I I bought this book from the author at a book fair. I'm not normally a huge fan of dystopian stuff because it can get a bit depressing but I loved the fact that it was inspired by the debate over Brexit. Not the issues so much as the inability of either side to listen to the other. I also loved the idea of a dystopian novel set in the UK with British characters.
I'm going to review the whole series here rather than just the first book because you'll be pretty much hooked when you've read the first one. We start off and our heroine, Bex has been hauled out of school, with her friends, and drummed into the army to 'keep Britain safe' from terrorists. The training regime is brutal and when Bex stands up for her friends she soon puts herself at loggerheads with the officer in charge, Ketty.
The first book follows Bex as she adjusts unwillingly to military life. This story is first and foremost about friendship, and how Bex and her friends support one another. The second book tells the events in the first book from the point of view of Bex's apparent nemesis, Ketty. Despite her enmity with Bex, Ketty has more in common with her than you might think. She also relies on her close friend, Jackson and the two of them support each other through thick and thin.
The third fourth and fifth books condinue the story and the points of view alternate between Ketty and Bex.
The story is written in the first person, in the present tense and it works extremely well to bring immediacy to what is already compelling action. I loved that the protagonists are flawed and human and in a lot of cases are just doing their best to get by and get ahead with what they have. Over the course of the story I particularly began to empathise with Ketty, her background, the difficult realationship she navigates with her employer and her efforts to keep him on the straight and narrow and also to keep him (and therefore her) out of trouble. It's extremely readable, and fast-paced, and once I started I ripped through the whole lot in a very short time.
This story is about more than an exciting near future that still looks disconcertingly likely from time-to-time. It goes so much deeper than that. It is about human nature and the good and bad sides of politics; what governments will or will not stoop to. It's about being a pawn in a political game. It's about the nature of friendship, loyalty and loss played out against a the shifting sands of a politics. It's about characters who are just trying to do the right thing, or keep their heads above water in an enviroment where nobody can be trusted, the world is opaque and it's almost impossible to know who's playing who.
The characters in this story endure tough times, for sure, but it is their reactions and actions that make it so compelling, and in many parts, uplifting.
Great stuff. Highly recommended.
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Top reviews from other countries
- M T McGuireReviewed in the United Kingdom on October 6, 2024
An excellent UK Dystopian series that will appeal as much to adults as to youngsters
- Julia BlakeReviewed in the United Kingdom on February 10, 2023
A tense, sophisticated, and compelling read for all ages
