My son and I both loved Emma Clayton’s
post-apocalyptic/dystopian novel The Roar, so we were excited when the sequel The
Whisper was recently released. It provided a satisfying conclusion to
the story, though we both thought it wasn’t quite as good as the first
book. I will try to tell you a bit
about the sequel without giving away any secrets from its predecessor.
As in The Roar, the
setting is a dystopian future where the Animal Plague has left the world
divided into two, with all humans living north of an enormous wall that
circumnavigates the globe. The
poor and middle class in this world live crammed in tiny fold-down apartments
or are struggling to survive in The Shadows, the dark and flooded London
streets that were left behind when the wealthy, ruling class built their
penthouses up above the London skyline.
The action in this book is split between twins Mika and
Ellie, who are part of a brainwashed child army led by the evil Mal Gorman, and
their friend Kobi, who is fleeing into The Shadows with his father to escape
from Gorman’s control. Without
giving away any spoilers, most of the book is about the children revolting –
how they try to evade Gorman’s mind control and somehow bring peace to their
tormented world.
This novel is very much about kid power, to something of an
unbelievable extent from an adult’s point of view, but middle-grade readers are
sure to cheer on these brave kids as they try to outwit the adult leaders of
their world and avoid war. Like The
Roar, it is action-packed and fast-paced,
with lots of cool technology to add to the fun. It is not as strong a novel as The Roar, but it provides a gratifying finale to this unique
story.
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