The United Republic, emerging from the Democratic Party supporters, claims to be a stronghold of progressive values along the coasts, although it encroaches on citizens' privacy through the use of extensive surveillance, including through tracking and recording chips implanted in all individuals on its territory.

In contrast, the United Confederacy, adopting the old Confederate flag and formed by the former Republican Party supporters, operates as a Christian theocracy across the Midwest and the South and bans not only abortion and gender-affirming surgery, but also divorce; offending religious feelings is a cause for the death penalty, often enacted through burning at the stake.

[7] Laila Maalouf of La Presse saw the book as a strong criticism of Donald Trump, "whom [the author] does not hesitate to attack directly".

[9] Eric Neuhoff, reviewing the book for Le Figaro, called it a good piece of storytelling, writing that the story "gallops along, joyfully mocking the improbable", although he criticized the author's film references as "dated".

[10] Olivia Phélip reviewed it for Atlantico news website, writing that it is a "dystopia with Orwellian accents, which can be read in one go and which sends shivers down your spine", and that the work "unfortunately draws its plausibility from current signals".

[3] In English press, in 2023, Lara Marlowe reviewed the book for The Irish Times and likened it to "an updated version of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.

[3][10][8] Other reviewers noted the pessimistic choice facing Americans and arguably Western societies – one between a conservative theocracy and more liberal but privacy eroding surveillance state (de Lamberterie likened the choice to the one between "Big Brother and the inquisition"[8]), both likened to totalitarian states, and about how individuals are powerless to influence the system they are living in.

[9] Kennedy himself noted that "I am delighted that critics in French-speaking countries underline the plausibility of this story [and that] my readers come away worried and destabilized".