Alison Allen-Gray’s first novel Unique, published back in 2004, received widespread praise and several well-deserved award nominations, including a spot on the coveted Booktrust Teenage Prize shortlist. An edgy and provocative thriller, it tackled the controversial theme of cloning from the perspective of a boy who finds out he is a clone.
Five years later, Gray returns with another hard-hitting, action-packed teenage novel that lives up to, and even exceeds her excellent debut. In the tradition of Brave New World and 1984, Lifegame imagines a future dystopia in which people are constantly under surveillance, can no longer write with a pen and paper, and live in a strictly controlled class structure.
The book begins on a cloistered island that is believed by its inhabitants to be the last bastion of humanity following some kind of global chemical disaster. Fella is an orphan in this isolated world and knows nothing about his family other than that his mother supposedly died in a car crash when he was a baby. Along with his best friend Grebe, Fella begins to question the stories he’s been fed by the Powers that Be and with the help of a journal left by his mother, starts to unravel the truth about his background - which in turn leads to some shocking revelations about the island.
Utterly compelling in terms of both subject matter and plot, Lifegame poses some uncompromising political and philosophical questions about the nature of society, the possibilities of science, and how the two can dramatically impact on each other. The development of the two (very likable) central characters - from subjugated, frustrated teenagers to revolutionary young adults, and the gradual blossoming of the romance that accompanies it - is truly enchanting. Unputdownable.
Five years later, Gray returns with another hard-hitting, action-packed teenage novel that lives up to, and even exceeds her excellent debut. In the tradition of Brave New World and 1984, Lifegame imagines a future dystopia in which people are constantly under surveillance, can no longer write with a pen and paper, and live in a strictly controlled class structure.
The book begins on a cloistered island that is believed by its inhabitants to be the last bastion of humanity following some kind of global chemical disaster. Fella is an orphan in this isolated world and knows nothing about his family other than that his mother supposedly died in a car crash when he was a baby. Along with his best friend Grebe, Fella begins to question the stories he’s been fed by the Powers that Be and with the help of a journal left by his mother, starts to unravel the truth about his background - which in turn leads to some shocking revelations about the island.
Utterly compelling in terms of both subject matter and plot, Lifegame poses some uncompromising political and philosophical questions about the nature of society, the possibilities of science, and how the two can dramatically impact on each other. The development of the two (very likable) central characters - from subjugated, frustrated teenagers to revolutionary young adults, and the gradual blossoming of the romance that accompanies it - is truly enchanting. Unputdownable.
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