’28 Days’ by Sue Parritt is book one in the Reluctant Doorkeeper Trilogy. A speculative dystopian fiction novel set in Australia in the year 2100. This is a story that doesn’t take much of a stretch of the imagination for us to see that this could be the world’s future and that is what makes this book an engrossing read.
We are introduced to a world where people have to keep working until they can work no more. To keep the people in check the Productive Citizen Bureau is there to remind them that they have control over their lives. We meet 70-year-old Emma, she has been out of work for a year, she now has 28 days to find work. If she fails in getting work, the Productive Citizens Bureau will make her accept any job. She has a few weeks left but the Employment Positions Portal is hacked and the Government refuses to extend her unemployment period. She angrily joins the citizens voice group to add her support to their attempt to rally against the repressive laws.
2100 in Australia looks very different to the present. Climate change has changed the landscapes of the world, seas have risen and has reclaimed land so houses have disappeared into the sea. People at 80 have to do community work for their pension or they can have euthanasia. As I said it doesn’t take too much thinking for this story to feel real. The fact that the pension age is rising in the present and climate change is a very real issue for the world. Sue Parritt has written this story with such detail it feels so real.
Emma is unusual as a main character in the fact she is an older woman. This was great to see. She is a very interesting woman and the way she changes over the length of the story is amazing. She begins as a citizen who does as she is told constantly and she slowly changes into a rebel. As this is the first book I am hoping to see more of this from Emma in the future.
A book that was perfectly paced, I found myself dying to know what would happen next so could hardly put it down. I am patiently waiting for Book 2 to see what’s next for Emma in the dystopian future of Australia.
Thanks to Rachel’s Random Resources and Sue Parritt for my gifted copy of the book.
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