A review by chriscole
Rife: Twenty-One Stories from Britain's Youth by Nikesh Shukla, Sammy Jones

4.0

Such a difficult one to review. There are some really incredibly written essays in here, my favourite actually being the last one written by Tom Greenslade. A really powerful comment on the intergenerational divide in society that manages to hit all the right emotional beats without straying too far into preaching or whining (something that, unfortunately, happened with quite a few other essays).

I really got the sense that, even though these essays are written by people aged 16-24, some of them really strayed too far into angsty teen for me and lacked the nuance and balance needed for the essay topics themselves. It's understandable for some of the essays and their topics but it was too prevalent for me to rate this any higher than 4 stars.

Definitely worth a read. It is so refreshing for me to read young British voices and hear first-hand the struggles and issues they face socially and economically. It feels like a real snapshot of British youth today.

Thanks to Unbound and NetGalley for providing me with a copy for review.