The Beginner’s Guide to Winning an Election by Michael R. French

The Beginner’s Guide to Winning an Election by Michael R. French is a biting and prescient YA satire about big money influencing a local high school election.

It’s 2025 at a typical American high school, Hawthorn High, 120 miles from Bloomington, Indiana. Senior “Science Brain” Britain Kitridge signs up to volunteer for a fellow student’s campaign, and yes, maybe she has a little crush on him, but who doesn’t? Matthew Boltanski is near perfect: athletic, handsome, self-confident, impervious, and as Britain determines, very well funded, but by who and why? She starts asking too many questions and is ‘disciplined’ in an extreme way but it has the opposite effect on this introverted, shy, intellectually curious young woman. They never see what’s coming in this all too realistic depiction of how politics can warp all levels of society.

The novel unabashedly shines a light on how politics at any level can spin out of control, which is particularly apt in these times. While the characters are well developed and the narrative remains consistent and focused, at the point where the plot reaches its natural conclusion, the author unnecessarily extends it. The story becomes somewhat protracted, even testing its believability. Nonetheless, the novel on the whole is so compelling, and the protagonist Britain Kitridge so admirably dogged, that the reader is propelled to the end.

Unique and incisive, The Beginner’s Guide to Winning an Election is a YA novel that will appeal to all ages, and once started is hard to put down.