Today it's my tun on the BlogTour The Disappeared by Amy Lord. It's dystopian fiction influenced by history and politics.
Amy Lord is a writer, blogger and digital marketer from north-east England. She won a Northern Writer's Award in 2015 for The Disappeared and was also longlisted in the inaugural Bath Novel Award. An earlier manuscript saw her shortlisted for Route Publishing's Next Great Novelist Award. Amy is currently working on a new novel, which was developed as part of year-long mentoring scheme with Writers Block NE.
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Buy The Disappeared
About the book
What if reading the wrong book could get you arrested?
In a decaying city controlled by the First General and his army, expressing the wrong opinion can have terrible consequences. Clara Winter knows this better than anyone. When she was a child, her father was taken by the Authorisation Bureau for the crime of teaching banned books to his students. She is still haunted by his disappearance.
Now Clara teaches at the same university, determined to rebel against the regime that cost her family so much - and her weapons are the banned books her father left behind. But she has started something dangerous, something that brings her to the attention of the Authorisation Bureau and its most feared interrogator, Major Jackson. The same man who arrested Clara's father.
With her rights stripped away, in a country where democracy has been replaced by something more sinister, will she be the next one to disappear?
This has shades of The Man in the High Castle and takes moments from history to define the plot. The result is a read that isn't far-fetched in a sense that it is dystopian but based on scenarios that have already taken place, so in a way it is history repeating itself.
It draws parallels to Nazi Germany for instance, and the way they got rid of everyone who didn't tow the line, aside from all the others on their target list. Also why the general population didn't speak out, help victims and try and fight the system.
Clara's entire life is defined by fear and hesitation since the night her father was taken by the regime. An oppressive regime that controls all actions, words and they even try to control thoughts. They teach their own version of the truth and in doing so have changed the narrative of history.
Her father falls victim to those in control, because he dares to break the rules. He becomes one of the many disappeared. The invisible numbers of people who fall foul of the sadistic monsters in charge of enforcing the rules. You know, the rules that are supposed to keep everyone safe.
Clara slowly learns to deal with the fear and the reader gets to experience the awakening of the inner rebel. When the people she loves fall into the hands of the brutal sadists she finally understands that it is time to stand up and be counted.
I would have liked to have seen Lord focus more on the banned books and banned words aspect of the story, because it was fascinating and hey I'm invested - I'm a bookworm.
It's dystopian fiction influenced by history and politics. The kind of oppressive regime many countries already adhere to and the western world is moving towards. The author paints a frightening picture of a world I certainly don't want to live in.
Buy The Disappeared at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher: Unbound Digital; pub date 2 May 2019. Buy at Amazon com.
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