BLOG TOUR (REVIEW): Bridge 108 by Anne Charnock

A dystopian novel set in the climate-ravaged Europe of A Calculated Life. Told through multiple voices against the backdrop of a haunting and frighteningly believable future, Bridge 108 charts the passage of a young boy into adulthood amid oppressive circumstances that are increasingly relevant to our present day.

 

From the Arthur C. Clarke Award–winning author, a dystopian novel of oppression set in the climate-ravaged Europe of A Calculated Life, a finalist for the Kitschies award and Philip K. Dick Award.

Late in the twenty-first century, drought and wildfires prompt an exodus from southern Europe. When twelve-year-old Caleb is separated from his mother during their trek north, he soon falls prey to traffickers. Enslaved in an enclave outside Manchester, the resourceful and determined Caleb never loses hope of bettering himself.

After Caleb is befriended by a fellow victim of trafficking, another road opens. Hiding in the woodlands by day, guided by the stars at night, he begins a new journey—to escape to a better life, to meet someone he can trust, and to find his family. For Caleb, only one thing is certain: making his way in the world will be far more difficult than his mother imagined.

Told through multiple voices and set against the backdrop of a haunting and frighteningly believable future, Bridge 108 charts the passage of a young boy into adulthood amid oppressive circumstances that are increasingly relevant to our present day.

 

 

I received a copy of this book for an honest review. What follows is my opinion and mine alone. There was no compensation made for this review.

 

Bridge 108 is a short near-future book that follows a short snippet of a young boy’s life. It is written in multiple narrations that give a few details of the world of human trafficking and what the world could become if the climate does not change.

 

Though well written, I think I would have preferred if the book was longer. There wasn’t enough information about the climate, the government, or pretty much how anything worked. In a way, this makes the book unique. The reader can make their own decision on what they’ve read. However, I personally would have liked more about how the family worked or Ma Lexie and Caleb’s relationship. It made for the ending to be a bit confusing for me.

 

That isn’t to say the book is bad. It isn’t. As I said before, it is well written. Charnock does a great job making you like the characters she gives you with the little space she has to tell the story. This is only the story of a boy who grows to teenhood, but not the story of the world itself. With that in mind, it is a book that you could easily pick through and make a slew of different theories. For that, my literary theorist brain is in love and I may take a gander at it again through a theorist lens.

 

If anything, this book only whets the reader’s curiosity in wanting more and for that, I ask Ms. Charnock to write about this world again and give me more. I am intrigued and I would love to know more about how everything has become this.

 

Final Rating: 3/5