Review: This Fragile Earth, by Susannah Wise

Blurb

Not long from now, in a recognisable yet changed London, Signy and Matthew lead a dull, difficult life. They’ve only really stayed together for the sake of their six year old son, Jed. But they’re surviving, just about. Until the day the technology that runs their world stops working. Unable to use their phones or pay for anything, Matthew assumes that this is just a momentary glitch in the computers that now run the world.

But then the electricity and gas are cut off. Even the water stops running. And the pollination drones – vital to the world, ever since the bees all died – are behaving oddly. People are going missing. Soldiers are on the
streets. London is no longer safe.

A shocking incident sends Signy and Jed on the run, desperate to flee London and escape to the small village where Signy grew up. Determined to protect her son, Signy will do almost anything to survive as the world falls apart around them. But she has no idea what is waiting for them outside the city…

My Review

Thanks to Anne for organising this blog tour and to the author and publisher for my copy of the book and the delightful tea, honey and knitted bee.

In a near future where bees have been replaced by pollination drones and all the trees have lost their leaves because of a blight. Signy and Matthew live in London with their six-year-old son Jed. One day the electricity and gas goes off, then the shops run out of food, and the military are called in.

Signy wants to go to her mum’s in Northamptonshire, Matt wants to stay in London because ‘it’ll be alright’. When a house invasion changes plans, Signy and Jed head out on her old-fashioned peddle bicycle with a few supplies to travel the 84 miles ‘home’. It turns out to be harder than expected.

I was gripped by this book, I read it in 5 hours on my birthday. The relationship between Signy and Jed is close but antagonistic at times, and Signy is clearly longing for her old friend Gethin, who Matt is jealous of.

I found the characterisation complex and the main characters sympathetic. Signy does what she thinks is best but is obsessive at times. Matt has clearly has a hand in her loss of confidence and their relationship is unhealthy. Her perception of reality is hazy at times, she can be a terribly unreliable narrator. Jed brings her back to reality often enough, and Gethin’s arrival helps to ground her. The vision of a naked woman walking among trees in the final pages made me cry. Her brain is clearly struggling with reality and it comes across well. I wasn’t sure if the finale was real or her way of dying?

The worldbuilding was very convincing. This book is scarily realistic in a dystopian way. The background normalisation of Chinese dominance and life being entirely under the control of technology is totally convincing. The machines running everything and the explanations, provided by Jed and later Gethin are plausible. I love the concept of singing to control the machines.

I was thoroughly captivated by this novel and stayed up very, very late on a week night to finish it all in one sitting. The writing is fluid and the words pass by quickly.

Highly recommended.

Author Bio

SUSANNAH WISE is an actor and writer who grew up in London and the Midlands. The death of her father in 2015 was the catalyst for THIS FRAGILE EARTH. His preoccupation with astronomy and the beauty of the night sky formed the jumping-off point for the story. Susannah studied at the Faber
Academy, graduating in September 2018, during which time she wrote a second, more peculiar novel. Both books have been longlisted for the Mslexia prize. She lives in London with her partner and son.