The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

                                               

  

I’m still making my way through the full series of the Anne Shirley and the Alex Rider books and also the 2019 short list for the Man Booker prize. 

This month’s choice therefore has to be The Testaments by Margaret Atwood . 

These accounts by three individual witnesses are beautifully written. Margaret Atwood has created a unique voice for each of the narrators. We have the accounts of two young women, both of whom are training to be Aunts in the Gilead system. We also have the voice of the feared and revered Aunt Lydia. 

All is not well in or outside Gilead. 

It would be difficult to understand these accounts if you are not familiar with The Handmaid’s Tale. You really need to have read that first book or have seen the TV productions. The story in this volume contradicts a little what we have seen in the TV series. 

It is the story of what happens after Baby Nicole is smuggled out of Gilead. Certainly the events described here happen when Nicole is a teenager. However, we still don’t have the full story. Will there be one? Or must we use our imaginations? 

I gave this a five star review on both Amazon and Good Reads.  It was interesting reading other reviews including some one and two star ones.  Yes, even the literary greats get those! 

For me this remains one of those rare books that I’d gladly read again. Perhaps this is partly because I feel I may have missed something. It is also in part because I find the prose so enchanting and not as one reviewer said: “dull and lifeless with no linguistic subtleties that Atwood is so very good at.” So, take heart if you’re a writer and get some one or two star reviews. It’s all so subjective after all.              

 

After Tomorrow by Gillian Cross

This book is certainly well written. One would expect nothing less of Gillian Cross. It is also high concept, dystopian and presents a disturbing near future. Unusually it is not young adult though protagonist Matt does a lot of growing up. I’d describe it as fluent reader though Matt is probably about fourteen. Well, youngsters like to read up. It impressed me because above all it scared me. 

The crash of the five major banks causes food shortages, hoarding of food and raids at gunpoint on the homes of those who hoard or who grow their own food. Matt and his family are hoarders and grow their own food. Matt, his younger brother, Taco, and his stepfather, Justin, escape to France where they are accommodated in a huge refugee camp. Life is harsh there. Cross successfully uses fiction to explore the truth of that situation. 

There is a hopeful ending though we still see no easy way out of a dire situation. The story makes one pause and look at what is happening in our own world. It actually isn’t all that different.

A must read for everyone. Well-crafted characterisation, a fast pace and a good amount of tension keep us reading.   
                        

Slated by Teri Terry

I so thoroughly enjoyed this book that it is going on to my reading list at the University of Salford, on my module Writing Novels for Young People. One of the hardest things to get right, I tell my students often, is maintaining both pace and emotional closeness. Teri Terry does this superbly in Slated.

In this dystopian near-future young adult novel Terry presents us with a world that is believable and disturbing. Kyla is one of the “slated”. Because of her less than satisfactory past – according to someone’s terms if not her own - she has had her memory wiped in this world where young people are no longer allowed mobile phones. Slating is used on youngsters who have rebelled or look as if they might. All is controlled by the sinister Lorders – dressed in grey and sometimes black.

I so thoroughly enjoyed this book that it is going on to my reading list at the University of Salford, on my module Writing Novels for Young People. One of the hardest things to get right, I tell my students often, is maintaining both pace and emotional closeness. Teri Terry does this superbly in Slated.

The characters in this novel are richly drawn and we feel empathy for Amy, Jazz and Ben as well as Kyla.

We are left with a little of a cliff-hanger. One story is complete but another is wide open and about to begin. I was disappointed when I finished the book, in a good way, because the sequel, Fractured is not out until April. Can’t wait.

Finally my confession. Teri is another SCBWI friend, though I don’t know her as well as Sara Grant I mention below. I heard of the book because of SCBWI but bought it because I was below my quota of YA books at the time and it sounded like my kind of book. So this review is without prejudice. 

But it does say something about SCBWI.   

       
  

Dark Parties by Sarah Grant

I have a confession to make. Sara and I used to belong to the same critique group. We used to meet once a month in the wonderful back room of the Sherlock Homes Hotel on Baker Street. I am quite familiar with her work and I saw some parts of this novel in very early drafts. I found them interesting then. As I read them now I am captivated.

Dark Parties is a dystopian near-or-distant future young adult novel. It introduces us to a world that is believable but terrifying. We are close to the protagonist, Neva. The characters are richly drawn. The mystery and suspense are held throughout.  

Grant does something here that I am not sure any other writer has yet done as successfully: she maintains a fast pace and yet allows us to be emotionally close to the protagonist. These are both qualities required in the young adult novel, but it is extremely difficult to get both of those characteristics in at the same time.

She includes a third young adult novel trait: she leaves enough questions unanswered at the end to satisfy the young person’s need to control the story. The reader can decide on the answers. It also leaves the way open for another book. I can’t give any details; that would mean creating some spoilers. A total no-no in reviews. I can tell you, however, that she keeps the mystery and intrigue going in every single sentence.