Well jeez, that was depressing. And kinda terrifying since Trump is a thing. It's sort of post-apocalyptic but without being at all post-apocalyptic. Like, the apocalypse has happened and Britain is totally fine as long as it's got this huge wall around it and people defending it the entire time so that everyone within the wall can live their lives totally normally and everyone without can just starve and die and generally go to hell. It's a very well realised plot and it's deeply depressing for that reason, people defending the wall will kill anyone trying to get in on sight, it draws some very uncomfortable parallels with the way certain countries and certain people treat refugees. It's also exciting and intelligent and worthwhile.

I loved this book and found it gripping. However, at times I was frustrated by the lack of, well, trivial detail. I wanted to know more about life away from the Wall; were people still materialistic? We're there mobile phones? Did sport still exist? Etc. I wondered why the sound of the sea crashing against the Wall during high tide didn't get a mention, I mean, there must still have been tides. Surely, at low tide, there would've been more likelihood of attempts by Others to ascend the Wall. It was never mentioned how high the Wall was, although, early on in the story, it was described as "low", but that must've been a mistake, otherwise it would've been easy to scale and breach. Finally, I wanted the story to take me further, so, Mr Manchester, The Wall Part Two, please!

Brexit is looming, the Amazon is burning and where I live in the low lying lands of Hull the sea walls are being extended to protect against the ever increasing higher tides. At this precise moment it feels like the story within The Wall is entirely feasible before the close of the 21st century. This dystopian tale is a warning, we must act now to stop the change before it is too late.

I’m not sure what to make of this one. The first half I thought was a brilliant meditation on the mental hell of carrying out that type of service (the cold, the grey, the concrete, the never-changing scenery) and blended with a commentary on the way it could change inter-generational relationships particularly around enforced service which your parents never had to carry out. Unfortunately, it felt to me like the author didn’t know what to do with that rumination and so created a storyline for the second half which felt like it never really went anywhere other than to emphasise the lack of control and the anger for us as the reader over how unfair the system is. The most bizarre thing for me is that even just days after reading it I cannot for the life of me remember what happens at the end. I know where our characters are, but I can’t remember how we’ve left them (i.e. did one of them die? Or are they both safe?). I don’t think this has ever happened to me before. The 3 stars are for the poetic ruminations in an otherwise classic dystopian novel