THE LOOP

As the government harvests young people for energy and experimentation, one group of teens fights to reclaim their bodies—and tries not to lose their minds in the process.

In a futuristic, dystopian society run by an Overseer reminiscent of President Donald Trump (or perhaps Boris Johnson since the debut author is Scottish), there are the poor, less privileged Regulars and the cyborg Altereds, whose money buys them status and a better, bioengineered body. To sustain the Alts’ high-tech lifestyle and bodies, the government harvests energy from and experiments on inmates in the death row prison, the Loop. Inmate Luka Kane, 16, a Regular who was imprisoned for an undisclosed crime, narrates this taut, SF thriller and trilogy opener. Following thorough descriptions of society’s ideologies and Luka’s intense situation is nonstop action. Rumors of an uprising and the unexplained shutdown of Happy, the World Government’s operating system, give Luka and fellow inmates—all of whom have features their society deems imperfect—the chance to break out. In an even more hostile environment on the outside, they fight for independence amid violence, murder, and unexpected twists and turns. Readers must figure out ever changing government controls along with Luka; one of these open-ended surprises sets the scene for the next volume. Luka has dark skin, and the cast is ethnically diverse; Alts are White.

A script-ready story with blockbuster potential.