The Voting Booth

3/5 stars

The Voting Booth falls into the new trend of political YA contemporaries and I absolutely adored this take! The Voting Booth takes place in a single day following the two characters Marva and Duke in their attempt to vote. Marva is very politically active and has dedicated herself to getting people to vote. Duke is at the same polling place as Marva when he finds out he isn't on the list and has to go to a different location. We follow Marva and Duke in their attempt to actually be able to get Duke to vote all whilst skipping school.

I really enjoyed the issues that were discussed in this that related to voter oppression. Every topic that leads into voter suppression (ableism, racism, etc.) is present. These topics were handled with grace and I loved seeing a different perspective. The opinion that voting won't change anything is also within this book and it was interesting to see people's reasoning behind that. This book is EXTREMELY relevant to everything going on in the world currently. It doesn't just discuss voter suppression which pertains to the upcoming 2020 presidential election but also racism within the system. Gun violence is discussed in this because Duke's brother was killed due to lack of regulation. It also brings in police violence a bit which is especially important for young people to see in a novel.

The two characters did fall a bit flat for me. While I think that they were quite dynamic and had many racists to them, something about them just didn't click with me which I found odd since I identify with both characters in a way. Duke is a mixed character which I am and I relate to Marva in being very politically active and taking school seriously.

There isn't emotional cheating in here technically but this is a romance that takes place in one day. At the beginning of the novel Marva has a boyfriend and the romance aspect of this put me off. I would have much rather the two characters just be friends than have any romance considering at the beginning they both have romantic interests.

I enjoyed the writing for the most part but there were a bit of info dumps about certain characters in Marva and Duke's lives. That part just put me off a bit because one moment we are just thrust into flashbacks. The transition to them wasn't seamless because there are heading like “About said character”.

Overall I really did enjoy this book despite the couple flaws I saw within it. I think this book is so relevant right now and the timing of this release couldn't have been more perfect. Thank you to Netgalley and Disney-Hyperion for sending me an advanced e-copy before release date.