It is the debut novel of Moira Young and it has won a Costa Book Award.

But they need new stories to fire them up. And they need them now.B lood Red Road is a fascinating and powerful novel set in a post-apocalyptic period. The beauty of the world in Nikes, the paragon of the disposable income. What a piece of work is a teen, in action how like a vampire slayer, in apprehension how like Paris Hilton. So Moira Young, I salute you! Long may intelligent dystopian novels stay at the top of the pile, because we're going to need some sharp brains for what's up ahead. It's the hamster you begged for when you were 12, promised to feed and water and exercise every day and then forgot about entirely, leaving it to die a slow lingering death in a pile of bitter cabbage leaves and dirty straw.īut not on Dystopia's watch! it's amazing to see an international array of world authors, armed only with a bit of sexy science and a couple of near-future scenarios, taking on the big issues of today and weaving them into gripping tales that young adults love to read. Actually no, that makes it sound too interesting. Modern politics doesn't fire the heart, climate change deadens the blood and global justice is a total flatliner. I love real – and dystopian fiction is ultimately a method of heightening the real to get to the truth.Īnd the truth needs all the help it can get. That's where the excitement in writing lies for me: in getting people to grapple with the big stuff. It seems they are finally waking from their 20-year apathetic slump (trust teens to sleep even longer than Snow White) and, kissed into action by colossal levels of future debt, a broken economic system and a looming climate crisis that threatens to wipe them out before they've even paid back their tuition fees, are waking up with one hell of a growl.Īnd why dystopia? Well, from Orwell's 1984 onwards, it has offered a powerful lens for examining contemporary society – and the best examples of the genre really push their readers into a fundamental re-evaluation of their lives. But young adult readers are doing exactly the opposite.

But why now? Conventional wisdom holds that when real life gets too dark, audiences tend to flock towards diversion, fluff and ostentatious glamour, as Americans did during the Depression era.

Blood Red Road by Moira Young