The Roar by Emma Clayton

Mika and Ellie live in a future world very different–and far worse–than our own.  The Animal Plague caused humans to destroy almost all animal and plant life before retreating behind the Wall that isolated the Northern Hemisphere from the wasteland to the south.  There is not enough room for everyone.  If you have enough money, you can live in the Golden Towers of London.  The rest live in refugee cities or the Shadows, a flooded, moldy slum beneath the towers. 

Ellie disappeared a year ago, and Mika is the only one who believes she is still alive.  He will do anything to find her again.  When the Youth Development Foundation starts recruiting mutants to compete in violent virtual reality games, Mika signs up even though his gut tells him his whole society is based on lies.  Will he discover the truth and find Ellie before it is too late for them all?

The Roar (Scholastic 2010) by Emma Clayton had me turning pages to find out what would happen next.  There is nonstop action from pod fighter battles to harpoon guns.  The action in the arcades soon spills out into real life, often sooner than any one expected.  The secrets–concealed and revealed–kept me guessing until the last page.   Mika is determined to learn the truth, and to do so, he learns to hide what he knows. 

The ending leaves me wondering.  Is there another book to come?  (It looks like there is a sequel called The Whisper, but it’s not available.)  In some ways I found the ending satisfying, but it definitely leaves open the question of what will come next?  Mika and Ellie reach their full potential, but they haven’t yet discovered what they are capable of.  The children awaken, but what will they do?

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