Blackout ~ Kit Mallory

For 16-year-old Skyler, fear is a way of life.

Ever since the Wall split the UK in two, her survival as an illegal Northern refugee in the South has been a relentless knife-edge balance between evading the brutal, corrupt Board and clinging to her reputation as the South's best hacker. 

But Skyler's sick of living in fear - and she's got nothing left to lose. So when fellow Northerner Mackenzie unwittingly hands her a chance to exact revenge on the regime that destroyed her home and family, she seizes it.

She's about to start a fire.

Shortlisted for the 2016 Mslexia Children's Novel Competition and longlisted for the 2016 Bath Children's Novel Award, BLACKOUT is a story of resistance, friendship and survival.

Book Review:

A couple of months ago, Kit Mallory, reached out to me and asked if she could send me an ARC of her debut novel Blackout. She informed me that it had a badass female lead and a dystopian world. I looked at her Goodreads page and agreed to read and review it. However, I am going to be completely honest in this review, even though she was generous enough to send me a copy. 

When I received the book in the mail and read the back,  I realized that this would not have been a book that I would have bought had I just read the back. However, I am so glad that I read it! I haven't read any dystopian novels since The Hunger Games and Divergent fads while I was in high school. Also, I haven't read many books set in other countries. I usually find them hard to picture in my head when I read them. With Blackout, I was vividly able to picture this divided UK, particularly the South, and found the dystopian feel reminding me why I used to love books like this. 

I did have a few issues with the book, though. One of my qualms was that I found it hard to really get to know the characters. That may be because it is the first in a series and building the world and the history of the characters was slightly more important than the reader obtaining a deeper connection with the characters. I do feel as though I obtained more of an understanding of both Kit and Mack during the flashbacks though and I did really feel myself connecting with them during those moments. Some of my other qualms are more to deal with specific plot points that I cannot mention without spoiling parts of the book. However, the few qualms that I did have do not outweigh my enjoyment for the book as a whole.  

I loved that there was mental illness representation in Mack's character and am curious how he is going to cope with the change that I imagine will be coming in book two. It was also great to have some LGBTQ representation with the female/female relationship. I do believe that this is the first book I have read with that dynamic. I have read a few with female/female relationships within side characters but never in the core group. I am excited to see how that relationship is going to prevail or decline as the series goes on. 

I am very excited for the coming books in the series. And I think that it is awesome that Kit Mallory is self-publishing; showing other readers and writers that you don't have to wait for some big company to finally read your work in order to become a badass author. Also, girl power!

I've included the Amazon link to purchase the book. It is out tomorrow!

Pages: 360                                                                                                                                Rate: 5/5