Witten, Matt. 51%. April 28, 2026. 364 pages. Level Best Books.
In a nightmare near-future—perhaps the scariest part being that it seems like a logical extension of our present—a system that resembles a combination of the Tea Party’s toxic self reliance, China’s social-credit system, and AI on steroids has taken over the United States. But while tech has changed, human nature hasn’t, and a group of fifty-one percenters, those who owe more than half of their annual income to one of the greedy syndicates now in charge, is ready to escape to Canada and start a revolution. The book meets the group on the brink of escape, when one of them is found dead. Taking up the case is Juke O’Keefe and his crime marketer, Haylee Navarro, with her position necessary because NYPDinc officers must raise the money to investigate any crime they take on—judges and forensic scientists won’t work for free, after all. Complications ensue, not just because Juke cares more about victims than about making money for NYPDinc, but because of divided loyalties on Haylee’s part and the ever-looming threat from syndicate heads who want to use the investigation to find those planning rebellion. Alongside the tech and dictatorship vibes, which are absorbing (albeit terrifying) on their own, are several relationship stories. Even the future is still a small world, and as the stakes increase, both for the murder to be solved and for the revolutionaries-in-waiting to break free, readers are drawn into a compelling, tense and violent struggle for love and what’s right.—Henrietta Thornton
