THE FALLEN CHILDREN by David Owen

The Fallen Children has one cover design but 360 different colourways. Each one is numbered from 1 to 360 on the spine. The colour you receive will be completely random.

Young people on the Midwich Estate don't have much hope for their futures. Keisha has lived there her whole life, and has been working hard to escape it; others have just accepted their lot.

But change is coming...

One night everyone inside Midwich Tower falls mysteriously unconscious in one inexplicable 'Nightout'. No one can explain what happened during those lost hours, but soon afterwards Keisha and three other girls find they're pregnant - and the babies are growing at an alarming rate.

As the news spreads around the tower its residents turn against them and the situation spirals toward violence. Keisha's life unravels as she realises that the pregnancy may not have just ruined her hopes for the future: she might be mother to the end of the world.

I have to admit that I've never read The Midwich Cuckoos, but I have seen The Village of the Damned, so I do have a clue about the main story elements tying into this book. And I was very interested in checking it out.

The Midwich Tower houses a lot of people. The kinds of people society sometimes forgets. The kinds of people who constantly face economic struggles. The kids are judged even more harshly than the adults, because no one expects them to have an actual future.

Yet, the night when everyone inside the tower falls asleep at the same time, something weird happens. Most have no idea what happened but soon after, three teenagers and one woman find out they're pregnant. Someone--or something--violated the four and they suddenly find themselves facing the consequences, as well as the judgemental residents who know something weird has happened and fear the girls. After the babies are born and grow unnaturally fast, the fear soon turns to anger. If these four are going to survive they'll have to stick together, which isn't as easy as it sounds when they face so many internal and external obstacles...

Yikes. This book hooked me in from the very beginning. As soon as the story starts, the ominous feeling creeps through and doesn't stop until the very last word.

The story is told in the alternating POV of Keisha, Siobhan, Maida and Morris. Each teen gives the story its own perspective and delves deep into how this is affecting each one individually and as a group.

Keisha has tried so hard to be a good student, by distancing herself from her friends, to hopefully escape a dead-end future. Morris can't catch a break, has borrowed money from dangerous people and desperately wants to get back with Keisha. Siobhan doesn't trust that Keisha won't bail out on their friendship again and hates the predicament she's now in. Maida has very strict and religious parents she wants to defy and escape, and maybe this is her chance.

While I enjoyed all the POVs because they help round out the story so well, my favourite was Keisha. She tried so hard to become more than everyone expects and is doing so well, but the universe has other plans for her. Plans she never expected or wanted, but link her to the others deeper than she ever imagined.

I loved how the realness of everyone's living standards, and the daily pressures they put up with, is balanced out by the bizarre events that change all of their lives. The children are super creepy but I also felt sorry for them. None of what happened is their fault, or their mothers' fault, but circumstance forces them to play their part to survive.

The Fallen Children is a fast-paced, often violent, yet always intoxicating story. I struggled to put it down because I just had to know what was going to happen next. The air of mystery throughout kept me turning the pages because I couldn't get enough. It's part contemporary, part SciFi, part supernatural, and totally awesome.

Oh, and the design I received was 131/360, which is the blue cover.

I can't help but wonder if there's going to be a sequel...

The Fallen Children, May 2017, ISBN 9780349002699, Atom