It is near future England, and Caleb, who fled climate change in Spain along with his mother, is now alone in the hands of "Ma" Lexie, in The Enclave, a refugee camp of sorts, around Manchester. The population is kept passive with a series of inoculations (think "soma") and separated even further into the have and have nots, by the use of brain chipping. Only those politically acceptable are allowed the cerebral enhancing systems that give them the capability to work good jobs, although there are hints that these jobs are just another control mechanism.
None of that is Caleb's concern however, as having been essentially trafficked the remainder of his journey, he is now under the control and supposedly tender care of Lexie, who runs a very tiny fashion house. Just her and the three small boys who do all the sewing. Tiny fingers mean tiny stitches. She's part of a wider crime family, even if she doesn't necessarily enjoy it, but does her best to look after the boys.
The viewpoint hops around a bit, so we see what brought Caleb here and what he might do in the future, while also seeing what Lexie has to do to maintain her position and her own various problems. There's a vague plot of Caleb adjusting to his new station as a supervisor of the shop, but it feels mostly like a thinkpiece. There's a lot of parallels that can be drawn between the current treatment of migrants and the way Britain is changing and the book.
The problem with a thinkpiece however is that it doesn't really satisfy my urge for things to happen. Perhaps that is exacerbated by it being too short, or Caleb's surprisingly wise head on very young shoulders, but I didn't ever really get excited about what came next. The final fifth of the book proved a little more interesting, but I never came back to reading this with anticipation.
It's technically very proficient, and has some good links to today's political situation that expand the work, rather than make it feel exploitative, it just didn't thrill me terribly much. May be more powerful as part of the rest of its shared world.
Tagged: Book Science fiction Horrible humans Novella Print