Blackout by Kit Mallory
Publisher - Lit Mallory
Price - £7.99 paperback £2.49 ebook
Published - Out Now
I would like to thank the author for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review
After the Board came to power the world changed the way a hunter stalks its prey: all paranoia and unimagined flickers of shadow, so that while you were being torn to pieces you were still wondering whether you were overreacting. For 16-year-old Skyler, fear is a way of life. For three years, since the Wall split the UK in two, her survival as an illegal Northern refugee in the South has been a perilous balancing act between staying in the shadows and clinging to her reputation as the South’s best hacker.
Fellow refugee Mckenzie is a ghost from her past she would rather ignore. But when their paths collide unexpectedly, Skyler sees an opportunity to exact revenge on the brutal regime that destroyed her home and family – even if it means she goes down with them.
For some reason this week despots and dystopias have been on my mind. In an age where let’s face it we seem to have lost the plot on so many things why are novels looking at ever more dystopian versions of the future? I used to think this was so SF could warn people about why we need to never go down this path. Obviously not enough people read SF. However, I now wonder if like Dragons the reasons dystopias exist in fiction is to perhaps remind us that they can be fought and beaten? In this near future thriller we focus on three young lives where the UK’s fall into a dictatorship creates horrors but ultimately makes people decide to say no more.
We initially focus on Mckenzie one of the best thieves in the recently split South of the UK working in the new capital of Birmingham. Mckenzie is from the North and here illegally trying to hide his Yorkshire accent. He works for various gangs ‘obtaining’ items for a price. Offered a chance to infiltrate the Board (the new UK Govt/Regime) he takes the merchandise but also helps himself to a hidden memory stick on a whim. Realising it has ultra-high encryption on it he goes for help from a fellow ex Northerner called Skyler who works for a mutual crime lord. Unfortunately for both that memory stick holds state secrets that the they want back, and the duo find themselves being chased not just by the Enforcers but also the local crime boss Daniel (mild on the outside and totally vicious within). On the run they end up with the assistance of the mysterious Angel who offers her services as a back-street medic, contract killer and vigilante and then there is a chase across the south of the UK to both unlock the secrets of the drive and decide how best to use them to take the Board down.
This I thought had a unique British dystopian feel and pleasingly focused less on the national and more on the local impact. Seeing life for normal people ranging from curfews; a secret police force that doesn’t want people to hide their faces with hoods even in the rain and electricity cut-offs at sundown all create an eerier off feeling for the UK. Through flashbacks told across the tale we see how Skyler and Mckenzie as kids saw the world change so that parents hush them from asking too many questions and where even a slip up at school can bring about the grey coated Enforcers who will want to take you away never to be seen again. It’s caught that sense that the death of democracy is a slow boil as people try to focus on survival until escape is too late. The way the North of England is deemed a waste of resources and cut off to wither and die behind a huge Wall (as if anyone would want giant walls everywhere in real life…ahem) seems plausible and the impact it has on people a reminder that once the State says you are a not one of them you can quickly lose all rights and privileges. The only bit I think I’d have liked to see is a bit more as what led to the change and who is in power. There is a great sense of atmosphere but occasionally I wanted to know what exactly led to these final steps.
But the heart of the book for me is the trio of Skyler, Mckenzie and Angel. Skyler is fascinating she seems a very withdrawn beaten computer hacker. Living in the basement of a gangster just to survive rather than with any sense of where she wants to go. Daniel has crushed her physically and mentally but seeing Mckenzie’s memory stick gives her a sense of curiosity she has missed and re-living the events that led her to the South makes her realise the Board is the one ultimately responsible. Mckenzie is the more amoral of the two focused on his own survival more than anything else often using his crimes and sense of adventure to give him a sense of worth and way to avoid his own painful memories. This almost sibling like relationship is quite well put together; they bicker, they obviously care for one another each tries to persuade the other they are right. In contrast the one character who really does come across as a mystery is Angel she is careful not to give her past and secrets away. Ultra-competent able to fight the pair’s enemies and patch up their injuries she is initially more like a friendly bodyguard, but a highlight is the growing relationship with Skyler that develops. From mutual respect to sharing confidences they have to work out how each feels about the other and whether can they trust each other with their ambitions for the future. A character that really gives the book an extra sense of energy and whom you want to find out more about.
It’s a very confident and smart tale that by focusing on a small group impacted by the regime allows time for the story to breathe and the reader to start to understand the world and invest in the characters. I’m really impressed with this novel and will be very keen to watch out for the next instalment and where the characters are heading towards next.
