From the author of the Text Prize-winning The Bridge.
The ceasefire is barely holding. Southside waits, with a kind of hope that feels like defeat.
Then Cityside blows up the bridge.
And amid the chaos and rubble Nik and Lanya are drawn into a complex web of power, fear and betrayal.
Who is the girl found crying out from the bombed bridge? What is her connection to the secret experiments taking place at Pitkerrin Marsh? And why does she cry 'havoc'? But before Nik can find out he must find his father, and face the hardest decision of his life.
Another excellent YA read from a prize-winning novelist
Havoc is the second novel by New Zealand author, Jane Higgins. It is sequel to The Bridge and is set six months after the events of that book. When a barrage of rockets from Cityside inflicts enormous damage on Moldam HQ, costs Breken lives and brings down the Moldam Bridge, it is apparent that the precarious ceasefire is over. Nik and Lanya rush to help, and Nik risks his life to save a girl from under the falling bridgework, a girl who seems neither a Citysider, nor Breken, but possibly a Dry-dweller. A girl who keeps repeating the word “Havoc”.
While Nik’s father is Cityside, organising the One City activists, Cityside Director of Security, Frieda Kelleran warns this is just the beginning, and infiltration of One City is imminent. With his knowledge of the City and his language, it makes sense for Nik to cross over to warn One City and try to find out some other answers: just what is Operation Havoc? Why is there a delegation of Dry-dwellers Cityside? And why are the City’s elite moving out? As Nik uncovers evidence of biological warfare and war crimes, he also learns more about his parents, finds out who he can trust, and is forced to make an impossible choice.
Higgins continues with her imaginative plot and most of the characters from The Bridge reappear, along with a few delightful new ones. While there is some humour, Higgins does present her characters with thought-provoking dilemmas (and then solves them rather cleverly). While there is some recap, readers will certainly enjoy this sequel more for having read The Bridge. And while events seem to be satisfactorily wrapped up, giving this book a final feel, there is still plenty of scope for a further volume. Another excellent YA read from a prize-winning novelist.
4.5 stars
Marianne, 25/02/2015
