If I Could Fly

A dystopian world in which disease is spreading necessitates the sectioning of society into zones by a totalitarian government. This is the backdrop for Calypso’s flight, but just what she needs to flee from is not revealed until the end of a gripping story which twists and turns just like Calypso, a fine athlete, as she runs from danger.

Finding refuge in a disused hospital, Calypso begins to build a home within its walls, comforting herself for the loss of her mother whose injunction to her to flee resonates in her head, but from what and why she can’t recall. The threat of lurking danger interlocks with the more recognisable danger of what will happen to her should she be apprehended by the authorities. She is befriended and helped by Dair, an older man, and then by Alfie, a boy nearer to her in age, but they too have strange secrets. Calypso is an engaging heroine, whose mysterious and troubling circumstances will maintain the interest of readers.

Hucklesby maintains the pace and sense of mystery right up to the gripping conclusion. It is a finely-told tale incorporating a sad and realistic family situation with an unsettling world that is both familiar and unfamiliar.