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.