The Roar

The Roar by British novelist Emma Clayton was published in 2008. It is a middle-grade, post-apocalyptic science fiction novel set in the British Isles. Clayton’s world is rife with lies and conspiracies, with mutant children and authoritarianism, but at its core, it’s a story of the bond between siblings and the lengths to which they will go to remain together. The Roar is the first of a two-book series, the second of which, The Whisper, was published in 2012.

Plot Summary

In Clayton’s dystopian future, most of the world lives behind a massive wall, protection, they’ve been told, from an animal plague 50 years ago and from the toxic aftermath of eradicating the animals and their natural habitats.

Twelve-year-old Ellie Smith escapes from captivity aboard an orbiting space station, desperate to reunite with her family who’ve been told she is dead. She is shot down over The Shadows—a neglected slum in London—and recaptured. Meanwhile, her twin brother, Mika, feels his sister’s Pod Fighter crash into the water; his lungs are crushed by the pressure, and his parents rush him to the hospital. Ellie is pulled from the wreckage of the Pod Fighter, and Mika recovers.

Mika, convinced Ellie is still alive, carries her favorite “holopic” of a group of mountain lions with him as a reminder. He sees Helen, a sympathetic therapist and tells her his dreams of malevolent creatures with television heads and that he’s certain his sister is alive.

At school, everyone is given Fit Mix, a growth supplement, but Mika refuses to take it. When his family is fined by the government, he finally complies. All the children are forced to take Fit Mix and engage in grueling physical conditioning.

Meanwhile, the government opens a shiny new gaming arcade in The Shadows, and kids soon become hooked on Pod Fighter, the latest interactive game. When the Youth Development Foundation (YDF) announces a contest—prizes to include a new hovercar and a home in the luxurious Golden Turrets—nearly every kid signs up, including Mika, who believes the contest is the only way for him to reunite with Ellie. Mika and his gaming partner Audrey quickly advance to successive rounds of the contest, even winning his family a faux, Caribbean-style vacation in the process. It soon becomes apparent, however, that the contest is a ruse, and its real purpose is to recruit the most skilled mutant children—those born with genetic mutations—to fight a war on behalf of the Northern Government.

As the contest moves into its final round—at Cape Wrath on the cliffs of Scotland—and the contestants are whittled down to 12, the “games” become tests of the children’s psychic abilities. For this last round, contestants are blindfolded, placed in a cage, and lowered into a pit filled with ferocious robotic wolves. Mika, however, senses these “borg” wolves will not harm him, and in fact, they become docile in his presence. Mika is now closer than ever to Ellie. Mal Gorman, the Minister for Youth Development and overseer of the contest, sees great potential in Mika and uses threats and coercion to keep him in line. Mika and Audrey are eventually declared grand prize winners, and their families move into the Golden Turrets.

The contest, however, is far from over, and Gorman threatens to evict the children’s families if they don’t swear allegiance to him. The YDF conducts broad sweeps of The Shadows, taking hundreds of thousands of children and fitting them with implants as soldiers for their war. The parents, however, enraged by the loss of their children as well as their pent-up frustration over their deplorable living conditions, riot. They storm the Golden Turrets, trashing the luxury apartments and sending the residents fleeing. Mika and Audrey escape the riots in a pod fighter and fly over The Wall. There, they discover lush forests and thriving wildlife, not the toxic wasteland they had been warned about. Mika, desperate to find his sister, fulfills his promise to Gorman and returns to Cape Wrath. There, Gorman tells him the truth, that The Plague was an elaborate hoax designed to preserve the natural world from human abuse...but only for the ultra-rich.

Gorman, convinced that Mika will cooperate, reunites him with Ellie. As they are transported back to their parents, Mika sends a psychic message to all the captive children at Cape Wrath, rousing them from their slumber with dreams of the world beyond The Wall. The resistance has begun.