Three Bullets by Melvin Burgess

The Bloods are in control and they’re desperate to turn Britain into the world they want to see: right, white, Christian supremist. Anyone who they call abnormal is a target. Amidst the chaos of civil war the country is on the move as small militia groups fight each other and a sea of refugees escapes the cities and the pursuing Bloods.

When her home is destroyed in a bombing raid, Marti must strike out on a mission of her own - to save her father and get his vital software into the right hands. But Marti is mixed race and trans and has her three-year-old brother in tow. Crossing into enemy territory could prove suicidal. Yet Marti's enemies haven't reckoned with her indomitable will to survive - and the gun she carries, which has three bullets . . .

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Three Bullets is one of those stories that drops you right in the middle and lets you figure out the backstory from little bits of information here and there. It took me a long time to get a good picture of what was going on, to be honest.

I found that a lot of the language in this book was very crude. The narrator says straight up at the start that we won't like her, and when she muses nonchalantly that her foster sister would definitely be raped if their enemies caught her, I found that I didn't like her at all. That didn't get better for most of the novel; I understood her more, but I never really liked her. It takes skill, of course, to write a character like that.

I think this would be a great novel for schools, showing where intolerance can lead, but at present it would need a lot of bowdlerising to make it palatable for parents and teachers. A shame, because it has a lot to say that needs saying. 

Three Bullets publishes on the 1st July 2021. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.