Review

It’s a long time in the future. The world is still recovering from the Age of Woe, environmental disaster caused by the mysterious ancient Light People and their lust for fire fuel. The First Law is to never use fire fuel. Instead, people use wind turbines and solar batteries.

Brightland is ruled by the brotherhood, led by Great Brother Peregrine. It’s a Handmaid’s Tale-like society, where boys are taken to live in barracks at the age of eleven and shipped off to fight in the perpetual wars against the dastardly Aylish when they’re about eighteen. Food is rationed. When men return to Northaven after ten years of fighting, they are gifted two virginal young wives to serve them. Women are kept illiterate, trained to be wives and to continually bear more babies to aid the war effort. Homosexuality is forbidden. Adultery is likewise a hanging offence. And to have songlight, psychic abilities, is to be labelled non-human: to be publicly shamed and disowned and then taken to the Chrysalid House to be lobotomised.

Kaira, young and frail, lives a relatively privileged life in Brightlinghelm, the main city. She’s a powerful Torch (psychic), and can send her songlight out long distances.

Elsa is a sea worker in a small remote fishing village. She has songlight, and she’s in a secret, forbidden relationship with Rye.

Rye is also secretly a Torch as well as a cadet. He’s sceptical about the brotherhood’s propaganda. Is this war really necessary?

Piper, Elsa’s brother, longs to be a pilot. He’s a true believer in the brotherhood and the war against the Aelish. He’s also secretly in love with his best friend, Rye.

Beautiful Sister Swan, the Flower of Brightland, is a powerful radiobine propagandist and the only woman on the brotherhood council. But her position is tenuous; she could be betrayed at any moment.

Their lives intertwine in dramatic ways, creating a powerful chain reaction that could change everything.

*

I really enjoyed this book — it’s reminiscent of The Handmaid’s Tale, 1984, The Hunger Games and WW2 Nazi Germany: classic dystopian stuff. I was totally sucked into its world, which may seem a bit complex, but was beautifully built into the narrative, and thus quite easy to understand. I’m glad it’s the first book of a trilogy.

The narrative unfolds from the first person perspectives of each of the five main characters, with the main narrator being Elsa. The action cuts from one tense scene to another, so interest is kept high. While the scenario may sound a bit dark — and it is — the plot is action & adventure packed. Trust me — I’m a total wimp, not even a huge fan of dystopia, and I found it entertaining and absorbing, a really classic ‘struggle against evil oppression’ adventure. I listened to the audiobook (very good) and, with an hour to go, I stopped listening to it for a day or so because I was worried about having my heart broken. That’s how invested I was in the characters. But it’s YA, and although things are tough, there is hope.

Side note: both protagonists and antagonists (and even minor characters) seem to be named after types of bird (Swan; Peregrine; Piper; Rye’s last name is Tern; Kaira’s code name is Nightingale; Elsa’s code name is Lark). I’m thinking perhaps this symbolises freedom. It will be interesting to see how that develops through the trilogy.

I must say the print book is a bit chunky (480 pp.), but it’s not small print, and there are generous margins. It deserves to be a dystopian blockbuster. I hope students love it! It’s quality.

Age: about 14+

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YA depictions of intolerance and persecution, including sexism, homophobia, and against those with psychic abilities; extreme nationalism; fairly liberal use of the f-word, particularly in situations of extreme peril; sexual allusions but no sex scenes; situations of extreme peril; long ago dead fathers; a not particularly positive depiction of a stepmother; some non-graphic hospital scenes in which a person could have died (but didn’t); lobotomies (mentioned, not depicted); violence, not graphic; brief mild allusions to sexual violence/coercion; enslavement; non-graphic descriptions of war incidents, including bombings and burnings.

*

Buffini, M. (2024). Songlight. Faber.

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