This is one of the best books I have read in a long time. If
you enjoy visions of a dystopian future such as Ira Levin’s This Perfect Day or the British sci-fi
television programme Blake’s 7, you
will love Secrets Above.
It is the story of Amelia – Lia to her friends, although it
is illegal to call any citizen of Terra Convex by anything other than their
legal name. She lives in an underground society, the last of the human race, the
survivors of a deadly man-made virus which began killing every living organism
above ground.
I’d go on, but if you are reading my synopsis, you really
need to stop and read the book. There are only a few things I should warn you
about:
- There is some disturbing violence in the book. Most of it happens “offstage,” but we are forced to deal with its consequences much as Lia is. While reading two chapters (thankfully not back-to-back), I had to pause after each paragraph and do something else, just so I wouldn’t gag. I don’t normally like these kinds of books, but it was (mostly) necessary to tell the story.
- There is one kissing scene that got a bit racy. Honestly, I thought for a moment it was going to become erotic fiction at that point, but it didn’t.
- Both
of the above are more disturbing
(at least to me) because the book was written by a mother/daughter team. I
would have difficulty being this graphic either with one of my parents or
my child. Kudos to Ward and
- This is the first book in a series, and I can hardly wait to read the second!
Secrets Above is
an important book for our times. Read it!
Secrets Above
is a winner of the 2017 Author’s Choice award for science fiction. I received a
free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
