Dystopia

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Feast of Ashes by Victoria Williamson

Neem Tree Press, 9781911107873

I will freely admit that dystopian novels are not my favourite genre, perhaps because I have been reading them for a VERY long time.  However, I have read and enjoyed Victoria’s middle grade work, so I wanted to see what she imagined in this first YA novel.

As you would expect, the story is set in a dystopian future and where the population live in sealed domes, to protect them from the lethal environment outside.  The central character, Adina  is a teenager with all of the frustrations and longings of her age; what she does not expect is that her desire for a ripe apple will lead to the explosion that destroys her home and kills most of its inhabitants, including her parents.  The small group of survivors have a matter of days to find refuge at Sanctuary Seven, the nearest habitation,  before their bio filters stop working and they succumb to the deadly atmosphere.

This is a story that reminds me of the conflicts that have happened during my life around the wishes of big business, especially when genetic modification is the focus.  The story is set in an African landscape that has basically been destroyed by the desire of multinationals to provide food as cheaply as possible, using non-western countries as test beds for their ideas.  This need to feed the population, together with the pressing issues around the environment, is something that is very much at the heart of the eco-movements that are voicing concerns today.  In contrast to this theme, we have the much more personal issues around Adina, her attitudes and the way that she has to deal with her guilt after the disaster.  The story is set out in a simple timeline; dealing with life and attitudes before the event and then following the survivors as they face the natural dangers and also the potential threat to them, if they do not reach safety in time.  We see the interaction of the characters and how they all react to their circumstances; in particular we see the gradual shift in the way that Adina thinks and acts, until we have the final scene that really packs a punch.

This is one of those stories that I cannot say I ‘enjoyed’, but that is perhaps not the purpose.  It does however, make you think very long and hard about what we are doing to our world and in particular those parts that are still seen as ‘developing’.  The author has given us a book to be mindful about and which will hopefully give its young readers a lot of food for thought.

About the Author

Victoria Williamson is an award-winning author who grew up in Scotland surrounded by hills, books, and an historical farm estate which inspired many of her early adventure stories and spooky tales. After studying Physics at the University of Glasgow, she set out on her own real-life adventures, which included teaching maths and science in Cameroon, training teachers in Malawi, teaching English in China and working with children with additional support needs in the UK. Victoria currently works part time writing KS2 books for the education company Twinkl and spends the rest of her time writing novels, and visiting schools, libraries and literary festivals to give author talks and run creative writing workshops.
Victoria’s previous novels include The Fox Girl and the White Gazelle, The Boy with the Butterfly Mind, Hag Storm, and War of the Wind. She has won the Bolton Children’s Fiction Award 2020/2021, The YA-aldi Glasgow Secondary School Libraries Book Award 2023, and has been shortlisted for the Week Junior Book Awards 2023, The Leeds Book Awards 2023, the Red Book Award 2023, the James Reckitt Hull Book Awards 2021, The Trinity School Book Awards 2021, and longlisted for the ABA South Coast Book Awards 2023, the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2020, and the Branford Boase Award 2019.
Her latest novel, The Pawnshop of Stolen Dreams, is a middle grade fantasy inspired by classic folklore. Twenty percent of the author royalties for this book are donated to CharChar Literacy, an organisation working to improve children’s literacy levels in Malawi.
You can find out more about Victoria’s books, school visits and free resources for schools on her website: www.strangelymagical.com

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Once upon a Fever by Angharad Walker

A favourite theme found in literature is that of an alternative world and in this country it very often centres around a world with a vastly different version of London.  If you like this type of fantasy, then you are really going to love this book.

This story centres around two sisters Payton and Ani Darke, who have moved to Lundain with their father, who works as a Methic (Doctor) at King Jude’s Hospital and their mother, who is a patient in the hospital.  They live in a world that is very different from our own because the country has been devastated by a mysterious fever that seems to affect people and their emotions; this has led to a view that all emotion should be suppressed.  There has also been a change in the way the country is governed and the power now lies with two large groups, the Bankers and the Methics, everyone else is subservient to them.

The two sisters discover that their lives are beginning to diverge and whilst Payton looks to science in the hope of finding a cure for her mother, Ani discovers that there might older and more natural ways to help those who are suffering.  As they both explore new paths they discover that  there are some good people in the world, but also that you can’t always trust those who you have looked up to in the past.  They learn the lesson that power can corrupt and that even those closest to us cannot always be trusted.

This is an absolutely brilliant teen novel from the author of “The Ash House“.  It is full of darkness and a lingering sense of evil that permeates the world in which the girls live.  The emphasis is very much on trying to remove emotions from those that have been struck down by the fever, because the illness is creating a wide range of disturbing symptoms in the patients.  It feels like a comment on the world that we live in and the way that mental health has been dealt with in the past; in fact the hospitals bear a close resemblance to the images we have of Victorian hospitals, with their dark spaces and rigid rules.  However, there is a glimmer of hope in the middle of this dystopian world, as Ani discovers when she is taken to Hyde gardens and meets the two remaining members of the ‘Wilders’ Guild.  These are people who are close to nature and understand that we need this link to the natural world and that it can bring a sense of peace, or at least tranquility to the troubled mind.

The author has created a truly frightening world, where disease has changed the way we all behave and has allowed small elites to take control of life.  There are definitely shadows of events that have, or could occur if we cannot deal with the pandemics that arise; we have all seen the rise in authoritarianism and the consequences if this is allowed to continue and take permanent control.  One of the really worrying elements of this are the quasi-scientific methods used by the Methics and the feeling that no one is trying to make any advances, despite the girls’ father supposedly researching a cure for their mother.

I have loved this book and the two main characters, who are each struggling to make sense of the world that they live in.  Many of the people they meet are also fighting against the dangers that they face and they find that together they are able to put up a stronger resistance to the powers that be.  Definitely a 5 stars from me, for this one.

About Angharad Walker

“Angharad Walker grew up on military bases in the UK, Germany and Cyprus, where stories were often being told about far-flung places, past conflicts, and friends and family.

She studied English Literature & Creative Writing at the University of Warwick and the University of California Irvine. Her fiction has been published in Structo and A Million Ways, and her poetry has made it into Agenda broadsheets and Ink Sweat & Tears.

She lives in South London. When she’s not writing, she works as a communications consultant for charities and not-for-profits.”   Chicken House website.