Why am I passionate about this?
I spent most of my childhood hiding under the table reading science fiction and fantasy books to avoid having to communicate with the weird people claiming to be my family up in the world above. After a while, the local library turned me away saying they had no more books left on those shelves, so I started writing my own. I like a mix of urban themes like in Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give and dystopias like George Orwell’s 1984. That said, I love most futurist novels that have a love story at their centre, because despite everything I’m a romantic.
Peter's book list on bleak urban futures that give you a sense of hope
Why did Peter love this book?
An under-recognised gem of a novel, The Testament… showcases Jane Roger’s character-building talents and has at its core a troubled moral position about how to deal with the calamity humanity is faced with, owing to some bio-engineered terror that has been unleashed.
There is no middle ground for this book. You will either love it or hate it. Same goes for the main character, Jessie. She will strike you as the epitome of heroic self-sacrifice, else the height of stupid, navel-gazing, teenage self-indulgence.
1 author picked The Testament of Jessie Lamb as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize
“The novel does not set up an elaborate apocalypse, but astringently strips away the smears hiding the apocalypses we really face. Like Jessie’s, it is a small, calm voice of reason in a nonsensical world.” ―The Independent
Set in a world altered by an act of biological terrorism, comes The Testament of Jessie Lamb, a chilling dystopian novel that follows a 16-year-old girl who is driven to the ultimate act of heroism.
The Testament of Jessie Lamb, is the breakout novel from award-winning author Jane Rogers. Its cunningly drawn characters and riveting vision of…