The Choice is set in a dystopian world that feels not dissimilar to ours except that sugar has been banned. Food is rationed by the state and hobbies like baking are illegal. People are weighed at the supermarket, at the gym and at social events and all their health data is readily available to officials. People who break the law are put in perspex boxes in public places to be shamed for what they’ve done.

An interesting dystopian type read about what would happen if the government decided to become more stringent on eg food intake, exercise and how to parent your children. Possibly too light for die hard dystopian fans, but very enjoyable

It's great to be in a position to recommend much more diverse books to our young people at school. Building the senior school library as a place where students actually come and find books that they want to read as opposed to books that teachers think they ought to read is an important responsibility and one we take really seriously.
Books like this are such a positive move as they will appeal to a broader set of readers than we are usually attracting. Dealing with modern issues in a clear and captivating way with a strong narrative voice and characters that the students can relate to is critical as we move forwards. This book is both an intelligent and compelling read that will hold even the most reluctant reader's attention and keep them turning the pages long into the night. It keeps the reader on their toes and ensures that you give it your full attention too. I found myself thinking about its characters and events even when I wasn't reading it and looking forward to snatching kore time with it and I hope that my students feel the same. An accessible, gripping and engrossing read that I can't recommend highly enough. Will absolutely be buying a copy for the library and heartily recommending it to both staff and students.

This is a dystopian book set in the near future. This book instantly drew me in.
The authors writing captivated me for the whole book. It’s disturbing, scary and thought provoking
I recommend this to everyone to read.

‘The Choice’ by Claire Wade is set in an alternative world, one where sugar is banned, exercise is compulsory and every supermarket visit is preceded by a weigh-in. It is a Big Brother world where a new government, initially intent on preventing sickness and encouraging healthy living, has gone OTT and taken control of the smallest details of people’s lives.
Olivia used to be a baker before the changes. When she lost her shop, she lost her reason for living. And so she subsists, making the best of the meal plans approved by Mother Mason, chivvying her friend Alice to keep to the rules and stay out of trouble, and worrying about the effect all of this is having on husband Danny and their two children. And then she gets a glimpse of a fightback. Is Olivia brave enough to join the protest, or will she play safe to protect her family? Of course she fights, in the only way she knows how. It starts in a small way, baking cakes for the local protest group to raise money for the cause. But then her rebellion gets way out of hand and she is faced with shame and condemnation.
The premise for this novel is fascinating and it reads as a freely-written novel, by which I mean the writer let the story flow and go where it wanted to. This adds to the excitement but it also left me feeling vaguely unsatisfied [like one of Mother Mason’s dietary-approved snack bars]. This is a hugely ambitious subject to tackle – one which, in the real world, we are struggling to address – so perhaps it is not surprising that the ending fades away with a lightweight conclusion. But the middle section is a rip-roaring read of domestic fightback. The passages in the detention centre and the shame box are great group scenes and this is where the novel is strongest.
I was left feeling the absence of a male voice – the key characters are all women – and longed for a deeper exploration of a challenge facing modern society with slightly less about cake ingredients. If you like ‘Bake Off’ you will probably love this!
Claire Wade won the 2018 Good Housekeeping Novel Competition
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/

Oh my word, this book is brilliant; it's completely unforgettable. I would have read it in one sitting if my eyes had obeyed the order to stay open. Perhaps I should have threatened them with Mother Mason.

The Choice may sound like a bit of a horror novel at first glance: a future without sugar. That's right, NO CHOCOLATE! Claire Wade has very cleverly chosen to set her novel in a future that is very easy to imagine. With reports of people getting fatter and lazier in real life, it's absolute genius to have characters wearing health monitors that, among other things, determine whether they have done enough steps to watch TV. I actually think I might apply this rule to my own sedentary lifestyle. Claire Wade may very well have changed my life!

The novel is set in Norwich and London after the people voted for a new government, led by Mother Mason. Mother knows best, after all, but this mother rules with an iron fist and nobody voted for a regime ruled by fear and shame. With cameras everywhere, Big Brother really is watching here and makes no secret of the fact. Anybody caught breaking the rules, and when I say anybody I actually mean any woman, will get banished to the Shame Box or even worse will be sent into the Societal Evolution Programme, never to be seen again. A group of people want to 'Cut The Apron Strings' and bring down Mother Mason and the main character, former baker Olivia, must join the rebellion if she wants the freedom to be able to bake again.

You could be forgiven for not recognising this as a debut novel as Claire Wade's exceptional writing comes across as very accomplished. There's a paragraph where she describes chocolate in the most sublime way and I think I must have had a smell hallucination as I felt like I could smell it as well as taste it. Honestly, I was almost drooling. While I'm talking about the standard of writing, I was delighted to see one of my favourite words 'claggy' being used to describe a cheesecake. With so much mouthwatering food being described, it's no wonder I gained a few pounds whilst reading it...over Christmas...eating lots of chocolate and cheesecake!

There's so much more I could say about The Choice but it's a book that everyone really needs to read to experience it for themselves. It's a very thought-provoking and empowering book that reminds us to stand up for what we believe in and to have the courage and conviction to not follow the crowd. Although I haven't yet read The Handmaid's Tale (shock!), I think The Choice will inevitably be compared to Margaret Atwood's masterpiece and will not be found wanting.

The Choice is an exceptional debut with an imaginative and powerful plot that had me hooked from start to finish. It's both unputdownable and unforgettable; a simply magnificent book! I think a lot of people will be talking about this book for a long time to come. Fantastic feminist fiction that is very very highly recommended.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

4.5 stars
The Choice is a gripping, thought provoking read that is hard to believe is a debut novel.

The thing that most stuck out about this book is how frighteningly realistic it is, with parts of the book sending chills down my spine! With a government that is very focused on healthier eating and the introduction of a sugar tax it’s easy to see how the world in this book could become our reality, which was quite scary to realise.

The main character, Olivia, was an intriguing one that took me a while to warm to. Yes I thought she was very brave trying to fight against the government and change things for others, however I thought she took almost too many risks and made some silly mistakes which was quite frustrating. She did make me think about what I’d do in a similar situation though and what I’d do differently.

Overall I really enjoyed this book as it was very gripping and impossible to put down as I wanted to find out what would happen next. It’s quite a disturbing read and the story is definitely one that will stay with me. I think it would make a great book club read as there would be lots to discuss.

Huge thanks to Alainna from Orion books for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Orion for my copy of this book via Netgalley. I’m very excited to read more from this author!

The Choice was a wildly entertaining novel wherein the world it encompassed seemed too unrealistic- but the more you read the more it seemed possible- after all the more time goes by the more our government monitors us and gone are the days when it was hugely unlikely that an electorate would vote for an extremist of any kind.

Here we follow Olivia and her family – an ex baker now she is looked upon with suspicion in a world with no cakes- so after being scared for a very long time she joins the resistance….

This book has the addictive quality of gooey cookies, you start it then get enveloped into it without even noticing. The plotting is cleverly compelling, makes you think about lifestyle and choices whilst telling a riveting tale of a fight against the machine and hands us a villain in Mother Mason that will get your blood up..

A kind of Bake Off meets revolution hybrid, The Choice was a very good read, both fun and a bit edge of seat. I very much enjoyed it.

Recommended.

This is a novel set in England in a dystopian future where Sugar is a Class A substance and possession of it can get you into a lot of trouble. You may end up in the shame box which is a glass cube in a public place.

We meet Olivia who used to be a baker before baking was banned seven years previously. For this reason Olivia is extremely hurt by the sugar ban and the surrender of all of her cake making equipment. She tries her best to do everything the government (headed up by Mother Mason) requires of her and her family.

There is some veiled humour in the book, such as when Olivia bakes a Mother Mason approved bake which her son describes as a cake in public. Olivia is distraught that she will be reported for them eating cake when it was in fact an approved "bake".

The book started out well but then for me it dragged on and I lost a bit of interest in it. I was also thinking it wasn't a bad thing that sugar was banned and that people had to exercise, worse things could happen to you. Thankfully about a third of the way through the book Olivia finds her inner fight and the plot took a very different turn. I was actually scared for Olivia on a couple of occasions and just as surprised as she was when she got arrested.

Other than Olivia I didn't think that the characters were fully developed and we don't really get to know them. Towards the end I really did feel Olivia's pain and it did start a little train of though it my head of what if.....

''The women of the Mother's Institute are nurturing a nation. You are leading the way for a happier and healthier world.Mother Mason thanks you.''

Olivia Pritchard used to be known as 'The Queen Of Cakes', until a landslide election victory by Mother Mason, social reformer and retired nurse swept into power.

In a post election world where certain foods are strictly rationed is banned and no one can be trusted, what place in the world is there for Olivia?

'She glanced back up at the camera above them, the little red light watching and recording everything.She'd avoided the Shame Box and the Re-Education Programme so far, there was no way Alice was going to ruin her perfect record today.'

Her place is defined by society as being a good housewife, a good mother and that is all. To be such a woman, she has the strictest of rules to follow,put in  place by Mother Mason and her acolytes, monitored by guards at supermarkets, informed upon by neighbourhood watchdogs, and subtle, almost throwaway references to weighing plates at school yards, step counters being used to deliver 'treats' such a permission to watch television and so forth.

And the punishment for infringing these rules?

Shame boxes, disappearances into the Societal Evolution Programme and an ever pervasive sense of fear that those who vanish, will never return...

How do you begin to fight back against a leader who uses the phrase 'Trust A Mother's Love' to such devastating effect?

''Men and women worked out at the Power Pro and Be Fit classes grinning as they exected their routines.'The obesity crisis is over,diabetes has been cured and the diagnosis rates for other conditions is down year on year.It is my aim that within the next five years all illness and disease is eradicated,and if you follow my Health and Happiness Programme,it will be. Won't tha be wonderful?' She paused for the group.'Yes',they intoned. 'What will it be?' 'Wonderful.'Alice's tone matched the bitterness Olivia felt.''

This is what I loved about the book, the subversion of the naturing/nurturing female role to such devastating effect. It is the response to decades of 'self abuse' on substabces such as alcohol, fatty foods, cigarettes etc which has created a monster like Mother Mason, Captain Fit and Mary Vitasan. They sound like characters from a children's show, but are more likely to inhabit your nightmares.

In the face of moral and social decline, the government try to claw this back by harsh and strict regimes, and it is the overheard conversation about family re-education centers for the worst 'offenders' and the sight of child sized bunkbeds which fire Olivia into action.

Baking as a political act-never has there been such an extreme of persepctives where the things we do as parents-nurture, feed and stimulate-is taken away from us as potentialy harmful. The contradiction of personal autonomy and state rule is firmly stated, in order to be a good citizen you have to put aside 'want' and 'need' for the greater good.

The points are subtly driven home, personal responsibility and collective social responsibility are intrinsically linked, but the solution to the problems which are driving us today-obesity, alcoholism etc-are not going to be eradicated by the banning of alcohol, rationing of butter and so forth. The underlying issues are the pressing weight of demnd/consume/work versus free time are not so easily solved by banning foods and compulsory weigh ins.

This is a thought experiment taken to its natural conclusion;in the absence of people being responsible for themselves and their children, someone needs to take control.But what if that person makes things even worse?

Terrifyingly real scenarios are created from the everyday-supermarket shops and trying on clothes for a formal occasion, have never been so fraught with danger and distress.

'The Choice' is a brilliant and very timely read that I would recommend for anyone who has enjoyed dystopian fiction such as 'Vox' by Christina Dalcher or 'The Power' by Naomi Alderman.

It will outrage you and worry you in equal measures, and , if like me you enjoy baking, you'll take new pleasure from your baking cupboard and cherish each deep inhalation of vanilla extract, guilt free and not taken for granted.

I was intrigued by The Choice as soon as I saw the eye-catching cover and then I read the synopsis and knew I had to read this book as soon as I could!

The Choice is set in a dystopian world that feels not dissimilar to ours except that sugar has been banned. Food is rationed by the state and hobbies like baking are illegal. People are weighed at the supermarket, at the gym and at social events and all their health data is readily available to officials. People who break the law are put in perspex boxes in public places to be shamed for what they’ve done.

The book mainly follows Olivia as she struggles to cope in this world when in her life before this happened she was a successful baker. She really misses what she did before and who she was before. You can really sense as the book goes on that there is anger bubbling away inside her but it’s kept at bay by the fear of being taken from her children.

I was a little apprehensive that this book was just going to be a take on The Handmaid’s Tale but it isn’t and it does stand separately from it. The fact that The Choice is set in our world and in what feels to be a very close timeline to where we are now is the difference and it’s so terrifying for that reason. We already see people being judged and shamed for their weight and there isn’t as much understanding as there should be for why people might be over, or even under, weight. It’s such a complex issue but the way sugar in food is already been swapped for horrible sweeteners is scary to me and makes this book feel all the more real.

The other thing that I took from this book is the way that Wade is able to show in such a powerful way what it is to be trapped in a situation where your world is getting smaller and you can no longer do what you love or eat what you love. It felt to me that Wade has used her experience of chronic illness to show what it is to be imprisoned in you own life through no fault of your own. I could really sense that given my own disability and how small my world is because of that.

All-in-all this is a great debut novel and well worth picking up. I’ll definitely be looking out for whatever Claire Wade writes next!

The plot of this book really caught my attention. The government led by Mother Mason control the eating and fitness of the population. Food is delivered in measurements at supermarkets. People are encouraged to report infractions by family and neighbours against the healthy regime. Olivia Pritchard is a former baker who is struggling to find herself under the new regime. Cookery books are forbidden under the regime but Olivia has a secret stash of books that she turns to when she feels overwhelmed. Olivia really tries to conform for the sake of her family but slowly realises that staying quiet and toeing the line won't help keep anybody safe. Themes like fat shaming, ageism and not practicing what you preach are common throughout the book. I read The Choice very quickly and I really enjoyed it. The book also made me think how easy it is to blame sections of the population for all the ills of society which is a chilling thought in these days of fake news. I would highly recommend #The Choice by #Claire Wade

My thanks to the Author via the Publishers for the opportunity to read this through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I am an avid dystopian genre fan and jumped at requesting this one straight away when I saw it was up for request. I was drawn in by the cover initially as it was reminiscent of other books in this genre with the stylised head.

I finished this one on New Years Eve, it was the last read of 2019 and was a great read to finish the year and decade with. I gave this a 4.5 stars or 9/10. It was almost a 5 star read, but just missed it.

I loved the premise of the story where Mother Mason was watching and monitoring the eating habits of the population. All things fattening be they sugar or fat related where banned and people were encouraged to eat healthy and exercise well in order to maintain a well balanced state.

As members of the population begin to rebel and form secret groups, Olivia Pritchard and her family are soon thrown into the spotlight. Olivia hates being forced to conform to what Mother Mason states that everyone should conform to. It's not long before her actions come to a head and she discovers the existence of the underground rebellion know as 'Cut the Apron Strings' #CTAS. As her actions have consequences for her and her family, can Olivia survive at the hands of Mother Mason and her associates or will this be the end for her, like others that have been in her situation before?

This is a great addition to the dystopian themed books and I can thoroughly recommend it for any fans of that genre.

If any political movement ever tried to deprive the world of cakes and their sweet sugary goodness, I would do more than join the resistance. I would build a rocket and nuke those &^%$#@*s from orbit. Fair warning - you just don't mess with cake!

A great effort at imagining everyday life under an oppressive, suffocating, Orwellian Big Brother, but was missing the emotional punch in the guts. The villainous dictator was more like a scolding teacher than a viable threat and the resistance more focused on making sure wealthy patrons could get a drink. Really, did no one at the gym not smell the alcohol and cigarettes on them?!? However, it did redeem itself with a stark reminder of what happens in a political power vacuum: there is always another willing to fill the void.

The BEST part was sneakily hidden in the acknowledgement. I loved how Wade's friends and family supported her with tea and snacks. See, there are everyday heroes among us trying to make the world a better place ... with cake.

Recommended for: fans of Vox

The Choice is nothing less a dystopian masterpiece set in a near-distant future; the kind that comes around once in a blue moon and blows people away, and it certainly did that to me. I was astounded to learn it is a debut, and if Ms Wade keeps up the standard I can see her having a stellar writing career. It reminds me very much of George Orwell's 1984 crossed with Margaret Atwood's The Handmaids Tale and also pieces of Christina Dalcher's Vox released in 2018, and yes, it really is that exquisite. The reason why this is so powerful and a real tour de force is because it hits so close to home. The fact that it is possibly the path we are heading down is extremely unnerving and frankly downright terrifying to ruminate. It centres around a tyrannical, oppressive government who acts like big brother and monitors every little thing you do. Prime Minister Mother Mason, unfortunately, has mandate as she was voted into office but she is health-obsessed and ensures everyone does the correct amount of exercise daily and unhealthy snacks are rationed; it's become a nanny state. A completely compulsive and deeply alarming debut and one I hope is widely read; it certainly deserves to be.

Claire Wade's writing draws you in and holds you captive for the entire story; this is genuinely as Orwellian as it gets without actually being the man himself. It's disturbing, scary and intensely thought-provoking and the narrative is so realistic and believable that it leaves you rattled and perturbed. It's an exploration of morality and an illustration of just how far those in power can go before the rebellious, magnificent part of society rise up and take their lives in their hands by doing so. It reminds you that love will prevail and that family and friends are the most important aspects of your life. It is a perfect depiction of how power can corrupt and once Mother Mason tastes a little of it she wants more and more. Watts reminds us through protagonist Olivia Pritchard that we always have THE CHOICE to join the ever-growing resistance to the authoritarian (soon to be totalitarian) regime taking over their lives. Not only is this highly entertaining but it also serves as a warning about the dangerous road we are heading down and it implores everyone to not let history repeat itself. Unreservedly recommended. Many thanks to Orion for an ARC.

An interesting concept that really makes you think. It’s well written but didn’t work totally for me and I’m not even sure I can say why!

A dystopian future may not be far away...

Before I begin my review properly, I must acknowledge the cover to The Choice. With food and healthy eating so important to the plot, and women in charge of the country, the illusion images of inversion/subversion, an apple and a female head could not be more fitting. Superb.

On my goodness! I felt most uncomfortable reading The Choice as I was tense and unnerved from beginning to end by Claire Wade's writing. I think it says something about the quality if this book that I felt enraged and helpless in equal measure - exactly like Olivia. There's a genuine Orwellian feeling to the prose and narrative that gets under the reader's skin until they feel complicit in the action. Even worse, I had the horrible sensation as I read, that this is no distant Orwellian future or allegorical farm, but a situation that might be happening very soon in our present lives. I think it's the Norwich setting that adds so much to the sense of unease. Norfolk is seen as such a gentle, rural county and yet here in The Choice we see the potential for evil, for mass control and for man's (and, especially, woman's) inhumanity so that there is even greater impact. 

I abhor unfairness, and reading The Choice made me rage, but also made me feel ashamed. I'm not sure that I wouldn't have simply capitulated under Mother Mason's regime if it meant protecting my family and yet Claire Wade makes it clear what the morally correct decision is so that she entirely got inside my head with her writing.

The plot is cleverly constructed; every element is so utterly plausible and resonates with histories we have already witnessed or futures that could so easily happen. As the story unfolded I struggled with the level of reference to food, not because it wasn't crucial to the plot, but because the descriptions of taste and aroma are so convincing that I was permanently hungry as I read. I'd love to see The Choice as a television series. I think it would have audiences gripped.

I'm not sure how far it was the intention of Claire Wade to affect her readers so directly in writing The Choice, but she has led me to reevaluate my life, my view of morality and choice, and my attitude to food and my weight. I'm trying hard to be less of a slave to my Fitbit now! There are clear messages about what is valuable in life and how family, friendship and love are the most powerful catalysts for change. That said, there is also a horribly realistic presentation of the concept that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely so that The Choice is a book to disturb, to make you think and to make you realise you'd better beware what you wish for.

A great read. Interesting topic.
Thank you NetGalley and Orion publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest unbiased review

A clever and timely dystopian tale, The Choice by Claire Wade is set in a near distant future version of our world. In this version, the UK has elected as Prime Minister " Mother Mason", a woman determined to create a fit and healthy population, at any price. All non healthy food is banned, sugar is illegal and foods like milk and butter are rationed based on a persons weight and physical activity and exercise is mandatory,. Olivia Pritchard is struggling with this new reality, as a former professional baker she is struggling with the idea that her career no longer exists, and worried about putting a foot wrong as Mother Mason seems to have eyes and ears everywhere. When she witnesses a shocking and distressing arrest in the local supermarket, Olivia starts to think about the bigger picture, and puts her fears to one side in order to join the resistance and try to bring Mother down.
I really liked the blend of domestic and political in this book, and the idea of looking at what one person can do in the face of an authoritarian regime. I also thought the concept was interesting and timely given the increased involvement of governments in things like introducing sugar taxes etc. While I liked Olivia's character, I felt like hers was the only one in the book that felt developed, the others seemed more like character sketches than fully fleshed out characters. I really wish we had been told a little more about Mother Mason. I also thought the ending of the book felt a little rushed, and surprisingly pessimistic but overall I enjoyed the book.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

Thanks to NetGalley and Orion Publishing Group for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A thought-provoking novel about the place of the individual in the body politic.

Normally, I am assured about where to start my book review, but "The Choice", has left me with more questions than answers about the underlying purpose of the novel. Perhaps this is the author's point. I won't regale you with the blurb - because lets face it, the publisher has done a sterling job in this respect. This is a dystopian novel, yes, and yes again, there are parallels with George Orwell's masterpiece "1984", but it is arguable that every novel owes a debt of gratitude to Orwell's ideas of Big Brother and the repression of individual rights in a totalitarian state. So, comparisons in this respect should be taken as rote. But back to Claire Wade's "The Choice". Undoubtedly this is a wonderful, creatively imagined, dystopian novel full of original touches, where the author astutely draws parallels with current steps by state-controlled entities to erode the rights of individuals over their own bodies. Whilst many author's like Margaret Atwood have chosen the rights of individuals [women] to reproduce, Wade has looked to current debates about sugar-taxes, the banning of the advertisement of unhealthy foods before the watershed, etc., for her inspiration. So, the author quickly draws us into a world where Mary Berry is the anti-Christ and "The Great British Bake Off" is the height of subversive media. But what was the point of the novel, other than to highlight these points? This is where I'm not sure. Of course there is the ever-present debate about the rights of individuals vs the state, but what about the rest? Is there something deliberate about Wade's choice of a totalitarian government wrapped in the benevolent guise of an all-powerful matriarchy - or, has this something to do with the still powerful assumptions about the symbolism of the feminine within the private sphere of the home - hence the ode to baking by our main protagonist, Olivia? I still cannot make up my mind about whether "The Choice" is a feminist dystopia or an anti-feminist dystopia. As feminism is increasingly becoming a contested term, it is possible to see the novel as both. Matriarchy need not be a mirror of feminism nor patriarchy, so Mother Mason's heavily gendered identity could simply be a red-herring - an ideological foil, where perhaps there is no deeper truth intended other than the pursuit of all-encompassing power for power's sake. I'll let you decide....

A provocative dystopian novel that stands out .from the crowd in its breadth of originality.