MacKenzie Scott’s dystopian novel “Last Days in Two Nations” appeared in nine free Substack installments in August. Set in a divided near-future America and told through 18 characters, the book’s convoluted plot leaves its message unclear, Business Insider’s review says.
In the novel, the Dakota Membership is an authoritarian regime where people deemed rebellious can be sent to “self-improvement centers” and subjected to gene-therapy treatments. Liv Lockhart, an event planner who stages President Damian Paxton’s lavish gatherings, secretly plots to escape with her son. The review says the regime’s imagery evokes the second Trump administration and invites a Bezos comparison, though Paxton is not presented as a one-to-one portrait.
The ending says the Dakotas were eventually reabsorbed into the Still United states; adult Will is writing a dissertation on the intergenerational impact of narcissistic control on nation states and family systems. Scott’s earlier novels, published under Mackenzie Bezos, were “The Testing of Luther Albright” (2005), which won an American Book Award, and “Traps” (2013). About 11,000 people subscribed to “Last Days”; the review says its manuscript-style PDFs and typos contribute to an unfinished feel.
