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A review by vthurgood
The Death House by Sarah Pinborough
2.0
It wasn't obvious to me looking at the cover that this was a YA book, albeit with a dystopian plot reminiscent of Ninni Holmqvist's The Unit. The references in the book to William Golding's Lord of the Flies are an acknowledgment of another tale of a group of teenagers trapped on an island.
Here we are a century in the future (or possibly an alternative present) but in an oddly timeless and deliberately obsolete house where those carrying a particular Defective gene which only manifests itself before the carrier is eighteen are quarantined in dorms until they die. It isn't made clear exactly why the state needs to do this -it's not clear that anyone else is at risk- but we read that the kids are carted off in vans from their happy homes and drugged to allow them to be managed by a group of largely uncaring nurses and pseudo-teachers. The house is a prison where everyone is on death row, the 'sanatorium' the place from which no one returns.
Aside from being a coming of age drama, the book manages to raise the question of the role of religious faith as a consolation in such circumstances, the nature of being kind to those suffering, the 'good death', the dynamics of groups and gallows humour, though some readers may find the treatment slight.
The couple who are the main characters have realized that the vitamins that they are being dosed with are tranquilizers and have stopped taking them, which effectively allows them free range of the house at night. They hatch an escape plot and the last third of the book turns on whether it will be discovered. The ending feels a bit rushed and is probably not the greatest twist ever, but it's a fairly quick read.
Here we are a century in the future (or possibly an alternative present) but in an oddly timeless and deliberately obsolete house where those carrying a particular Defective gene which only manifests itself before the carrier is eighteen are quarantined in dorms until they die. It isn't made clear exactly why the state needs to do this -it's not clear that anyone else is at risk- but we read that the kids are carted off in vans from their happy homes and drugged to allow them to be managed by a group of largely uncaring nurses and pseudo-teachers. The house is a prison where everyone is on death row, the 'sanatorium' the place from which no one returns.
Aside from being a coming of age drama, the book manages to raise the question of the role of religious faith as a consolation in such circumstances, the nature of being kind to those suffering, the 'good death', the dynamics of groups and gallows humour, though some readers may find the treatment slight.
The couple who are the main characters have realized that the vitamins that they are being dosed with are tranquilizers and have stopped taking them, which effectively allows them free range of the house at night. They hatch an escape plot and the last third of the book turns on whether it will be discovered. The ending feels a bit rushed and is probably not the greatest twist ever, but it's a fairly quick read.