Publication Date: 7 April 2022

The Blurb

When the floods come, truth rises to the surface… It’s 2052, a time when enormous floods can devastate the land at any moment. Jade lives in the Wetlands, a place that will be devastated by the floods. Safety can be found behind the walls of North-Hampton, but it’s a town steeped in prejudice against Wetlanders. When the siren sounds the flood-warning, Jade and local boy, Bates, must join with outcast Samson to head to North-Hampton. But the threesome are carrying secrets, secrets that are even more dangerous than the impending floodwaters.

The Review

A devastatingly brilliant, darkly dystopian tale of climate disaster and deadly disease.

From the moment we meet Jade in the Wetlands, we see a young girl struggling to leave her dying Grandpappy and head to higher land and safety before the village she calls home is submerged by the ever encroaching sea. A girl who is determined to find her sister and somewhere safe for them both.

This is a world where the Great Flood of 2042 and the Second Flood of 2048 haven’t just washed away lands and lives, but the humanity of some of it’s inhabitants. Those who survived know their place in the new world. Homers scrape a living from the land and poisoned sea, North-Hamptoners live in safety and service behind their dyke, and the inhabitants of High-Town living in luxury most will never see. As for the ferals, they are feared and shunned by everyone, with threat of a merciful death to any who dare set foot inside North-Hampton.

It is into this world that Jade heads off with Bates and Sampson when the flood sirens sound once more as she learns that not everything she believes about others is true. Quick to judge, she learns lessons at the most unexpected times that soften her bristly exterior. Bates and Sampson both carry surprising secrets about how they came to live their current lives that show how important it is to accept people on the value of their actions. Rosa and Mary show that compassion and humanity still exist and that there are far more good people than bad who are willing to help anyone who needs it.

There was one thread of the story with Jade’s older sister that may cause upset to younger readers, or be deemed too old for them in the eyes of their parents/carers. This is a book that I love, but would think carefully about who I lend it to at primary (definitely one for my Year 6 only shelf) and one I would wholeheartedly recommend for wide use in secondary settings.

Great for fans of:

• Floodland by Marcus Sedgewick
• The Middler by Kirsty Applebaum
• Orphans Of The Tide by Struan Murphy

Huge thanks to Uclan for sending me a copy!