Phoenix Burning by Bryony Pearce

2016

Toby and Ayla seek inverters for their ship. They have to infiltrate a sect of sun-worshippers to obtain them.  They don’t and can’t quite trust each other. Their relationship is complex but they must work together.    

Bryony Pearce presents us with a world that seems something of fantasy, is somewhat dystopian but has some elements with which we are familiar.  We have black bin bags, mentions of the Catholic religion and a real place is named: Gozo. The sect of the sun-worshippers seems viable. Is there something too of the near future? Something has happened that has made the sea too salty and you really shouldn’t swim in it.        

    

The stakes are high, the relationships complex, and there is possibly a budding romance.  Toby finds his mother but she is also to some extent the enemy. The novel is bordering on being suitable of the young adult reader.  

The story is certainly fast-paced.

Note that the text is blocked, uses a sophisticated font but is also double-spaced. Chapters are of average length.   

Perfect by Cecelia Ahern

2017 
This is the sequel to Cecelia Ahern’s Flawed.

 

Those that are less than perfect are branded and labelled flawed  in this dystopian near-future.  Yet the whole system itself is flawed: there is corruption and power-seeking and the judgement about who is and who isn’t flawed is very subjective. Horrifically babies can be designated as flawed at birth.  F.A.B.  

Protagonist Celestine North complicates her situation by becoming an evader, one who hides from the law. 

Many know that this is wrong but lack the courage to speak out. Eventually they do and it is in part thanks to Celestine finding and showing the footage of Judge Crevan himself branding her spine without anaesthetic.  She already has five brands.  

There are two love interests for Cecelia. She hooks up with Carrick, another evader. She also still has some feelings for her former boyfriend, Art, who is also Crevan’s son. 

This novel is powerful in that all is not back and white. Art becomes a Whistleblower  - one of the guards who supervises the correct containment of the Flawed. He rejects this role when he realises what his father has done.  There is a moment when Celestine almost feels sorry for Crevan: he is now stripped of his fine robes and his role and she remembers how he just used to be Art’s dad. 

The ending is upbeat.  The Guild is overthrown but we realise that this society will have to work hard to build something humane and effective. The work is only just beginning. 

The stakes are high and pace is fast throughout.  There are plenty of cliff-hangers and twists.

This is a long book – 426 pages and the format is 9 x 6 inches. The font is adobe Thai point 13 so the text resembles a book for adults.  However, the chapters are very short with a few of them being just one page long.               

The Death Cure by James Dashner

2013, first published 2012  

This is the third story in the Maze Runner series.  The ending is very open and there is a fourth book to follow.

Thomas is identified here as a type of final solution – WICKED wants his brain. They need to examine it in order to find a cure and antidote to Flare.  Flare is a pandemic.  The disease makes its sufferers crazy and also turns them into flesh-eating animals. Thomas and some of his friends who have been kept in the Maze are naturally immune.  Not all of them, however, and some of his friends are part of a “control “group.  Once they’re out in the real world one of his friends succumbs to Flare. 

The disease is called “Flare” because a solar flare caused it to escape forma laboratory.  It was a man-made disease.

Note, I read this at the time of the lockdown because of coronavirus. Flare causes completely different symptoms but it spreads in a similar way.   

Like in all of the Maze Runner novels the pace is fast.  This is partly achieved by the use of very short chapters – three to four pages long.  There are multiple twists and turns as well and the stakes are high throughout.  There is quite a bit of violence.  There are also several deaths and Thomas feels the loss of friends and loved ones, and guilt when he is forced to kill.  

It is a thick book, 328 pages long. The font is small and the text is blocked. Each chapter has a decorative representation of a maze in its header.