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A review by flying_monkey
Bridge 108 by Anne Charnock
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Anne Charnock's latest is set in the same climate breakdown-altered world as A Calculated Life, and there are even a few direct intersections with the lives of the characters in that book. However, whereas the former book has an exploited protagonist who dreams of escape, Bridge 108 is all about escape, and how it is rarely an improvement when you're already at the bottom of society.
The story focuses mostly on Caleb, an immigrant from Spain (perhaps), who is trafficked to the vastly unequal future Britain and who we first meet working for a gang of recyclers in an enclave reserved for the unaugmented who constitute the lowest level of society. Caleb and and his journey remains the focus of the book but we also get glimpses of the view from other characters' point of view, including a trafficker and an undercover immigration investigator. The problem is that these other characters are mostly incidental to the novel and disappear - their involvement isn't really satisfyingly resolved, and indeed the story finishes in an open-ended but possibly hopeful way (much like A Calculated Life) but after a somewhat unrealistic bit of plotting.
I don't think this is as good as A Calculated Life; largely because of the lack of focus on Caleb's point of view we never get to know him, feel with him, in the same way as the protagonist of that previous work. But it's still worth reading for its portrayal of a very depressingly realistic near-future Britain.
The story focuses mostly on Caleb, an immigrant from Spain (perhaps), who is trafficked to the vastly unequal future Britain and who we first meet working for a gang of recyclers in an enclave reserved for the unaugmented who constitute the lowest level of society. Caleb and and his journey remains the focus of the book but we also get glimpses of the view from other characters' point of view, including a trafficker and an undercover immigration investigator. The problem is that these other characters are mostly incidental to the novel and disappear - their involvement isn't really satisfyingly resolved, and indeed the story finishes in an open-ended but possibly hopeful way (much like A Calculated Life) but after a somewhat unrealistic bit of plotting.
I don't think this is as good as A Calculated Life; largely because of the lack of focus on Caleb's point of view we never get to know him, feel with him, in the same way as the protagonist of that previous work. But it's still worth reading for its portrayal of a very depressingly realistic near-future Britain.