"Calico gave up her life to save her sister in a cryogenically restored future- but at what cost?"
This is an extraordinary debut - a dystopian thriller which will really get readers thinking about some big issues. Not just a climate changed future, but about medical ethics and what a life is worth.
Written in short punchy chapters, in a mix of prose and poetry, it is a fast paced and gripping read that is narrated by two sisters, Calico and Asha. The story opens with Calico, painfully regaining consciousness and we soon realise that she has been cryogenically preserved after death and is now restored to life. But it is not at as she had been led to expect by Lucas, the medic who talked her into the procedure as a way to save her sister Asha, who had a terminal illness.
Climate disaster has impacted the planet and resulted in a loss of technology. This strikes the reader as entirely credible. This is not the bright and shiny white future we see in sci fi and Calico is now trapped in a sinister run-down research facility with no sign of her sister. There are other, often reluctant, cryogenic test subjects and they join together to try and unravel the truth about this dangerous new world and discover what has happened to their loved ones.
Meanwhile Asha’s poetic commentary focuses on what comes after death - which has not so far brought her the relief from suffering that she had hoped to achieve by ending her own life and we begin to see the full complicated picture of their sibling relationship, both trying to do their best for the other but not truly listening. Calico certainly does learn important lessons from this experience: being treated as research fodder, not as a person, taught her about the importance of agency, consent and choice and acknowledging that humans learn by making mistakes leaves no place for guilt. She has to come to terms with the loss of her sister, but with the hope that her new found-family gives her for their future and for the world.
Definitely thought provoking, this novel will at least ensure you always read the small print of any contract put before you! Fans of really intelligent dystopian fictions such as those from Lauren James will relish this!
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