Reviews

The Survival Game by Nicky Singer

carolyn0613's review against another edition

5.0

Mhairi has left the Sudan while the world is in turmoil due to global climate change. She is trying to get back to Scotland, to the Isle of Arran where she was born and where her grandmother lives. She loses everything and sees death first hand. This book is terrifying. It asks such powerful questions like - what will the world be like when climate change makes everything different? What rules and laws will be put into place to prevent anarchy and will anarchy happen anyway? The book is about how a young person copes with severely traumatic events by divorcing herself from her feeling but how her human nature cannot be put aside. She knows that looking after the young boy she finds along the road is foolish but she can't help looking after him just as he can't help needing her. I would highly recommend this book for the older young adult reader and adults also. It is very well written and I couldn't put it down.

drsldn's review against another edition

5.0

This is one of the best books I have read in a long time (YA or adult). It deals with complex issues in a nuanced and thoughtful way. It is carefully plotted, and beautifully written. I think it should be required reading at all schools and I am going to recommend it to everyone I can think of.

miamelone's review against another edition

2.0

Ich mochte die kurze Art die Kapitel zu halten aber die abgehackte Art zu schreiben fand ich etwas anstrengend. Ich finde das Buch hätte noch viel mehr zum Nachdenken anregen können aber die mini Society auf der Insel hätte auch in einer komplett anderen Dystopie spielen können ohne wirklich einen Unterschied zu machen und das fand ich ein wenig schade... Ja das war bei einigen Themen des Buches so.. Sie hätten noch mehr auf das Klimawandel Thema eingehen können (meiner Meinung nach)

alongreader's review against another edition

4.0

A terrifyingly plausible look into our future. Mhairi is a great heroine, and I love Mo.

I always enjoy reading apocalypse books, mostly because I'm fairly sure I'd never make it in that kind of situation. I would never be able to make the kinds of decisions Mhairi makes in this novel, and I really enjoyed watching her go through them. She was resourceful and clever and I'd love to read more about her and this world.


Receiving an ARC did not alter my review in any way.

carolineroche's review against another edition

5.0

About 40 years in the future and global warming has made much of the equatorial regions uninhabitable. Hordes of refugees are travelling north and the northern countries have closed their borders. Mhairi’s parents were working in Sudan so they try to make their way back to Scotland where they have rights of residence. But it’s a tough world and her parents die. Mhairi has to make it through on her own facing danger with every step. A taut and engrossing dystopian novel about an all too real future.

chloebloom's review against another edition

5.0

This captivating dystopian YA surprised me with how captivating it was. Using a unique narrative voice, Nicky Singer tells a story of resilience and hope against all odds. Atmospheric and haunting, I simply couldn’t put this book down. An uncomfortable and tragic tale which manages to relay the harrowing events without being overly graphic.
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this powerful and important story.

adyy's review against another edition

emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Violence

bearsrock's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Interesting the way it made me think about current events/issues.

anniii1711's review against another edition

3.0

I think I could have liked this book more if I knew more. More lore. But it felt short, despite it's actual length

mandyist's review against another edition

5.0

Have you ever read a book in one breath? Have you ever drawn a sharp intake of air in the opening pages and then held it right until the end, barely able to move or tear your eyes away from the devastation on the pages in front of you? This is what it felt like when I was reading Nicky Singer’s post-apocalyptic The Survival Game.

The Survival Game is one of those rare novels. Beautifully written, it is a book that will drag you along through every emotion possible as you try to fathom how devastatingly plausible the entire story is.

Our protagonist is 14-year-old Mhairi, a girl who has travelled alone from the Sudan and is making her way across Britain to her home in Scotland. Except that it might not be her home anymore; the world as we know it consists of closed borders and checkpoints, each country cutting itself off in the face of catastrophic environmental devastation and global human migration. This is our world a mere 30 years in the future and it is not pretty.

Mhairi owns nothing except the clothes on her back, a gun with no bullets and her papers that prove her right to be in Scotland. All she needs to do is to keep heading north and she will eventually get there, to her home.

“Today I wonder if this is what home is: walking somewhere where you don’t need a map. Where the landscape is laid in your heart”

Her position is precarious for this is a world in which crimes or misdemeanours result in years deducted from your predetermined time on this earth and the very last thing anyone should be doing is picking up an illegal ‘alien’ on their travels. Except that this is exactly what Mhairi does when she meets a mute child and puts her entire journey in jeopardy.

What follows is a battle between the will for survival and the basic human qualities of love and morality because what is the point of survival if we don’t live our lives right?

The Survival Game is an astonishing story of survival, meaningfulness and morality in a world pushed to the brink by global shortages. It is also a book about layers and details, so meticulously researched that you will find yourself appreciating every bite of food you take and every, single drop of water.

I give The Survival Game by Nicky Singer a superb five out of five stars and predict that this will be among my top five books of 2018.

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