Fantasy |
Young Adult Literature |
Young Adult Fiction |
Summary
Summary
The City is divided. The bridges gated. In Southside, the hostiles live in squalor and desperation, waiting for a chance to overrun the residents of Cityside.
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Nik is still in high school but is destined for a great career with the Internal Security and Intelligence Services, the brains behind the war. But when ISIS comes recruiting, everyone is shocked when he isn't chosen. There must be an explanation, but no one will talk about it. Then the school is bombed and the hostiles take the bridges. Buildings are burning, kids are dead, and the hostiles have kidnapped Sol. Now ISIS is hunting for Nik.
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But Nik is on the run, with Sol's sister Fyffe and ISIS hot on their trail. They cross the bridge in search of Sol, and Nik finds answers to questions he had never dared to ask.
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The Bridge is a gritty adventure set in a future world where fear of outsiders pervades everything. A heart-stopping novel about friendship, identity, and courage from an exciting new voice in young-adult fiction.
Author Notes
Jane Higgins was born in New Zealand. She has degrees in mathematics and anthropology and has worked on many human rights campaigns. She is a senior research fellow at Lincoln University and her specialty is youth studies. Jane lives in Christchurch. The Bridge is her first novel.
Reviews (5)
Bookseller Publisher Review
The Text Prize is going from strength to strength, as the publisher continues to choose winners that push the boundaries of young adult fiction. The latest winner, The Bridge, is brilliant. Every sentence is skillfully crafted, with just enough left unsaid that the reader is always hungry for more. In a futuristic world, Nik and his friends must choose their loyalties in a war that is not as clear as they were brought up to think. Nik has spent his life training to join an elite group fighting the hostiles across the eponymous bridge. But when his college is blown up, and his friend kidnapped, Nik must venture into hostile territory, where he finds answers to questions that he never thought to ask. With YA dystopia still going strong, older readers of the genre will love this latest offering. Like all good dystopian fiction, there are plenty of parallels between the book and issues in our own society: racism, loyalty, fear and the futility of war are all themes that are addressed in a thoughtful and considered manner by the author. Importantly, the issues in The Bridge do not come at the expense of the action, and a fast pace is maintained throughout, while the characters are complex and interesting enough that it is virtually impossible to leave their side as the story crashes on. This is a breathtaking first novel. Bec Kavanagh is a Melbourne-based writer and reviewer and an ex-bookseller
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-In this dystopian novel from New Zealand, Higgins uses her hero's adventures to ponder larger questions. Nik is a mathematical genius at the top of his class in Tornmoor Academy and, as such, he expects to be invited to join the Internal Security and Intelligence Services. ISIS leads the way in protecting the northern part of the city from the Breken invaders who control the city south of the river. ISIS does not choose Nik and even seeks him for questioning when the school is bombed. Nik's young friend Sol is kidnapped by some Breken in the confusion of a major incursion so Nik and Sol's sister, Fyffe, decide to cross the nearest bridge into Southside to rescue him. They soon discover that most of the Breken are quite different from what they were taught. Members of the Campaign for Free Movement would simply like access to the same food and medicines that those north of the river enjoy, preferably through negotiation. The Remnant faction is more interested in conquest. Nik gradually reveals his identity to a few CFM leaders and learns more about himself from them. When he is ultimately called upon to choose a side in the war, he must decide if either one makes sense. Readers will easily see themselves in Nik, a young man unsure of his place and uncertain of who is in the right. The popularity of dystopias will ensure that this story has appeal, and it will also make readers think.-Eric Norton, McMillan Memorial Library, Wisconsin Rapids, WI (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
This grim first novel, set on a not-so-distant future Earth in a war-torn, divided city that could be Sarajevo, London, or just about any other metropolis, packs a significant emotional wallop. Nikolai Stais, an orphan, has spent most of his life as a scholarship student at Tornmoor Academy, a prestigious military school designed to produce top security officers. But while Nikolai's senior class peers are snapped up by the Internal Security and Intelligence Services, he is denied cadet status. Soon after, rebels attack the school, and Nikolai is arrested as a traitor, though he quickly escapes. When a younger friend is kidnapped and taken across the river to rebel territory, Nikolai follows, hoping to save him, and instead discovers that the history he's been taught may not be the entire truth. Higgins works hard to expose the religious and racial bigotry lurking behind so many military conflicts, and she is adept at showing that, frequently, neither side is without blame. Nikolai is well drawn and believable, though the story's secondary characters, particularly the villains, are comparatively one-dimensional. Ages 12-up. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
In a gritty novel set in a dystopian future, orphaned agent-in-training Nik thinks he has it all figured out: he will be chosen by the Internal Security and Intelligence Services and help fight the war against the other side. He will be a willing cog in a decades-long conflict with fuzzy beginnings and a present that is as much propaganda and fear-mongering as an actual strategic plan for victory. When he ends up literally on the other side after crossing a bridge in search of a kidnapped friend, Niks newfound understanding of the complexities of war, as well as surprising information about his parentage, causes him to question his assumptions, loyalties, and aspirations. While there are hints of romance, family relationships, and larger social commentary throughout, this is primarily a book about war. The authors agenda is overt from the start, with a too-obvious good/bad dichotomy that readers will immediately understand is the same for the other side. Nevertheless, the gritty, painfully tense passages describing the ways in which war affects children -- teens in particular -- are compelling and deftly written. april spisak (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
War propels a boy from the privileged side of town across the bridge to the enemy, where he learns the real causes of the war and about his own history. Seventeen-year-old Nik knows only that his parents were killed in an uprising and that he wants to join ISIS, the government security organization most responsible for his city's defense against their enemies from the poor side of the river. Although he attends on a scholarship, he's the most brilliant student in the posh school from which ISIS gets their recruits. When ISIS doesn't choose him, offering no explanation, he sees no future for himselfuntil a bomb destroys the school and forces Nik and his wealthy friends directly into the war. The enemy kidnaps Sol, the 8-year-old brother of Nik's wealthy friend, so he and Fyffe, Sol's sister, head over the bridge to rescue him. There, they can't avoid teaming up with the enemy, and Nik learns the real causes of the conflict. When the Southsiders discover Nik's real identity, however, he becomes the target of both sides. Higgins taps into current social and class conflicts as fodder for her future war. Nik remarks, "while I wasn't the only brown face in school, I was the only one without back-up." The Southsiders, it turns out, comprise the underclass that rebelled against their wealthy patrons, contrary to the propaganda that Nik has heard all his life. A suspenseful and entertaining debut. (Dystopian adventure. 12 up)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.