No Limit (Holly Childs, Hologram)

Ash’s flight out of Auckland is grounded by an erupting volcano, so she heads back into the city. With her new friends, she visits the drive-in for a disaster-movie marathon, but when the movie is ruined by volcanic smoke they follow the cool kids to the apocalyptic-themed ‘end of the world’ rave. At the rave, Ash meets—and quickly becomes obsessed with—Bassy, the dream girl she spotted in the airport, and her friend Mack falls in love with a cute boy called Fidget, while they are all quite high on party drugs. The volcanic smoke gets thicker while everyone either ignores or is oblivious to the fact, and throughout the story the eruption continues to build tension. Many of the characters are internet-addicted hipsters, who are constantly on their smartphones and at one point everyone in the story ends up in the last internet café in the city that’s still functioning. In this fast-paced, hedonistic world, the characters feel like precursors to William Gibson’s cyberpunks in Neuromancer. This novella should cross over well to a YA audience. No Limit is the first book released through Express Media’s Hologram initiative for writers under 30.

Andrew Wrathall is the publishing and digital media coordinator at Books+Publishing

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

Category: Reviews