A few spoilers below for the ending.


This was an interesting semi-dystopian novel. It's kind of a strange book, because it involves politics, but isn't really about them. There's major political events going on and lots of discussions of rioting and possible revolution ("Flash Point" refers to a point where something drastic needs to occur or a revolution will break out). But the characters are mostly teenagers affected by a major economic collapse who are now on a reality tv show that follows them everywhere. One of the characters is involved in protests, the others are affected by (and get involuntarily caught up in) the riots, but don't seem to have much opinion about them. The possibility of revolution seems to be dispersed by the end when major legislation is passed, but I don't get a feel from the author about whether this is a good or bad thing and it seems almost irrelevant to the overarching plot. Perhaps this is really a novel about the distraction and frivolousness that is reality tv, which is fine. The characters are interesting, the plot is engaging, and it's a very readable story. A few awkward sentences, but otherwise the writing is good. This is the first thing I've read by Nancy Kress and I'll definitely look for more.