Recommended by Dunsborough Book Chat Club
Set in 2022, this story begins when a horrible event happens all over the world: all children aged 9 years old become suddenly stuck or frozen ‘as if some god’s finger had pressed the pause button on their universal remote’ and sing a song in Latin which translates as ‘As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; They kill us for their sport.’ Then their whole body becomes swollen with a sudden increase of sodium, followed by kidney failure and a heart attack. Within sixty seconds, every nine-year-old on the planet is dead.
This is an intriguing story, extremely original, and very well written. It is also dark, satirical and funny in parts, as is the author, Chris Flynn. For example, there are several allusions to Covid 19 and the toilet paper crisis – there is an app called Rolled that keeps track of loo-roll related fatalities or people who were ‘rolled’. As one of the characters says, “you have to take your laughs where you can get them.”
I found this book hard to put down. Chris manages to keep the tension until the very end. As Ebony’s 9th birthday approaches and they are all getting ready to hide in a cave, there are rumours that some children have escaped their fate this way. There is an unexpected twist at the end, which makes perfect sense.
I thoroughly enjoyed this read.
4.9/5 Stars