The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood ****

Have you been searching for a dystopian novel? The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood might be just what you are looking for. I constantly felt like I was reading an update of 1984.
Stan and Charmaine are a couple that imagines having free agency, but in reality, has no concept of the many levels of deceit that control the world they are trapped in. As I read this book, I felt like I was back in high school as lost as the protagonists trying to differentiate fictional reality from fictional deceit. In the end, like the protagonists, it seems the game was rigged and I had no way to win.

An interesting note is that this best selling author inserts her protest against e-books.

[In a discussion of sex robots]
"I don't think they'll ever replace the living and breathing," says Gary.
"They said that about e-books," says Kevin, "You can't stop progress."

The major departure from 1984 is the obsession with sex. The author has made sex central to the story. What kind of sex? Implied and discussed sex. There is lots of discussion of sex that happened, will happen, might happen, is thought to happen. Sex gossip. This again reminds me of high school.

Sex in the movies used to be so much more sexy than it became after you could actually have sex in the movies.

Since this is science fiction, married sex, adulterous sex, blackmail sex, abusive sex, and so on is augmented with robot sex and brain manipulation sex.

If you are yearning for an update of 1984 with lots of sex talk, this is the book for you. Enjoy it.