Days Like This by Alison Stewart

Title: Days Like This

Author: Alison Stewart

Genre:  Young Adult/ Science Fiction? 

Publisher:  Penguin Australia  

Publication Date:  1st August 2011 

ISBN: 9780143206545

Stand alone or series: Stand Alone

Pages: 308 pages

Book Received from: Publisher (Penguin Australia)

First Lines: Lily and Kieran broke free of the mass of people and sped along, swerving and skidding; navigating the rubble.

Synopsis:

She has to escape.
But who else is out there?
And can anyone survive days like this?

I want to go back to the days when life made sense. The days before our parents became strange; before the warming ate away at all the living things in the world; before The Committee and their Blacktroopers. Before the Wall.
Lily is a prisoner in her own home. Forced to stay inside by The Committee and guarded by their increasingly distant parents, Lily and her brother Daniel are beginning to ask why. Then, when Daniel disappears just before his seventeenth birthday, Lily knows she is next.

My Thoughts:
I was really excited to read this one when it turned up on my doorstep.  The synopsis on the back ropes you in and the cover is gorgeous.  I hadn't come across an Australian Dystopian before so I was definitely looking forward to getting into this.

Alison does a great job of giving you enough description of the landscape of Sydney without bombarding you with too much information.  I found it easy to imagine it as a barren land with a giant wall dividing the privileged from the rest of the town.  It's kind of scary to think of Australia as anything but how it is though.

The storyline itself focuses on Lily and her family who live in the privileged area.  From three years ago the kids are banned from going outside as it's too 'dangerous', but that is all the explanation they get.  The Blacktroopers are a group of masked individuals used as security from the committee and are feared.  Being trapped inside they see glimpses of what this group is capable of on the outside and learn to be wary and not cross them.

I was really drawn into this right from the beginning.  There are so many questions I needed answered and it had me guessing alot of the time where it was headed.  I must admit there was maybe once or twice I wanted to grab Lily and shake some sense into her but at the same time, her actions were fully justified when considering her situation.   

All in all, loved the story!  The writing is done well and left me wanting to read more of Alison's writing!  I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for any future books she will publish!