Long Review
Divided We Fall: Chronicles from a Tumultuous Presidency is a mosaic political thriller that imagines an all-too-plausible collapse of American democracy from the inside. Rather than following a single plot thread, it unfolds as a sequence of interlocking novellas—each focused on a different crisis point in the same authoritarian era—tracing the rise of a Christian nationalist presidency, its capture by oligarchs and tech elites, the weaponization of law and citizenship, and the eventual pushback from ordinary people who refuse to surrender their country. The result reads like a dossier of “what if” scenarios stitched into one overarching chronicle of a presidency gone rogue.
The early pieces set the tone. “Devil’s Advocate” introduces Ezekiel Kane, a charismatic pseudo-messiah elevated by evangelical power brokers and quietly managed by his far more dangerous vice president, Richard Brandt. Kane becomes the public face of “taking America back for Christ,” while Brandt works behind the scenes to turn religious fervor into raw political control. Later stories shift to Richard Prescott, an oligarch who uses a supposedly benign Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to embed a hidden “Collapse Protocol” in federal systems—a digital Trojan horse that can selectively cripple the state and stage-manage crises for personal gain. Tyler and Zack, prodigy coders with buried foreign ties, and Rachel, a sharp NSA-trained analyst, become reluctant players in this scheme as they uncover what DOGE really is and decide whether to help expose it or let the country burn.
As the cycle continues, the focus widens from backroom maneuvering to policy and its human consequences. “The Citizenship Divide” follows James Caldwell, a career official tasked with implementing a secret presidential directive to retroactively audit citizenship back three generations. What begins as a sterile policy project spirals into the revelation that a quarter of the country—and even the president himself—might no longer “qualify” under the new rules. The story dives into legal panic, bureaucratic paralysis, and the moral whiplash of watching people who demanded harsh purity tests discover they cannot pass them themselves. Senator Linda Martinez, whistleblowers, and leaking internal reports escalate the crisis into a constitutional showdown.
The collection’s emotional gut punches largely come from ground-level stories like “The Night America Broke,” where a congressman is assassinated at his daughter’s quinceañera and the killing is broadcast and reposted across social media before platforms can suppress it. The event becomes a flash point for a multi-racial, multi-ideological uprising against a government that has normalized white supremacy and weaponized immigration enforcement. Later entries push into open resistance, underground networks (“The Ghosts”), and the eventual legal reckoning of a president indicted for crimes against humanity, culminating in a reclaimed July 4th Pride march and a new administration that tries to rebuild more just federal protections for marginalized communities.
The cast is large and deliberately representative. On the authoritarian side are figures like Kane, Brandt, Prescott, a hard-line Homeland Security secretary, and a governor in Texas who becomes a lightning rod for rage after overseeing violent crackdowns. On the side of resistance are technologists like Tyler and Rachel, career bureaucrats like James who decide the line has been crossed, journalists, senators, community pastors who repent their complicity, and ordinary families like the Alvarezes. Few of the villains are drawn with much nuance—they are meant to embody archetypal greed, religious hypocrisy, and cruelty—but the story invests more interiority in characters who must decide whether to risk everything to expose the truth.
Stylistically, the prose is direct and cinematic, favoring clear scenes, dialogue, and political set pieces over ornate language. The structure as a linked sequence allows each novella to have its own tone—a tech thriller, a legal drama, a protest chronicle, a near-future war room suspense piece—while still feeding into a single arc. This gives the book a propulsive feel; there is almost always another crisis looming. The tradeoff is that some transitions can feel abrupt, and readers looking for deep, continuous interior development of one protagonist may find the spotlight shifting just as they settle in. The book reads more like a season-long prestige political TV series than a single conventional novel.
Thematically, Divided We Fall is not subtle, and that is largely the point. It tackles Christian nationalism, oligarchic tech power, anti-immigrant scapegoating, mass surveillance, disinformation campaigns (“Operation Dissonance”), and the systematic targeting of LGBTQIA+ communities. The collection is particularly sharp when showing how legal mechanisms—citizenship policy, emergency powers, “efficiency” mandates—can be twisted to strip rights while maintaining a veneer of legality. At the same time, it insists on the possibility of collective resistance: mass strikes, marches, whistleblowing, and the slow work of rebuilding safeguards after a tyrant falls. The Pride march sequence and the epilogue about the Ghosts emphasize that victory is provisional and that vigilance is part of democratic life.
For readers, the strengths are clear: a coherent, frighteningly plausible vision of how a modern American presidency could slide into open authoritarianism; memorable set-piece scenes (the DOGE reveal, the quinceañera shooting, the global disinformation storm, the president being escorted out as a prisoner); and a through-line of moral clarity that never loses sight of the human stakes behind the headlines. Some readers may wish for more gray in the portrayal of religious conservatives or for more subtlety in the rhetoric, and the overt political orientation will limit its appeal to those who are already hostile to the real-world ideas being critiqued. But for readers seeking cathartic, politically engaged fiction that names contemporary dangers and imagines both their consequences and their undoing, Divided We Fall delivers a powerful, cohesive experience.
Short Review
Divided We Fall: Chronicles from a Tumultuous Presidency is a linked cycle of near-future political novellas that collectively map the rise and collapse of an authoritarian U.S. administration. From evangelical power brokers anointing a “chosen” president to a shadowy oligarch weaponizing a government “efficiency” department, a secret citizenship purge, and a congressman’s assassination at his daughter’s quinceañera, each story captures a different flash point in a slow-motion democratic breakdown.
Anchored by coders, whistleblowers, civil servants, and families caught in the crossfire, the book blends tech thriller, legal drama, and protest narrative into an accessible, fast-moving chronicle of how power can be abused—and how ordinary people can still fight back. The villains are broad by design and the politics unapologetically pointed, but the collection excels at making abstract issues visceral and emotionally legible. Readers who appreciate urgent, issue-driven fiction about Christian nationalism, disinformation, and resistance movements will find this a gripping, unsettling, and ultimately hopeful read; those seeking escapism or ideological neutrality may find it overwhelming.
One-Sentence Review (Primary)
A fierce, fast-moving cycle of political thrillers that imagines America’s slide into Christian nationalist authoritarianism—and the messy, dangerous, collective struggle required to drag it back.
Alternate One-Sentence Reviews
A timely, near-future chronicle where oligarchs, data trojans, and weaponized citizenship laws push the U.S. to the brink, and coders, whistleblowers, and protesters race to pull it back from the edge.
Part tech thriller, part protest novel, Divided We Fall turns today’s headlines into a tense, episodic saga of authoritarian overreach, political violence, and the stubborn hope of people who refuse to bow.
Book Rating
📘📘📘📘 – Strongly Recommended: A well-structured, emotionally charged collection that vividly dramatizes contemporary political fears and possibilities; its overt politics and archetypal villains may narrow its audience, but for the right readers it has real impact.
Pull Quotes (3–5)
"Divided We Fall reads like a season-long political thriller, charting the rise of a Christian nationalist presidency and the quiet, dangerous choices that determine whether a democracy survives."
"From a digital Trojan horse buried in federal systems to a citizenship purge that backfires on its architects, the book makes abstract policy nightmares feel immediate and human."
"The collection’s most searing moments come at ground level—families, coders, and civil servants discovering their government has turned against them and deciding whether to resist."
"Unapologetically political and often chilling, this chronicle argues that authoritarianism advances through law, rhetoric, and apathy—and that it can still be beaten by collective courage."
"Readers who want resistance fiction that both names the danger and insists on hope will find this an engrossing, unsettling, and ultimately galvanizing read."
Market Positioning Snapshot
This is near-future, U.S.-set political dystopian fiction with a strong thriller spine, ideal for readers who enjoy character-driven stories about authoritarian drift, resistance movements, and tech-driven manipulation of power. It sits on the shelf alongside contemporary political thrillers and speculative “what if America slid into autocracy?” narratives, with a tone that is urgent, accessible, and ultimately hopeful rather than nihilistic. The ideal reader is comfortable with explicitly progressive themes and wants fiction that engages directly with Christian nationalism, immigration policy, LGBTQIA+ rights, and disinformation.
Content Notes
Language: Generally mild to moderate; public speeches and political rhetoric dominate, with occasional sharp phrases but little on-page profanity.
Violence: Moderate, sometimes intense; includes an on-page assassination at a quinceañera, protest crackdowns, references to secret detention, and the threat of large-scale cyberattacks and state violence, though gore is not graphically described.
Sexual Content: Minimal; no explicit sexual scenes and no focus on sexual activity, though LGBTQIA+ identities and rights are central to the political conflict.
Drugs/Alcohol: Some on-page alcohol use (e.g., scotch in power-broker scenes) but not depicted as addiction or a major thematic focus.
Sensitive Topics: Christian nationalism, bigotry, white supremacy, state repression, immigration raids and deportation threats, civil rights rollbacks, crimes against humanity, political corruption, and mass protest; emotional distress around family separation, public shootings, and systemic injustice.
ReadSafe Rating
Rating: PG-13
Labels: V, ST, DA
Explanation: The book contains sustained political tension, an on-page political assassination, crowd violence, and references to secret detentions and state-sanctioned abuses, but avoids graphic gore and explicit torture, placing it in upper-teen territory rather than adult-only extremes. Sensitive topics (ST)—including bigotry, Christian nationalist rhetoric, civil rights rollbacks, and crimes against humanity—are central to the narrative and handled seriously. Alcohol use (DA) appears in several scenes but is incidental rather than glamorized or deeply explored. Overall, the tone is intense and thematically heavy but not sexually explicit or graphically violent.