Idlewild does revolve around a group of teenagers - set in the near future, they attend a school where virtual reality is used as a teaching tool and also by the students to create their own little worlds in which to socialise and/or reflect. The interactions within the group are realistic and relatable; prejudices and tiffs amongst the boys and girls blown up into dramatic rivalries that seem like the be all and end all of existence - just like real high school. However, they are to find out that they are woefully mistaken, and not in any kind of easy or gradual way.
The narrator is Halloween, one of the teenagers who wakes one day with no memory, only the certainty that someone has tried to murder him. His attempts to remember who he is and what happened aren't helped by the insane virtual environment he has created for himself over the years, or by their seemingly sadistic tutor Maestro.
I'm hesitant to give out spoilers (although the blurb does hint at the story's trajectory) so if you want to go into these books blind, STOP READING NOW.
... so around 20 years before we join Halloween and his friends, a plague has wiped out all of mankind. The ten teenagers were genetically modified and placed inside a virtual reality designed to condition them into perfect pillars of a new human race. It doesn't quite go to the dead scientists' plan though and their release from the computer world becomes fraught with danger and fear.
I think what I like about this book, aside from its gothic and sci-fi overtones, is that at its heart it is a classic whodunnit. A mysterious crime, a limited number of suspects and a cool narrator, determined to get to the truth. And he is pretty cool, our Halloween. I used to have a bit of a crush on him, insofar as you can fancy a written description of a fictional person.
The second book in the series, Edenborn, follows the characters as they attempt to restart society on an empty Earth. They have split into two camps: one believes they should just rebuild humanity as it was and the other that the people they create should be improved genetically. I actually read this second installment first, because I was a strange child. A maverick some might say. I still enjoyed both books although I think the first one would have been more surprising and the second would have made more sense if I'd come to them in the correct order. Perhaps my favourite element of Edenborn is the girls' sociopathic daughter Penny and her relationship with Halloween's misanthropic son, their teenage angst leading them to disaster whilst the grown-ups remain distracted by the bigger picture.
Both novels are very good, with three-dimensional characters and interesting concepts at their heart. I only recently found out that the third book, Everfree, exists and I plan to read it soon, so I may review it here. Watch this space you lucky people!
