Book Review: The Beginner’s Guide to Winning an Election

By Michael R. French
Moot Point Productions
274 pages

Amazon Description:

Brit Kitridge’s plan was just to get her high school diploma and head to college and med school, but nobody can escape from fate, or is it history? The Beginner’s Guide To Winning an Election reveals our main character’s love for history, and after a summer reading books that fuel her passion for politics, Brit decides to join TM (Team Mathew), a fourteen-member group that has helped Mathew Boltanski win every election he’s ever entered. Now he’s going for the big one—student body president. By orchestrating brilliant campaigns one after the other, TM has made Matthew a national young star and promising politician who could even run for higher office in Washington. When Brit is accused of sabotaging the team, she realizes that Hawthorn High has its secrets, and someone needs to shed some light on them.

The story is set in a world six years ahead of our time. Security is a constant issue. Politics isn’t black-and-white, it’s not even gray anymore. Inflation is out of control and the educational system is in crisis. But what happens when you find out what’s really going on? What do you do with secrets no one but you wants to hold up to the light?

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Thanks to TLC Book Tours for sending me a copy of The Beginner’s Guide to Winning an Election for review.

The Beginner’s Guide to Winning an Election is an interesting look into high school politics. Even though it’s set about seven years into the future I think a lot of the issues that are addressed in this book are relevant today, or at least are on their way to becoming so. Of course the topic of integrity is always applicable to any situation, and I like the way the characters in the story wrestle with it. I thought the author did a good job making sure that all the characters were flawed, even the ‘good guys’. Everyone has their own struggles, so that’s a true to life way of writing that I think makes for compelling, relatable reading.

What I like about this book is it’s potential to interest young people in the political process. The politicians of the future need to be educated today and I think The Beginner’s Guide to Winning an Election could catch the attention of teens and make them aware of what they can do today to make a difference. I also liked that, unlike many young adult novels, romance plays almost no role in this story. The characters are focused on things that are much bigger than crushes and happily ever after. Those are not bad subject matter by any means, but it was nice to see a different kind of story where the characters looked at things through more of a big picture lens.

Other YA titles you might enjoy: The Truth About Romantic Comedies

Social media plays a huge role in this book and I think it’s important to be aware of the online presence that young people have. This will only increase in the future, so knowing how to deal with the sphere of influence and the online bullying and ugliness that sometimes result is vital to our understanding of how politics will be conducted in coming years. Overall I thought The Beginner’s Guide to Winning an Election did a great job bringing these issues front and center and providing a platform for examination.

Parent’s Guide: This is a YA book that I think would be more appropriate for older teens as it does contain some language and references to partying/drinking, and losing one’s virginity. These are by no means major themes and are mostly mentioned in passing, but are present nonetheless.