*I received a free advanced reader’s copy on NetGalley of There’s Going to Be Trouble by Jen Silverman in exchange for an honest review*

Summary:

After being fired from her job at an American university, Minnow flees to Paris, where she takes up a job covering for another professor. As she struggles with coming to terms with the life she left behind, the 2018 protests are in full swing. People and violence swirl around her, and she is caught up in a passionate affair with Charles, a much younger colleague and political activist.

It is 1968, and young student Keen is head over heels in love with a young activist protesting the university’s relationship with ROTC on campus. Keen is swept away into the group’s political movements, until a demonstration goes incredibly wrong.

Review:

This was an all-around great book; from the dual-story structure to the characters to the poetic writing, I was hooked. There’s Going to Be Trouble switches between Minnow’s perspective to her father’s, alternating between 2018 and 1968 seamlessly, without losing momentum in the story. This is an impressive and ambitious novel, one that Silverman pulls off. Silverman is a playwright, and you can tell from their development of action and characters.

But what I resonated most with is the overarching message of the intersection of politics and personal lives. There’s Going to Be Trouble displays how our personal relationships impact our political activism through the father-daughter relationships. The novel humanizes these massive protests and movements on a much smaller and more personal scale.

Silverman highlights how much of our political views and actions are inspired by the relationships we create with others. Politics is personal, and both Minnow and her father are sucked into major protests due to their infatuation with colleagues.

I would not say this is an all-encompassing book about all protests, as it only takes place during the 2018 French revolts and the 1960s student protests, so in that regard it is limiting to the story that it tells. But I loved how Silverman focuses on how politics and relationships intertwine: how political idealism and optimism turn into disillusion and the real-world implications of political acts.

I read the description for this book, and the tagline is “one choice can change your life,” which makes this seem like a thriller book. Don’t let the advertising fool you, this is a phenomenal book that is just so much more than “making a choice.” Rather, it is an exploration of two politically charged movements in time, and how a combination of our personal choices and relationships impact large-scale political movements.

There’s Going to Be Trouble will be published on April 9th, 2024.

Rating: 3.5/5

Read this book if:

• You love character studies

• You like historical fiction

• You are looking for a new release from an author you might not have read from before