Description
I am a Lotto Girl. I should not be here. Why haven't they come for me?
Fern Marlow is alone, datawiped and in hiding. Her mobie says she's Delia Greene, a ReCorp refuse sorter. Every day she queues to work, to earn just enough to stay alive. Every night she dreams of the past and the life she's meant to be living, back at Halston, an exclusive school for those wealthy enough – or lucky enough – to be genetically designed.
Her rescuers said her former life was a lie, that she can trust no one. They also said they'd come back for her, and they haven't.
Fern doesn't know who to believe. To uncover the truth, and save herself, Fern must answer the one question she can't face. Is she special?
Review
Set in a futuristic world that is very grim. So grim that you have to queue to be accepted to sort rubbish in order to earn data that allows you the things you need to survive.
Fern Marlow has been datawiped, but is she really the girl of her memories who attended the exclusive Halston school as a lotto girl, a girl genetically designed to be Special after her parents won a lottery. And if so, why is she here?
More importantly, will those who claimed they were rescuing her and told her to lie low in this awful place, ever come back for her? Who can she trust?
But what defines someone as Special and what lengths would or should we go to achieve this status?
This novel tackles many themes—trust, what makes you who you are, the environment, corporate responsibility and the future.
A great classroom novel that is fine for lower secondary students, but will be best appreciated by a middle secondary reader.
Reviewed by Rob
