Subliminal

by C.B. Barrie

Research scientist Emma Lilton believes she has found a way of making subliminal imprinting (SI), which seeks to unconsciously control decision-making and impede free thinking in subjects, highly effective. Ordinarily, SI would be illegal, but when she persuades Jonathan Woodbridge, the frustrated head of an advertising agency, to use her technique in a TV commercial, the results are astonishing. Though SI loses its champions when a car crash ends their lives, Woodbridge's successor, Elliot Mason, retrieves the secret behind SI and intends to employ it to ensure the agency attains unprecedented success. However, an extreme right-wing political party subsequently bribes him to employ the same method in political party broadcasts; the result is a disaster for the nation and the world changes for the worse.

224 pages, Hardcover

Published December 1, 2017

Reviews

[Ishmael Soledad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Subliminal is an easy, rapid read if not a brain taxing or genre-busting novel. On the plus side it chugs along at a reasonably quick pace, tends not to get bogged down, and contains a few interesting (if not unexpected) twists. On the down side the characters are not fully developed (the early elimination of two seems to be a mistake, the author could have given them a depth - and the novel with it - that is otherwise sadly lacking), the plot itself is predictable, and the epilogue is absolutely redundant, serving only to drag the novel down, not raise it.

Overall a fairly enjoyable read, although I doubt it will remain in my mind long.

[Rebecca Glaessner · Rating 1 out of 5]

Being a short book, I challenged myself to finish this one. Never have I had such a compulsion to put a book down and never look at it again. I’m always determined to finish them, no matter how long and winding.

With this one however, the story’s base concept was the only part that kept me going. I’m fascinated by sci-fi of all kinds and had yet to read one on Subliminal Imprinting, and this happened to be it.

First point, the one and only positive: The story itself didn’t meander, almost everything included had a reason to be there, and an influence on the plot, which was a quick enough read.

Second point, the writing: The author took full control of the story, left nothing to the imagination and told the reader almost everything. The only parts “shown” were an abundance of dry character monologues, professional office meetings/speeches, and a climax that felt like the author was tired of the story and wanted it over with.

Third point, characters/themes: the concept of subliminal imprinting was the only thing the author showed interest in. The characters are flat and lifeless, the men are all pompous office types with no depth outside the corporate world. The women were only put in the story as either a failed attempt at diversity or as a secondary plot device for the main character to try to win something to compensate for the lack of reason behind the MC’s career choices. And in the end, despite the main character’s appalling choices within said career - which happened to cause an entire nation to fall apart - he received no personal consequences. He could have gone on living his privileged life with his trophy wife and none of the issues in the story would’ve reached him.

The stakes weren’t high enough, they weren’t personal enough for the main character and the final climax was a poor excuse for the author to dump some guns in the story in an attempt to make it more exciting even though no one fired back at the main character AND after an age of repeating the same action over and over (shooting at something), the MC finally achieved his goal in the climax with little to no effort.

Ta da! Everything is right again in the world. The corporate guy can go to sleep comfortably with his wife and the rest of the world can sort out their own mess resulting from his choices.

Thoroughly disappointed.

Would be a 1 star if there was any less involvement of subliminal imprinting in the plot.