THE FIFTH

Citizens rebel against a British dictatorship and military forces that incarcerate people with dark skin in this dystopian novel.

Nearly a decade ago, Jack and Jenny Brackstone’s father left his family to avoid being sent to a prison camp simply because he was Iranian. As their mother is a government official, the siblings are relatively safe. But once the prime minister disbands Parliament, they must evade armed Patrol officers. While fleeing, Jack and Jenny split up. She winds up in the tunnels underneath York and surprisingly reunites with her father, who’s now part of The Fifth, a resistance group. The Fifth trains members in martial arts and weapons to combat the Booted Troops marching above them. Jack and his mother, meanwhile, take refuge with the British Liberation Army in Scotland. As Jenny tries harnessing her mental and physical strength to prove herself, Jack, as a BLA cadet, endures bullies. Although both The Fifth and the BLA are anti-government, their alliance isn’t exactly stable since not everyone is trustworthy. A battle between the rebels and soldiers seems unavoidable, and the Brackstones will have to fight to bring their family back together. Sykes delivers a distinctive but understated social novel. For example, he largely implies the racial-fueled hostility behind the prison camps. Similarly, there are few profanities and no lingering on the violence during the tale’s periodic action sequences. Still, certain scenes are potent. The Fifth raids a government-sponsored lab that cruelly experiments on gorillas, and a particularly distraught character resorts to self-mutilation. While the author’s pithy writing keeps the story moving, Sykes truly excels at unexpected turns regarding both the plot and cast. Some characters, for example, aren’t as amiable as they seem, and more than one death is genuinely shocking. This book, even with its stark ending, could either be a stand-alone or a series opener.

A remarkable tale of the frightening consequences of hatred and discrimination.