20 Years Later

[sawyl]

Interrupting my write-ups of Emma Newman's The Split World, which inevitably require more thought, here's something on 20 Years Later, Newman's post-apocalyptic YA novel set two decades after a mysterious disease killed the majority of the world's population. The principal characters are in post-incident teens living and the action is set in and around Bloomsbury, where Zane and his mother Miri live uneasily balanced between two rival gangs.

The action begins when Dev, one of the Bloomsbury Boys with something to prove, sees a light in the old hospital. After recruiting Zane to help him investigate, Dev stumbles across a giant with a blocky head and loud, raspy breathing. Sadly, this news doesn't really seem to interest the rest of the gang and Dev comes up with a new plan: to steal one of the Red Lady's territory markers. This doesn't come off as expected and Zane only escapes with the help of Callum, an old-timer who knows every local shortcut. Possibly as a result of this, Zane comes to the attention of the Red Lady herself and foolishly accepts her offer to let him train with her champion — something the risks the balance Miri has established between the Boys and the Red Lady's gang of hunters.

Events are catalysed when Titus and his sister Lyssa arrive in the square. After an unpleasant skirmish with the Bloomsbury Boys, Lyssa vanishes, the Boys' leader Jay is injured, and Titus suffers broken ribs. Zane, who seems to have a way with injuries, helps Titus to recover and two become firm friends. When Luthor, the Red Lady's champion, arrives with his daughter Erin in tow, Titus and Zane realise that the three all have an identical bruise on their arm and share the same memory of training with Luthor. Gradually Zane and Titus come to realise that they have extraordinary abilities, which they try to hide from those around them, and that they might be able to use them to recover Titus' sister from the Unders, the gang they believe may have snatched her away.

Newman does an excellent job of conjuring up a world of post-apocalpytic squares and decaying buildings, where life is uncertain and there is a special place for anyone who knows anything about medicine and who is willing to help those in need. The characters are well drawn and authentically flawed. The teens are often impulsive — Zane has a tendency to gabble in the presence of the Red Lady — but they're also committed to their principles — Titus is absolutely determined to save his sister while Zane is genuinely horrified by the idea of violence and appalled by the idea of doctors who don't heal. The adults are a similar mix: Miri, especially, has found the strength to survive the newly primitive world whilst maintaining an ability to deny uncomfortable truths that are right in front of her.

While the story is self-contained and the principle plot lines are resolved in a satisfactory fashion, many important threads — the nature of Erin's super-power, the reason for the Red Lady's interest in Titus and Zane, the source of the logo on the Russell Hotel — are left dangling in a way that the epilogue suggests may be resolved in another book. Let's hope so!