrible happened at some point and there are very few records left of the world as it was more than a few generations before the events of the novel?

Without that confusion, though, this is an interesting read. It's very inclusive; Louis seems to be ace, and his sister Elizabeth is gay or bi. The use of social media was very clever as well; I think that would have stood as its own story, without the trappings of Marie and Louis, just a couple trying to use social media to better things.

Marie and Louis genuinely wanted to help people, which is part of the tragedy of the story. I really enjoyed this, and I highly recommend it.

(Also; don't worry if you don't know much about Marie and Louis, the real ones. You'll still be well able to understand this one!)



Cake Eater publishes on the 9th August, 2022. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.

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