The Outrage

"This is one of those incredible books that once you’ve read it, you can’t not think about it afterwards. It is set in a dystopian future England, it’s very specifically England, where we’ve gone backwards in terms of LGBTQ+ rights. So it’s now illegal to be gay, along with lots of other things that differentiate people. It’s very patriarchal, it’s frowned upon to be non-white, to be of a different religion, to be anything other than what is the acceptable white, male, cisgender, middle-class stereotype. The book is all about teenagers, which is always the best vehicle for dystopian novels exposing society. It’s brilliant, because the teenagers are trying to unpick that, they’re trying to make it better, they kind of make their own resistance. They discover all the stuff that they can no longer get hold of: banned films and banned books, some that we are very familiar with now and that are very popular. It’s a real insight into what life could be like or was like for the LGBTQ+ community in a time when it was illegal or very much socially prejudiced against being anything other than a heterosexual, cisgender person in society. Definitely. But it’s an incredible thriller as well. The appeal of it isn’t just the LGBTQ+ content, it’s very exciting. It’s 1984 meets The Handmaid’s Tale with a rainbow twist. It is an incredibly powerful story, one that you can’t not finish. Because with a dystopian novel, especially if you know 1984 you know that doesn’t end happily, so you’re driven by wanting to know what is going to happen. I’ve been privileged enough to host an author event with William Hussey, and what he knows and what he talks about with history and the rights of the LGBTQ+ community is incredible. So this is one of those books that really needs to be shouted about. It not only includes a gay couple—two boys—but we’ve got a trans character in there as well, who I think is incredibly well done. As soon as this character announces that they are in the wrong gender, that they want to be known as a different name, straight away the main character jumps on that and they go from being Albert to being Alice and the change of the pronouns. I think that sets a really good example."