Book Jacket:
Twelve-year-old twins, Mika and Ellie, live in a future behind a wall – safe from the plague animals beyond.
Or so they’ve been told.
But when one of them disappears, and the other takes part in a sinister virtual reality game, they begin to discover their concrete world is built on lies.
Determined to find each other again, they go in search of the truth. And as a strange sound in their heads grows to a roar, they find out that children and the planet have never mattered more. An electrifying, aspirational and empowering read for children.
You can read an excerpt here.
Review:
If you took Ender’s Game, mixed in the The Hunger Games, threw in a dash of X-Men and a pinch of WarGames, you’d get close to the crazy, intriguing blend that is The Roar.
At the heart of this book is Mika’s quest to find his twin sister, whom he refuses to believe is dead (despite everyone telling him she is). We, of course, believe him, because the first chapter of this book is Ellie’s attempt to escape her kidnappers, which involves a pod chase that will warm the heart of any Star Wars fan (yes, there is a delicious dab of sci fi to this story). The pure action intro was lots of fun, but I admit it did set up an expectation, for me at least, that Ellie would be narrating the story. And so when the story switched to Mika and stayed there for the bulk of this book, a part of my brain kept waiting (and wanting) to go back to Ellie – but it was a long wait, as we mostly don’t see her again until the end of the book. I did get caught up in Mika’s story, but I couldn’t help but wish that the narrative had been split down the middle. Still, the device does effectively create in the reader a mirror of Mika’s desire to see Ellie again.
The Roar is the first middle grade dystopian I’ve ever read, so I’ll admit I came to this book wondering if a MG could pull off a bleak dystopian wreak of a world – and the answer is a resounding yes. The world building in Roar is phenomenal, from the gargantuan wall to the socio-economic divides, from the fear of animals to the invasive government takeover of Mikka’s school, I loved everything about it. As for the Evil Government Plot – well, yes, it did teeter on cartoonishly evil at times, particularly in terms of the Bad Guy’s heavy handed use of blackmail and extortion, but I still very much enjoyed the twisted games the children were forced to play, and the building revelations as to what it was really all about. The final reveal didn’t entirely blown me away, but it did intrigue me. Ultimately this story is a tale of children being forced to shoulder the consequences of adult mistakes, and it gives this book a powerful resonance with today’s world.
This story does play young, and it is unabashedly action oriented, but there are still very interesting ideas splattered throughout these pages. From ideas of socio-economic disparity to the value of our natural world, from the lies told by politicians to the willingness of people to believe everything we see on television (not to mention the many gleeful allusions to the ideas of truth coming from the mouths of babes and children being our best hope for the future), this book has plenty to say, and all in all it gives this story a nice bit of heft. It may not be cohesive around any particular theme, but this book certainly doesn’t lack for interesting bits and pieces.
That said, sometimes I did have the feeling that Clayton was throwing everything but the kitchen sink at this story, particularly when it came to the mythology. The hodepodge of the kids’ abilities felt, well, a bit haphazard, and I’m not entirely convinced it was all necessary – particularly the mutations, the moving objects with their minds, the shooting pain out their eyes… When the reveal came about as to the reason why the “mutants” were being singled out, I choked on it. I just didn’t buy it, but luckily it didn’t ruin the story for me at all. I felt the same way about the testing, the games Mika has to play – I was on board and massively enjoying the ride right up until they started shooting harpoon guns underwater for no discernible reason, and then once again, I just choked a bit. I also got rather frustrated with the dream sequences, which really add no narrative drive or consequences at all – they were by and large random surrealistic tangents, though eventually they do bring about a very interesting nervous breakdown on the Bad Guy’s part (when he’s forced to see himself through a child’s eyes and it makes him question his own identity), but that’s largely an aside. And how Mika knew, mysteriously, that if he just waited, the perfect teammate for the games would show up, is anybody’s guess. And what the ghost dog was about, I still have no idea. As you can tell, with this book, things just keep coming from all sides, and most often from left field – on the one hand, it really does give this story a fresh feel, because though the elements may be familiar, the blend is undeniably unique, but on the other, there came a point where I felt like the story had to run me over the crumbling bridge that was my suspension of disbelief. It just was altogether a bit…much.
Still, it’s always fun to watch children start off as cogs in an adult world and slowly become the wrench in the works, and while my brain did hitch in places, the relentless pacing of this book kept me from dwelling overmuch. By and large I was easily pulled through this story – I gulped it down in one sitting – but when I closed the back cover, I just wasn’t 100% satisfied with how it all paid off.
In the end, The Roar may be a little hectic, and it doesn’t entirely come together – this book is definitely not up to, say, The Uglies level – but it still makes for an interesting, entertaining read. I will definitely be checking out the sequel.
Byrt grade: B+
As Levar Burton used to say – you don’t have to take my word for it…
…this compulsive read should not be started at bedtime if readers intend to get any sleep. Echoes of Ender’s Game and the Tripod Trilogy lend interest to Clayton’s skillful blending of science-fiction tropes into an original novel.
Clayton keeps the book moving briskly with fresh intrigue and complexity at each level of the game, and the unsolved mysteries made for gripping reader. But for me at least, the story fell apart a bit toward the end–the answers felt a bit anticlimactic–and so I was left a little disappointed. But that is just me. I think many older middle grade kids, and teenagers as well, to say nothing of adults, might well find this gripping and enjoyable right to the end.
If the simple the fact that the story is posed in London in the future doesn’t grab your interest, Emma Clayton’s thrilling sci-fi novel Roar will pull you in on its own. It gives you a fresh new feel, with a touch of Star Wars added, like a delicious dash of exotic spices. Even though it’s from a twelve-year-old’s point of view, I think older readers (including myself, of course) will enjoy this book.
I am loving this book so far.