BZRK by Michael Grant

This new offering from Michael Grant isn’t the latest in the Gone series, though the covers are so similar you’d be forgiven for thinking so. Instead, it is BZRK, the first in a sci-fi thriller trilogy about a global war on a microscopic scale. Nanobots and biots are tiny bug-like devices controlled by people called twitchers, and they’re used to invade your body: almost invisible, they tap into your brain to rewire it and learn your secrets.

On one side of the battle is BZRK, with newly recruited twitchers Plath and Keats. On the other side is the Armstrong Fancy Gifts Corporation and their employees Bug Man and Burnofsky. AFGC wants to change the world into a giant hive mind, where everybody thinks and feels the same. BZRK wants to stop them. But who will win?

As you’d expect from Michael Grant, BZRK is a gripping read. Like his Gone series, this has a large cast of characters and you’re there with them on both sides of the fence. While it must be mentioned that there is a bit of a language warning here, this is precisely why Grant’s books are so popular: he doesn’t talk down to his audience, and the young protagonists are put into situations that would make even the most seasoned action heroes break down and cry. This is the book that will be able to entice even the most reluctant of readers.

[[holly-pic]] Holly Harper is a children’s bookseller at Readings Carlton where she organises the kids and Young Adult enewsletters. She also writes books for younger readers under the name