'Tense and witty drama' Sunday Times 'High-concept sci-fi series with shade of Michael Grant a strong shot of black humour' The Bookseller Just when you thought the apocalyptic detention was over...Having fought their way back to what they believe to be their home world, Rev, GG and The Ape discover that they're now stuck in the nightmarish world of doppelgangers, surrounded by a town of super-powered killing machines. Johnson, Billie and the Moth are still trapped in the empty world. Alive, but with no way home. Can Rev get the misfits back together? And even if she can will she be able to do it before the world ends. Time is running out...And believe it or not that's the least of their problems.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd
ISBN: 9781471118708
Last year I was asked to be a part of Jeff Povey's debut children's novel, Shift. I was very lucky to share the first chapter with you, my blog readers, of his novel which was described as an apocalyptically funny and thrilling read for young adult readers. Now, twelve months on, Jeff is back with his second book, Delete, which is the sequel to Shift, and is again visiting my blog, this time with a conversation between Ape and Non-Ape
- A Polemical Discourse OnProblems Within The
Education System-
After we arrived
in London and found the rubble that was once a five star hotel Non-Ape ate
solidly for three straight hours. He
grew larger and stronger by the minute and the Ape started wondering just how
strong and big Non-Ape could get.
‘Could you lift a
tree?’
‘Easy.’
‘A car.’
‘Yeah.
‘How about a bus.’
Non-Ape chewed on
that one for a moment. ‘Does it have
people in it?’
Oh my God, that
means he must have lifted a bus with passengers inside. I started to realise just how powerful – and
dangerous – he must be. An Ape with that sort of power must need very careful
management.
‘Say it’s packed.’
‘What’s packed?’
Hanging onto a train of thought has never come easy to Non-Ape.
‘The bus.’
‘Oh yeah. Easy.’
Non-Ape smiles and I’m pretty sure he has definitely lifted a commuter
packed bus at some stage in his oafish life.
The Ape would
never be one to worship or idolise but his eyes had widened in a subtle
wonder. But then again he was talking to
himself in many ways so it was probably more that he was thinking of trying the
same when he got home.
They high fived
and I could see the Ape racking his brains now.
Thinking of all things heavy.
‘A JCB digger.’
‘Yeah.’
‘A big cow.’
‘Yep.’
‘Those big metal
rooms in banks.’
‘What are they?’
‘Where they hide
money.’
The Ape was
thinking of a bank vault but I’ve only ever seen them in films. Do they really exist? Non-Ape’s grin spread all the way across his
lips as a lightbulb lit up in his huge head.
‘Yowza.’
I could see it
now, Non-Ape marching into a bank and dragging the vault home with him.
‘Could you lift a
tank?’
Non-Ape
shrugged. ‘Already did.’
The Ape looked
impressed. ‘Yowza.’
‘Threw it in a field.’
‘Yow----za!A whole
tank.’
‘Yeah.’ Non-Ape wasn’t even boasting, it was as if he
threw tanks into fields every day of his life.
Maybe he did.
Non-Ape stopped
shoveling pasta down his throat. ‘They
shouldn’t have got me mad.’
The Ape couldn’t
help but grab pasta for himself as Non-Ape continued. ‘They said I got bad marks at school. And I said no way. I got four U’s.’
‘Fouris genius.’
‘That’s what I
said. Who else got that many? I’ll tell you. No one.
But they said I had to leave school.’
‘With four U’s?’ Non-Ape shook his head, as if he was totally
bewildered. ‘They should leave school.’
‘What I said.’
‘U stands for
University.’ The Ape suddenly declared. ‘You could go to four of them.’
U stands for Ungraded. It usually means you were either absent
during the exam or you got a low score that meant you failed to get a
grade. Zero counts as a low score and I
wondered how many zeroes Non-Ape got.
I’m thinking four.
Non-Ape stopped
eating for a moment. He was definitely
getting bigger and the chair he was sitting on was starting to buckle under his
weight. ‘Four U’s and they were yelling
at me. Yelling ain’t teaching.’
‘It’s just
yelling.’ The Ape agreed and it started
to feel like that there was a great meeting of minds taking place. No two people could have been so similar in
their outlook.‘Should’ve got a gold star.’
The Ape slurped more pasta.
‘I asked for one.’
‘They didn’t give
it?’
Non-Ape shook his
head again and looked quite hurt. ‘Not
even a green one.’ Do they really give
out stars to seventeen year olds?
Sometimes the Apes were almost too heartbreakingly naïve. I could see them in their classroom’s,
probably never listening and thinking up ways to make people laugh or get their
attention. They only grasped a quarter
of what was being said and didn’t ever really get that school and learning was
something important.
‘Four U’s, that’s
got to be a record.’ The Ape could feel
Non-Ape’s pain.
‘So the teacher’s
yelling and I’m thinking, is he shouting at me?
Or is it someone behind me?’
Non-Ape clearly felt his four U’s were worthy of amuch better response.
‘Was there someone
behind you?’ The Ape asked.
‘Was just a
wall. I sit at the back.’
‘Me too.Every
class.’ The Ape and Non-Ape stopped to
bump fists, excited that they were so alike.
‘So he’s yelling
and he’s been eating onions which makes the air smell bad.’
‘Onions.’ The Ape executed an exaggerated retching
reflex.
Non-Ape retched in
return. ‘And I wave the smell away. Only he’s too close and next thing I’ve hit
him in the face and he’s gone out the window.’
The Ape sits
forward, he’s getting into the story now.
‘You knocked him out the window?’
‘It was open.’ Non-Ape stopped to dredge through his
memory. ‘Well. It was definitely open
afterwards.’
‘Should’ve cleaned
his teeth.’
Non-Ape started
laughing. ‘He landed in the car park and
the alarms started going off.’
The Ape joined in
with a big hearty laugh and they spent a good two minutes just laughing and
making car alarm noises. Non-Ape shifted in his chair and the pained creak
filled the hotel kitchen.
‘Then the Head
came into the classroom.’
‘Did he have onion
breath?’
‘Probably.’ Non-Ape slurped more pasta and was still
growing bigger. ‘He said I had to leave
school.’
‘Harsh.’
Non-Ape
nodded. ‘I got four U’s!’
‘Four
Universities, got to be a world record.’
‘Got to be.’ Non-Ape stopped to let out a low belch. The Ape immediately responded with one of his
own. ‘But I just sat there. Said I’m not leaving. So he phoned for a tank.”
The Ape was still
impressed. ‘Was it loaded?’
‘They said it
was.’
‘Probably was
then.’
‘Probably.’ Non-Ape’s chair wasn’t going to hold. I gave it another three minutes at best. ‘They told me to come out of the classroom.’
‘Harsh.’
‘So harsh.’ Non Ape wiped his mouth with the back of a
hand the size of a frying pan. ‘The
whole school was outside.’
‘Like for a fire
alarm?’
‘Yeah. And the Head was yelling stuff.’
‘What stuff?’
‘Dunno, wasn’t
listening.’ Non-Ape shrugged. ‘But I got up and went outside. Wanted to see the tank.
‘Never seen a live
one.’
‘Me neither.’ Non-Ape sucked up more pasta. ‘Everyone was yelling stuff now. So I picked up the tank and threw it away.’
‘Good. Because yelling ain’t teaching.’ The Ape repeated knowledgeably.
‘Tell you
something.’ Non-Ape said after finishing
the last of the pasta.
‘What’s that?’
“I’m not going to
bother next year. Learning and that. If that’s how they treat you when you get four
U’s.’
Thank you again to Simon and Schuster Children's Books and Jeff Povey for inviting me to again take part in their blog tour and apologies for the late publication of this blog post.
