Exodus

Title: Exodus

Author: Julie Bertagna

Young Picador, 2002

Winner of the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year Award

This novel portrays a dystopic world that shouldn't leave anyone unmoved. Let me describe the scenario: the polar icecaps have melted and the world as we know it is slowly sinking beneath the sea's ricing surface. The people of the island Wing has been isolated from the rest of the world for half a century. Most of the people are desperately ignoring the ocean closing in on them, willing it to stop, but one young girl, Mara, is secretely looking for a way out in the rubbles of the Weave (the Internet.)

A lot of things happen! There is a frantic voyage across the seas toward the New World; there is a refugee camp, crazed almost-not-human children, people living in trees, people living in a supermetropol high above the water, a (bit too) fantastic rescue mission, and, of course, a love story.

To me, it was an interesting book. I enjoy dystopic novels and maybe I should have given this a bit more time and thought instead of rushing through it. In exchange for doing that I would, however, have wanted a bit more sci and a little less fi. The manic pace, and crowding too much into the story, made it difficult to gain an understanding of this new and quite interesting waterworld. Could work for the B-course, but I would make it one of several choices.