LONDON, 2012: It arrives and with that the world is changed into an unending graveyard littered with the bones, wreckage, and memories of a dead past, gone forever.

LONDON, 2032: Twenty years later, out of the ashes, a new world begins to rise, a place ruled by both loyalty and fear, and where the quest to be the first to regain lost knowledge is an ongoing battle for power. A place where laws are made and enforced by roving gangs-the Bloomsbury Boys, the Gardners, the Red Lady’s Gang-who rule the streets and will do anything to protect their own.

THE FOUR: Zane, Titus, Erin, Eve. Living in this new world, they discover that they have abilities never before seen. And little do they know that as they search post-apocalyptic London for Titus’ kidnapped sister that they’ll uncover the secret of It, and bring about a reckoning with the forces that almost destroyed all of humanity.

– Publisher’s Blurb

It feels sorta odd reviewing this one, because it’s the second time I’ve experienced the story. I first came across it, when the author responded to a call out I put on twitter for author interviews, just after she had been signed up by Dystopia Press, and was still podcasting the chapters on her website.

It was a totally different experience reading the book to listening to a chapter a week (not least because Emma, is a fabulous narrator.) Of course some of the mystery was lost, knowing what was ahead for Zane, Titus and Erin, but then you can spend more time enjoying everything else.

I’ve seen a few reviews bemoaning the fact that Zane doesn’t feel like a fifteen-year-old, that he’s not mature enough… And they’re right, he doesn’t. But, for me at least, there’s more to it than just that. Zane, unlike some of the other characters, has been massively (it could easily be argued, far too much) sheltered by his mother, Miri, and even though he’s seen a lot, he’s not had to really ‘deal’ with it. Compared to what’s outside their little square, Zane’s world is almost utopian.

Those of his peers that have had to survive on their own, do have an ‘older’, sometimes, more jaded outlook on life, but even they have had little or no adult interaction in their lives so, they don’t always feel as ‘old’ as characters in similar books. Without a working knowledge of how an adult behaves, you’re only going to get a certain amount of the way there. They are for the most part, very much children. Capable yes, but still children.

Because, a lot of the book is told from Zane’s perspective, this does occasionally feel a touch ‘off’ especially as the few adults left, deliberately avoid all talk of “It” and the world before. However, if you can let go of your pre-conceptions, and allow yourself to see things though Zane’s eyes the new world does fall in to place and the ‘innocence’ of the characters is ‘right’ for them and the world Emma Newman has created.

20 Years Later, for me was just as enjoyable the second-time around as it was the first, and I really did like the fact it feels different to other post-apocalyptic/dystopian worlds out there, and while it is a fully contained story, I’m really looking forward to seeing what happens to the gang next. Now the secret’s out, the remaining adults in the children’s lives, aren’t going to be able to ‘hide the past’ any more. The world should really start to reveal itself, and we’ve got plenty still to learn I think!.

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Buy: 20 Years Later by E.J. Newman from The Book Depository

[My copy was provided by the publisher for review purposes]