One Of Us: A Novel
Hardcover | Kindle | Audiobook
By Craig DiLouie
Publisher: Orbit | Hachette Book Group
Release date: July 17, 2018

It is 1984 and the world is a strange one. A germ spread in the 1970s, causing genetic mutations in some of the children. Not harelips or six fingers or webbed toes, but fur and blobs, and upside down faces. These children are getting older and were put in a home, treated like slaves, unwanted and unloved. In a sleepy Georgia town, Enoch — or Dog, as he is called — just wants to belong, but hate and fear of the unknown will always keep him from being “One of Us.” When someone is murdered, it’s human (monster) against monster (human).

More below on One Of Us by Craig DiLouie.

It’s very rare to come across a dystopian novel that is completely unique. But this is what Craig DiLouie has created, while also making a clear connection to current world issues in 1984, where monsters are real, but human.

I read a lot. I mean, A LOT. So I end up reading a few books at a time, easily able to make the switch, or put my book down to do something else. Not so with this one. I mean, I had to sleep… but then I dreamt about it. I had to take care of my children, but found myself thinking about the monster children and yearning to go back to them. This book is that good. When I say “page-turner” and “couldn’t put it down,” I am not doing enough to convince you to read it. This is the one that I will have to buy two copies… one to keep and one to lend out.

The book is dark… very dark… darker than expected. It sucks you in and then spits you out, spent and heaving and thinking.

If you want to read a book that keeps you thinking about it long after you finish, then this is the one. I must warn you though… if you don’t like to be super uncomfortable in your stories, maybe this isn’t for you. If that’s how you like your books – like an uncomfortably thick magnetic pudding, you have to pick this up.

“Gooble Gobble Gooble Gobble, we accept her. One of us.”

I can’t wait for the movie.

A remarkable novel set in 1984 where a group of teenagers begin to discover powerful secrets about themselves, described as “The Girl With All the Gifts meets To Kill a Mockingbird” (Claire North).

They call it the plague
A generation of children born with extreme genetic mutations.

They call it a home
But it’s a place of neglect and forced labour.

They call him a Freak
But Dog is just a boy who wants to be treated as normal.

They call them dangerous
They might be right.

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