Genre
Science fiction / Suspense
Setting and Context
Set in the year 2050 on Earth in the Northern Hemisphere.
Narrator and Point of View
The novel is told in third-person point of view by an omniscient narrator.
Tone and Mood
Tone: Serious yet Upbeat
Mood: Dramatic and Suspenseful
Protagonist and Antagonist
The protagonists of the novel are Mika and Ellie while the antagonist is Mal Gorman.
Major Conflict
Ellie is being pursued by Mal Gorman and his men as she attempts to return home while Mika is on a personal journey and seeking to find his sister.
Climax
The climax is when the mutant children realize that the animal plague was false and the southern side is flourishing, unlike the north.
Foreshadowing
“Mika was certain Ellie wasn’t dead. The police had told them just after she disappeared that she must have fallen off the walk-way and drowned in the floodwater. But he couldn’t imagine Ellie ‘falling’ off the walkway – she wasn’t that stupid.”
Understatement
Mal Gorman understates the tenacity and resilience of the mutant children that he wants to place under his control.
Allusions
The novel alludes to Edgar Allan Poe's poem, “The Raven” by having a raven-shaped robot named Nevermore.
Imagery
“The clouds rolled low over Barford North, smothering the light of the moon, and there was a ground-hugging Thames Valley mist, which made the hundreds of refugee towers look as if they were hovering off the ground like tombstones in a spooky, giant graveyard.”
Paradox
N/A
Parallelism
Mika and Ellie are telepathic twins with a connection that even allows them to communicate and share similar experiences.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
N/A
Personification
“…and for a few startled moments, the sun and the sea trembled.”
