Tag Archives: dystopian fiction

#BookReview ‘The Choice’ by Claire Wade #books #dystopian

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The Choice by Claire Wade is set in an alternative world, one where sugar is banned, exercise is compulsory and every supermarket visit is preceded by a weigh-in. It is a Big Brother world where a new government, initially intent on preventing sickness and encouraging healthy living, has gone OTT and taken control of the smallest details of people’s lives. Claire WadeOlivia used to be a baker before the changes. When she lost her shop, she lost her reason for living. And so she subsists, making the best of the meal plans approved by Mother Mason, chivvying her friend Alice to keep to the rules and stay out of trouble, and worrying about the effect all of this is having on husband Danny and their two children. And then she gets a glimpse of a fightback. Is Olivia brave enough to join the protest, or will she play safe to protect her family? Of course she fights, in the only way she knows how. It starts in a small way, baking cakes for the local protest group to raise money for the cause. But then her rebellion gets way out of hand and she is faced with shame and condemnation.
The premise for this novel is fascinating and it reads as a freely-written novel, by which I mean the writer let the story flow and go where it wanted to. This adds to the excitement but it also left me feeling vaguely unsatisfied [like one of Mother Mason’s dietary-approved snack bars]. This is a hugely ambitious subject to tackle – one which, in the real world, we are struggling to address – so perhaps it is not surprising that the ending fades away with a lightweight conclusion. But the middle section is a rip-roaring read of domestic fightback. The passages in the detention centre and the shame box are great group scenes and this is where the novel is strongest.
I was left feeling the absence of a male voice – the key characters are all women – and longed for a deeper exploration of a challenge facing modern society with slightly less about cake ingredients. If you like Bake Off you will probably love this.

If you like this, try:-
‘The Ship’ by Antonia Honeywell
‘The Last of Us’ by Rob Ewing
‘The Art of Baking Blind’ by Sarah Vaughan

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#BookReview THE CHOICE by Claire Wade https://wp.me/p5gEM4-4tv via @SandraDanby

First Edition: ‘Lord of the Flies’ by William Golding #oldbooks

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A moral for all times about self-governance, Lord of the Flies was the first novel of schoolteacher William Golding. It tells the story of a group of British schoolboys stranded on an uninhabited island and their disastrous attempts to govern themselves. It was not an instant hit, going out of print in the USA a year after publication, but it went onto be a bestseller.

William Golding

Faber original UK cover 1954

In the middle of an unspecified war, a plane crashes on a remote island in the Pacific. Fair-haired Ralph believes that grown-ups will come to rescue them, but Piggy says they should get organised. “Put first things first and act proper.” The novel explores the conflicting human impulses towards civilisation, social order, living according to the rules, with the pursuit of power. It is abrilliantly observed study of teenagers free of the usual rules and conventions imposed by adults.
Artwork for the first UK Faber edition [above], published on September 17, 1954 is by Anthony Gross. The current Faber edition [below] was first published in 1997. Buy here.

William Golding

Faber 1997 current ed

The story
During a wartime evacuation, a British aeroplane crashes on an isolated island in the Pacific Ocean. The only survivors are adolescent boys. Two boys – fair-haired Ralph, and spectacles-wearing Piggy – find a conch which Ralph uses as a horn to draw all the boys into one place. As Ralph appears responsible for bringing them all together, he commands some authority over the boys and is elected chief, despite not winning the votes of a boys’ choir led by Jack. In the early days the boys discover a source of food in fruit and wild pigs. But Piggy quickly becomes the butt of jokes and the initial sense of order disappears as the boys become idle. Their time is spent having fun and developing paranoias about the island; particularly a ‘beast’ that they all begin to believe exists.

The films
There have been three film adaptations based on the book. In 1963, Peter Brook’s Lord of the Flies was supported by Golding. In 1976 there was a Filipino television film called Alkitrang Dugo, the third Lord of the Flies film in 1990 was directed by Harry Hook.

Other editions 

If you like old books, check out these:-
‘Ulysses’ by James Joyce
‘101 Dalmations’ by Dodie Smith
‘The Sea, The Sea’ by Iris Murdoch

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
First Edition: LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding #oldbooks https://wp.me/p5gEM4-3G7 via @SandraDanby

#BookReview ‘AfterLight’ by Alex Scarrow #thriller #dystopian #adventure

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The setting for Afterlight by Alex Scarrow is the UK, ten years after the oil ran out. It is a sequel to Last Light but can be read as a standalone novel. Like the first, it is a moreish thriller with the touch of frightening reality. Alex Scarrow After the oil crash in Last Light, there were riots, looting, murder and rape. Beacon communities were established, safe zones which eventually became unsafe. Now, only two remain. This is the story of what happens to them as survival and recovery phases into rebuilding and re-establishment of democratic government.
Scarrow recalls some of the main characters from the first novel – Jenny Sutherland and her two children – and introduces new people. There are flashbacks to the oil crisis which shows events from different viewpoints. Ultimately, this is a story of Them and Us which does at times seem stereotyped. Jenny now runs a community of 400+ living on an abandoned oil and gas rig in the North Sea off the Norfolk coast. There are rumblings of discontent with the strict rules, then a mysterious Belgian stranger arrives and a young girl goes missing. This story is interwoven with that of Adam Brooks, a former RAF officer, who was sent to secure London’s o2 Arena as a safe zone. Run by a civil servant and policed by a gang of teenagers with guns, it is far from safe. This segment of the story is the least satisfying. The link between the two places is Jenny’s children, Leona and Jacob, who set off for London. Jacob longs to see city lights, which he barely remembers, and Leona wants to return to the family home to die alone.
There are some big subjects tackled here. The functioning of the group dynamic in far-from-ordinary circumstances, the management of resources and long-term planning, and how to handle a crowd which hasn’t realized the food really is going to run out. These pressures challenge what it is that makes us human, in our preferences, tolerances, sacrifices and beliefs.
I confess to picking this up one weary weekend when I had re-read a chapter of a more worthy book. Afterlight was just the tonic. I read it in two days, curled up on the sofa on a snowy afternoon. I returned later to the worthy book, and enjoyed it too.

And here’s my review of the first book, LAST LIGHT #LASTLIGHT1

If you like this, try:-
‘Midnight in Europe’ by Alan Furst
‘The Returned’ by Jason Mott
‘The Farm’ by Tom Rob Smith

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview AFTERLIGHT by Alex Scarrow via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-2nG

#BookReview ‘The Last of Us’ by Rob Ewing #dystopian #mystery

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The Last of Us by Rob Ewing is a tough and tender tale of survival of five children on a small Scottish island. Written from the perspective of Rona who is eight, it is a page-turning read about survival after the worst happens. Often a difficult read as the children have to face-up to things you wish children would never see or have to be aware of. Rob EwingRona has imaginary conversations with her Mum, who she believes will return to save her. Elizabeth, the eldest, draws on the example of her doctor parents, and tries to organize this fragile new family. Alex, the youngest, is diabetic and needs insulin shots. These three, unrelated, live together in a house of their choice. The two brothers Calum Ian and Duncan MacNeil, always on the periphery of the group, still live in their family home and often turn up for school smelling of petrol. They await the return of their fisherman father.
The children’s days are filled with routine, thanks to Elizabeth’s organization and rules. They brush their teeth, they go to school and follow the lessons which Elizabeth directs, they go ‘shopping’ in the derelict houses, marking the front doors either ‘G’ or ‘B’ depending on what they find inside. If there is a bad smell in a house, they put plastic bags on their feet and wear goggles to venture inside. Occasionally they pay their respects at the makeshift grave of the Last Adult. The children show immense courage, ingenuity and humanity in an impossible situation in which each in turn is tested.
Gradually we piece together what may have happened to the rest of the island inhabitants, sifting probable fact from the children’s fears and fantasies. The children seem to be coping, until Alex’s insulin runs out and they must venture further abroad on the island to look for medicine.

If you like this, try:-
‘In Ark’ by Lisa Devaney
‘The Queen of the Tearling’ by Erika Johansen
‘The Invasion of the Tearling’ by Erika Johansen

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE LAST OF US by Rob Ewing http://wp.me/p5gEM4-21Q via @SandraDanby

#BookReview ‘Last Light’ by Alex Scarrow #thriller #dystopian #adventure

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I’m sure that you, like me, watch end-of-the-world scenarios in films and wonder ’what would I do?’ That’s the thought I had reading Last Light by Alex Scarrow. Oil consultant Andy Sutherland writes an investigate report for a client about what would happen if the world’s oil suppliers were cut off. Ten years later, the trigger points he identified start to happen. Alex Scarrow Within hours, society breaks down. Andy is in Iraq, his wife Jenny has packed her stuff ready to move out of the family home and has gone to Manchester for a job interview. Their daughter Leona is at university in Norwich and son Jacob at private school. They could not be more widely spread. The instinct of the, newly separated, parents, is to get back to their children. The children long for the security of their parents. While in the background, the unknown group causing the chaos has sent Ash to find Leona.
The pages of this turn so rapidly you could read it in one sitting on a long haul flight. Excellent stuff. It’s clear that Scarrow is fascinated by the ‘Peak Oil’ scenario at the centre of the story, and it shows on every page. As each of the Sutherland family learns the hard way not to trust anyone, we wonder if they [and society in general] can possibly survive.

And here’s my review of the sequel, AFTERLIGHT #LASTLIGHT2.

If you like this, try:-
‘In Ark’ by Lisa Devaney
‘The Last of Us’ by Rob Ewing
‘The Ship’ by Antonia Honeywell

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview LAST LIGHT by Alex Scarrow via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1Pn

#BookReview ‘The Ship’ by Antonia Honeywell @antonia_writes #dystopian #adventure

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London. An alternative world in which resources have almost run out. This is the world of The Ship by Antonia Honeywell. Antonia HoneywellSixteen-year old Lalla lives in a sheltered world managed by her parents. Her time is spent in safety, in their flat, or wandering the corridors of the British Museum, anything to avoid the danger, the shortages, the violence of this alternative London. People without homes camp in public buildings and parks, but they are a drain on the scant resources and are bombed, murdered in the name of preserving resources for the few who are ‘registered.’ If you don’t have a card, you don’t exist, cannot get food or shelter.
Lalla has never eaten a fresh apple, and she begins to dream about what a real apple feels like, tastes like. On ‘The Ship’ she finally is given an apple. But like most things on The Ship, the apple is not what it seems. Lalla’s childhood has been governed by her parents’ political arguments, how best to make a life for Lalla, punctuated by her father’s mysterious disappearances. He is building something, gathering things, people, but Lalla does not know what.
Until the day arrives when her father takes a decision for the family and takes them to The Ship. An actual ship which he has bought and over ten years has fitted out with stores and everything needed to support the hundreds of people he has selected: for their skills, creative talents or bravery. He has chosen everything, anticipated everything.
The book really takes off when Lalla boards The Ship and tries to unravel the truth of what The Ship is, where it is going, and what is on the fourth floor. They eat tinned apple and powdered egg, read books on their ‘screens’ and discard their memories and grief in order to live in the now. It is a tale of growing up, of unpalatable truths, of shaking off the illusions of adolescence and being brave enough to stand up for yourself, to make your own decisions not governed by your parents. It is green-eyed Tom who gives the apple to Lalla, but why? And what does Lalla choose to do?
The ending will make you gasp.

If you like this, try:-
‘Sweet Caress’ by William Boyd
‘The Queen of the Tearling’ by Erika Johansen #1TEARLING
‘In Ark’ by Lisa Devaney

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE SHIP by Antonia Honeywell @antonia_writes via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-1y6

#BookReview ‘Insurgent’ by Veronica Roth #YA #fantasy

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Insurgent, second in the fantasy trilogy by Veronica Roth, is action-led and the pace fairly trips along. Everyone living in the post-dystopian city of Chicago belongs to one of five factions, each represents a human virtue. When the factions disagree, there is a struggle for power. Veronica RothHeroine Tris is a complex mixture of two factions: her upbringing in Abnegation [considerate, selfless] and her adopted faction Dauntless [brave, daring, reckless]. This dangerous mixture gets her into trouble and that drives the story along. She is confrontational, brave, but often makes questionable decisions. She distrusts Four’s father and believes he is misleading them: ‘…sometimes, if you want the truth, you have to demand it.’ Demand, not ask: this tells me more about Tris than about Four’s father Marcus.
As this is the second novel of the trilogy there is more time for characterisation, we see more of Tris’s inner world in Insurgent compared with Divergent. She is maturing into her divergent personality, ‘I drift off to sleep, carried by the sound of distant conversations. These days its easier for me to fall asleep when there is noise around me. I can focus on the sound instead of whatever thoughts would crawl into my head in silence. Noise and activity are the refuges of the bereaved and guilty.’ And she is both.
I had difficulty keeping track of the huge list of characters and longed for a cast list. But more importantly is the lack of clarity about the main enemy: who is it? There’s lots of infighting to keep track of too, petty squabbles some of which have carried forward from the first book and which I had forgotten. I made the mistake of not reading the books back-to-back which would have really helped.
Tris’s confusion reminded me of my teenage years, confusion is universal: ‘Sometimes I feel like I am collecting the lessons each faction has to teach me, and storing them in my mind like a guidebook for moving through the world. There is always something to learn, always something that’s important to understand.’ Like all young people, Tris must learn there is no cut-off date by which she will have learned everything, adults continue to learn until they die.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THIS BOOK AT AMAZON

Click the title to read my reviews of the other books in this series:-
DIVERGENT #1DIVERGENT
ALLEGIANT #3DIVERGENT

If you like this, try:-
‘Beneath the Keep’ by Erika Johansen #prequelTearling
‘Children of Blood and Bone’ by Tomi Adeyemi #1LegacyofOrisha
‘La Belle Sauvage’ by Philip Pullman #1TheBookOfDust

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview INSURGENT by Veronica Roth via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-Po