This can never not be real by Sera Milano

 

FIVE TEENAGERS
WITH NOTHING IN COMMON,
THROWN TOGETHER
BY AN ACT OF TERRORISM,
CAN'T SURVIVE THE NIGHT
WITHOUT EACH OTHER.

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, told from multiple perspectives, as the attackers prowl the festival grounds.

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Five otherwise unremarkable teenagers are enjoying their town's annual festival when, out of nowhere, gunshots start going off. A well planned and executed terror attack ensues, with attackers stalking the survivors and deliberately herding and picking them off.

This is one of those reviews that's really hard to write. Did I enjoy the story? Absolutely; nail biting, terrifying, couldn't put it down. But the way it was written made it harder for me to really sink in and be absorbed.

The bulk of the story is presented as excerpts of the five teen survivors talking to a tribunal, after everything has happened. Occasionally there are inserts from other people, like the responding police officer. Most of it belongs to the kids. But it's not a chapter for Peaches and a chapter for Joe and so on; it's in tiny sections, some as short as a line, none longer than about a page, switching between characters. In a few places, a conversation is shown with the POV switching between each character with each line.

I understand that this technique is supposed to make things more tense and faster paced. For me, personally, it made it harder to be absorbed by the writing, because each time the POV changed I had to look at the header and remind myself which character it was we were following now.

It's a shame, because the story was amazing, and the characters were really great. (It took me a while to figure out Peaches' gender, but that may be just me.) I was really enjoying the action. I think this would make an amazing film, there's several really cinematic scenes, although they might have to invent a reason for the attack; we never get one in the story, because of course the characters aren't going to stop and try to figure it out while they're under fire.

So: I loved the story and characters, I think this would make a great movie, but for me, personally, the way it was written took away from the story as a whole. I think this'll do really well, though, and I can't wait for that.

This can never not be real publishes on the 29th April, 2021. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.