{"id":4900,"date":"2025-11-21T13:02:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T13:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=4900"},"modified":"2025-11-21T13:02:00","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T13:02:00","slug":"book-review-they-could-be-saviors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=4900","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: They Could Be Saviors"},"content":{"rendered":"
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They Could Be Saviors<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

by Diana Colleen<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong> Science Fiction \/ Climate<\/p>\n

ISBN: <\/strong>9798999808516<\/p>\n

Print Length:<\/strong> 328 pages<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Reviewed by Andrea Marks-Joseph<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>This unputdownable drama kidnaps billionaires and takes them to a psychedelic-fueled wellness retreat to solve the climate crisis.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cCould this be a meeting of the minds to bring us something really big?\u201d<\/em><\/strong> The news report asks, when five of the wealthiest, most influential men in the world disappeared with no sign of struggle or break-in. \u201cAre we looking at abduction? Should we be expecting ransom demands?\u2026 Other wealthy people around the world must be on high alert\u2014what can they do to protect themselves?\u201d<\/em><\/strong> The suspense is strong and continues throughout. We spend highly emotional days with the women holding the billionaires captive at a super-high-tech wellness spa. And it\u2019s all part of a mysterious, psychedelic plan to solve the climate crisis.<\/p>\n

Author Diana Colleen\u2019s introduction to the billionaires is sharp perfection, the men confidently monologuing about topics like: \u201cRising sea levels? Not his problem. If he was honest, which was rare, he didn\u2019t give a shit about the planet.\u201d When an employee asks her billionaire boss: \u201cDon\u2019t you have enough?\u201d<\/em><\/strong> his outraged response is revealing: \u201cEnough? The concept was laughable. Empires weren\u2019t built on enough. \u201cThere\u2019s no such thing, Susan. And if you think saving a few trees is going to make a difference, I have some iceberg water to sell you. You don\u2019t stay at the top by doing what\u2019s moral.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Diana Colleen does a fantastic job depicting these billionaires as despicable, arrogant men. As soon as they learn that their kidnappers are women, their instinct to sexualize and manipulate them kicks in. Reading chapters from their perspective is grating and cliche and yet completely realistic. Colleen nails the writing, to the point where it feels like you\u2019re in the presence of someone exactly as irritating as this.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHumans are the only animals who hoard wealth while others die; we think that\u2019s an illness.\u201d<\/em><\/strong> They Could Be Saviors<\/em>\u2018 protagonists, the kidnappers, have diagnosed billionaireism as an illness, for which they have a cure: They use super-specialized technology and plans to convince them to engage in guided psychedelic therapeutic sessions (using mushrooms, MDMA, etc.). Their enlightening visions could change their hearts, cure them of this billionaire-illness, and allow phase two of the kidnappers\u2019 plan to kick in.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s great humor here, like when the wealthy tech titans cannot even comprehend that they were kidnapped for anything other than a product launch: \u201cMaybe he was being enlisted to aid in the dissemination of these groundbreaking technologies. If so, he couldn\u2019t help but be enthusiastic. However, the elaborate measures taken to involve him seemed unnecessary. They could\u2019ve just picked up the damn phone.\u201d<\/em><\/strong> Even when it\u2019s clear that they\u2019re captives and the planet-saving aims are explained, using the futuristic tech available at this kidnapping-wellness spa has dollar signs flashing in the billionaire\u2019s minds, as if they can\u2019t help it. Even while cooperating under duress, they \u201cimagined the possibilities: the untapped market, the potential partnerships, the unimaginable profits.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This story is gripping and engages both the heart and mind. As readers, you\u2019re entirely invested in what\u2019s going on and tuned in to see how everyone will react. There\u2019s a thrill in watching these privileged, powerful men scramble to cope with a different power dynamic, their daily lives at the will of the women. Outside of drug therapy sessions, the billionaires continually (upon their arrival and throughout their kidnapping) receive microdoses of a new drug without their knowledge or consent. This new drug is engineered specifically \u201cto suppress impulses toward anger, violence, or escape. To keep the wealth-hoarding dragons compliant.\u201d<\/em><\/strong> When they inform the men, though, the women claim the drug is used because \u201cit allows you to let your guard down and be more relaxed.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Once the men agree to their psychedelic trips, their sessions reveal distressing, emotional childhoods. The women have equally dark pasts, which surface differently for each of them as they share why they agreed to this project. We read about devastating grief, a spouse\u2019s death by suicide, and flashbacks to abusive trauma. Much of the story follows the emotions of the group: We are fascinated by the tense group dynamics between the women facilitating the kidnapping experience (essentially, an isolated confinement to a super-high-tech wellness retreat designed for each man\u2019s comfort, complete with a personalized assistant catering to your needs). Through the men\u2019s psychedelic visions, we learn about each billionaire\u2019s painful, lonely, grief-stricken, misunderstood childhood. The women offer a nuanced, refreshingly vulnerable side to the story, but it\u2019s difficult to emotionally connect to the men\u2019s stories, knowing that they\u2019re being used to justify who the billionaires grew up to be. Still, it is part of the journey.<\/p>\n

Even with all its unleashing of restrained childhood trauma, They Could Be Saviors<\/em> doesn\u2019t exactly confront the scale of disregard for human life that it takes to speak of your empire so casually and proudly. Diana Colleen maintains the mystery of phase two perhaps for too long, leaving us to imagine heights the narrative cannot reach: How will their newfound enlightenment save the planet?<\/p>\n

In some ways, this inventive, intriguing novel\u2019s solutions to the climate crisis don\u2019t seem to do the job they set out to do. They\u2019ve forced this once-in-a-lifetime confrontation with the powerful men who could enact real change. The kidnappers\u2019 understanding of both climate change and what it takes to become a billionaire goes somewhat un-interrogated, offering some surface-level solutions. When the billionaires are forced to come up with a plan to solve the climate crisis, they discuss shifting policies and mindsets with other influential CEOs, without comprehending that they shouldn\u2019t have this much influence over governments in the first place.<\/p>\n

Where the book loses its edge is that instead of using this opportunity to force the billionaires to face and end their complicity in the climate crisis, it positions them as brilliant minds who run in influential circles and simply need their \u201ctalents to be used for the good of all\u201d<\/em><\/strong> by coming up with a plan. We kind of end up back where we started: needing to kick a plan into action. I wonder: Why wouldn\u2019t this set-up force these people to reckon with the idea of stripping their wealth, power, and influence? By focusing on their formative childhood trauma and the transformative power of psychedelic trips, They Could Be Saviors<\/em> doesn\u2019t give time to wealth distribution or limiting the expansion of the destructive global systems that benefit billionaires.<\/p>\n

Thought-provoking and thrilling all the same, They Could Be Saviors<\/em> will inspire imaginative conversation about how we should confront the global climate crisis that the existence of billionaires create. After the kidnappers\u2019 extreme actions (and a shocking, dramatic twist that threw everything up in the air!) aiming to achieve something planet-saving, I hold onto hope that They Could Be Saviors<\/em>\u2018s readers will find some enlightenment and the appropriate rage by meeting these billionaires in such an intimate setting.<\/p>\n

I would recommend this book to open-minded readers looking for a rollercoaster ride of emotion that pulls on their heartstrings and taps into their desire for billionaires to take responsibility for solving this problem. If you\u2019re the kind of person who gets into debates on how to save the economy, talks out loud to fictional characters when they\u2019re making bad decisions, and knows exactly what you\u2019d do if you were president for a day, this is the book for you.<\/p>\n

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Thank you for reading Andrea Marks-Joseph\u2019s book review of They Could Be Saviors <\/em>by Diana Colleen! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.<\/p>\n

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They Could Be Saviors by Diana Colleen Genre: Science Fiction \/ Climate ISBN: 9798999808516 Print Length: 328 pages Amazon Bookshop Reviewed by Andrea Marks-Joseph This unputdownable drama kidnaps billionaires and takes them to a psychedelic-fueled wellness retreat to solve the climate crisis. \u201cCould this be a meeting of the minds to bring us something really […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4901,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4900"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}