Another great short novel

Toby’s life was perfectly normal… until it was unravelled by something as simple as a blood test.

Taken from his family, Toby now lives in the Death House; an out-of-time existence far from the modern world, where he, and the others who live there, are studied by Matron and her team of nurses. They’re looking for any sign of sickness. Any sign of their wards changing. Any sign that it’s time to take them to the sanatorium.

No one returns from the sanatorium.

Withdrawn from his house-mates and living in his memories of the past, Toby spends his days fighting his fear. But then a new arrival in the house shatters the fragile peace, and everything changes.

Because everybody dies. It’s how you choose to live that counts.

What happens when kids and teens are thrown together in a situation, under minimal supervision, knowing they’ve not got long to live? This is, basically, what The Death House is about. The kids are “defectives”, guaranteed to get sick and be disappeared in the night, whisked away to the sanatorium never to return. This novel gives us a brief glimpse into the lives and minds of the doomed teens. It’s a moving, brilliantly written book. Continue reading →