This Can Never Not Be Real
By Sera Milano
Blurb
In the unremarkable town of Amberside, the unthinkable has happened: Terrorists have attacked a local festival. No one knows why, and no one knows who the attackers are, but that doesn’t matter. What matters first is survival. And what matters after that is survival, too.
In this brilliantly written account of hope, humour and humanity, five ordinary teenagers are caught up in a truly extraordinary situation. It’s a heart-pounding and gripping account of the fight for survival as the attackers prowl the festival grounds, told from multiple perspectives.
This is a book for anyone facing the barrage of bleak reports that fill our newsfeeds and for anyone who needs to see that behind the hate that makes the headlines, there is always love.
Our Review
This Can Never Not Be Real is a sensational book, so good that it kept me up until 4.30AM reading.
This book begins with the testimonies of Joe, Violet, Peaches and Ellie at a bonfire and firework display at Historic Hearne House.
Joe was with his friends, Violet was with her mother and her brother Ade, Peaches was watching from the lighting bridge and Ellie was dancing to the music in front of everyone.
Peaches was one of the first ones to spot that something wasn’t right.
“At the end of the trail: two of them. Both in black, hooded, with scarves tied up over the lower parts of their faces. They had huge guns in their hands; rifles or something. The kind you hardly think are real because you only see them in movies and games.”
It was tense and emotive, thrilling and heart- wrenching. I felt like I was facing down a terrorist with them all.
“They’d stopped firing so indiscriminately by then. The crowd was thinning in places and packing tighter in others, and as I put one foot in front of the other to climb down the gantry ladder, I could see their tactics change. They were choosing targets. Picking people off. Hunting.”
One of the things I love the most about This Can Never Not Be Real was that the focus wasn’t on the terrorists and their motives, rather it was on the people caught up in the disaster.
“I don’t want you to care, either. Not about the men with guns. But I want you to care about us, and the people who were with us. The ones who were less lucky.”
This is an essential read.
Our Final Rating...
Read & Shared 15 Times.
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