When the Sky Falls by Joseph Bendoski
An in-depth look at fake news, yellow journalism, fictional broadcasts and the psychology behind them, wrapped in a twisted thriller.
In 1938 the War of the Worlds hoax panicked millions of Americans, then in 1988 another fictional media broadcast convinced nearly half of Portugal that sea monsters had risen from the ocean to destroy their cities. A team of CIA agents was sent to study the aftermath of this 6th Skyfall Event in the hope that they could turn it into a weapon of war. When the team consultant turns up dead, everyone scrambles to be the last man standing: the one who will decide if or when the sky falls.
Author’s Bio
Joe Bendoski study psychology in college and was fascinated by all the insights it provided into human behavior, only to realize most the information never reach people, and when it did, rarely was it in a form that allowed for practical application. He started writing non-fiction, but soon came to understand how few people read that genre and began the difficult transition into fiction writing. His non-fiction works include; the Chemistry of Attraction and the Language of Emotion.
He worked as the head writer for the television show ‘Saved by Grace.’ After being frustrated with comments like “make this scene cheaper,” “What’s my motivation?”, and “Do we need this scene?” he deiced to go in to literature.
My Review
4 stars
The human mind is very easy to manipulate. It has been shown throughout history with events like the 1938 broadcast of War of the Worlds. These events are called Sky Falls and Jay Nichols has been researching them for quite a while. He is asked to join the CIA and then to find out what William Stephenson, a CIA consultant knows about these incidents. What is the cause to these events? How can they be used?
There is so much information about people in this story and you can easily see how mass panic from fake news and fictional broadcasts can cause mass panic. The human brain is really fascinating but at the same time scary when you think about how it can be used against us.
There is a lot of action that kept me up late reading and a lot of possibilities for the harnessing of the Sky Falls. This is a great thriller and I can’t wait to read other books by Joseph Bendoski.
I received When the Sky Falls from Reading Addiction Virtual Book Tours for free. This has in no way influenced my opinion of this book.
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