Level 2

Felicia Ward dies one day short of her 18th birthday. And that’s when her story begins. For this is a posthumous novel, set in a world that isn’t heaven and is known as Level 2. Here the dead live in hives. They visit memory chambers where they must relive the memories of their own past lives, or where they can rent the memories of others. There is a trade of memories between the dead, a kind of Lovefilm of the deceased – but the memories traded must nearly all be positive, no Tarantino stuff here.

Felicia has been living – if that’s the word – in an all-female hive. Suddenly the place is disrupted when a boy named Julian breaks in. He has come to take Felicia out of the hive. She now becomes aware of a conflict in progress. The Morati are a group of angels who set up the trade in memories in order to prevent the hive-dwellers from reflecting on their negative memories and thus graduating to Level 3. The Morati are being opposed by the Rebels, for whom Julian is acting.

Felicia must decide whether to take sides in the war between the Morati and the Rebels. She must also choose where her personal interest lies, with her boyfriend Neil, who still inhabits the world of the living, or with Julian, whom she likes less but who has the huge advantage of being dead. Both boys have roles in Felicia’s back story, revealed little by little as the plot unwinds.

The strength of this unusual novel lies in its characterisation. Felicia, Julian and Neil are all powerful and likeable characters. However the book’s weakness is its narrative pace. The reader must plough through close to 150 pages before even learning that there is a war going on. The narrative pace is simply too leisurely to command attention. A relatively simple basic assumption about death and the hereafter is complicated by too much extraneous detail. The idea of a market in memories is a compelling notion and could have been developed in a less obstructed manner. It would be of great interest to those politicians who believe the market is the key to everything.

One of the controversial features of the book is the segment of Felicia’s memories devoted to recollection of the chastity teaching of a Christian upbringing – a didactic theme that might alienate non-believers.