Book: The High-Rise Diver
Author: Julia von Lucadou
Publisher: World Editions
Release Date: March 2, 2021
Rating: [usr 5][AMAZON]

The High-Rise Diver is the perfect book for lovers of Brave New World, 1984, and The Handmaid’s Tale. This book rises to the ranks of those amazing pieces of dystopian literature, stories you will never forget and refer back to for the rest of your life.

Imagine you live in a world of perfectionism. Society dictates your appearance (thin, beautiful and fit people), your mind (daily meditations to calm you), your activities (they select who you date or mate with), and your pay is determined based upon your performance (only good performance is compensated).

For those who want to eat junk food, have normal families, have fun, or be whatever weight they want to be, they live in the peripheries outside of normal society. They struggle to find meaningful work. There is no ability to rise up in society or make more money. They can’t live in nice homes, because they do not fit into society’s mold of perfectionism. Society stamps them with the label of rebels, vagrants, and terrorists.

In this story, we follow Riva, a young high-rise diver (someone who leaps from tall buildings – quite similar to aerialists in a circus) who has lost all willingness to function in society. She doesn’t want to train, work, or do anything, but sit in her apartment and stare into nothingness. She has lost all motivation to be a famous high-rise diver. Something inside her is broken.

We watch Riva through the eyes of Hitomi, a psychologist that is tasked to watch Riva and help her find a way back to diving again. If she doesn’t return, they will seize her bank accounts, kick her out of her apartment and force her to move to the peripheries. But Riva doesn’t want to return. She has no desire to take part in this highly successful and famous life anymore. She wants to be free.

But freedom is unheard of in society. Your entire existence is regulated by the society. To resist who you are is to rebel against society.

For Hitomi, there is something about Riva’s predicament that is familiar to her. It reminds her of unresolved issues from her childhood of a friend that was taken from her, a parent that has rejected her, and a parent that is not even allowed to parent her. She longs for that feeling of having a real family, one with a mom and a dad living together, raising their children, hugging and kissing them good night. She longs for just that comforting, familiar touch of love, something that society does not allow.

In this world, parents have nothing to do with their children beyond assisting in paying for their schooling to help them place well in society. Visits are rare. Love, or basically any emotion, is non-existent.

As Hitomi watches Riva through cameras setup in her apartment, she starts to become obsessed with Riva’s demise to the point she is destroying herself. First, it’s missing a meditation. Next, it’s missing a workout. Then, she starts thinking creatively. “Once you start with self-deception, it’s hard to stop.”

Can Hitomi save Riva? Or will Riva drag her down with her?

This book is one that will stay with you for the rest of your life the way 1984, Brave New World, The Handmaid’s Tale or Lord of the Flies will stay with you. These stories are the ones you will return to, because you can see society floating in this direction, or at least, you fear society will one day become this nightmare world. Then you will think back one day and say to yourself, ‘Remember when that author wrote about this? It was a prediction of things to come.’

I enjoyed this book and hope dystopian lovers will love this, too.

This book will be published on March 2, 2021. You can order your copy from my AMAZON SHOP.

[Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review purposes. This site contains affiliate links.]