No Passengers Beyond This Point

Here for a change is a teenage novel unlike any other. Starting with that most recurring of current clichés, whereby young characters are shown having to cope with a sudden and initially unwanted relocation to somewhere remote in the country, things then take a wholly unexpected turn. Half way through the journey to their new home, the flight that the three American siblings are on makes an unscheduled stop at a strange place which initially looks like some sort of paradise. Each child is welcomed as if they were a very special sort of star, with everyone apparently knowing about all their particular strengths and ambitions. But there is something not quite right about the new society they are moving into, whose smiling outer face takes on a different and more sinister complexion should it ever be challenged. Teenage India, aged 14, still accepts everything there at face value, but her younger brother and clever infant sister soon smell a rat and try to make their escape. At this stage, every reader will realise that what is really happening here is a battle between life and giving in to easeful death in the intervening moments between the plane crashing and the children concerned struggling to survive in real life. Well written, sometimes eccentric, this strange story is not always easy to follow but is certainly worth the effort.