Reviewed by K.C. Finn for Readers' Favorite

North Americhina by Kurt Kutz delivers a provocative, pulse-pounding political thriller that feels as plausible as it is terrifying. With global tensions rising and America grappling with internal division and disease, a clandestine Chinese military operation to seize control of North America moves from speculation to strategy. Amid this existential threat, a patriotic family rises from humble beginnings to stand against the tides of authoritarianism and misinformation. This novel doesn’t just ask ‘What if?’ but dares to ask, ‘What now?’ too.

Author Kurt Kutz has a direct way of writing that grabbed me immediately, and this daring blend of fiction and real-world geopolitics hits chillingly close to home. Kutz doesn’t mince words or opinions whilst getting the powerful energy of this novel across, yet there’s plenty of room to devise your own opinions and conclusions from the politics at play, which makes for an intriguing, thought-provoking narrative that will appeal to fans of political and military thrillers without pandering to any single viewpoint. The characters are interesting and well-developed, but they’re very much secondary to the bigger picture, which explores timely themes of nationalism, family, and surveillance with urgency and spotlight on how each element has a knock-on effect on the world. This wider thinking is refreshingly intelligent and never over-simplified for the sake of the action, and it also forces readers to question the boundary between current events and speculative fiction more closely and wake up to the imminent disasters our real world faces. Overall, North Americhina is a provocative read that I recommend.