This is an interesting book with exciting world-building and consistent action throughout; the author certainly knows how to keep you reading. Lex lives on The Strip, so named because it is a closed-off section of London; a London that is watched constantly by Drone surveillance which makes for a thought-provoking read. Alan, the second character you will come to know, doesn’t live on The Strip. Alan is a Drone pilot. And he is watching his assignment very closely – Lex’s dad. So unfolds a story which will probably leaving you feeling like you’re sat on Big Brother’s sofa and he’s watching you!

What I really liked about this world is that it isn’t too far-fetched to be believable and so it highlights parallels with our world which aren’t too difficult to imagine but it still tests the boundaries enough to make it exciting. There were definitely moments which freaked me out a little in relation to the surveillance aspect! The dual narrative really helps to see all sides of the story and Lex and Alan have interesting enough personalities to keep you reading. Having said this, they are quite similar in terms of narrative voice, which often led me to back track to check whose perspective I was reading from.

The background of the world-building is a little lacking; there were quite a few things I think it would have been nice to know more detail about to make the concept easier to imagine, particularly in terms of how the set-up of the drones and the division of London really developed. But overall, the story moved along at such a good pace with chunks of action throughout that I happily kept reading to find out if Lex and Alan would ever find out about each other!

Sadly, DNF at 21%. The Kindle version has terrible formatting errors...many words are split in half, so a sentence like 'I hoped he wasn't forgetting the meeting' might read as 'I hoped he wasn't forgett ing the meet ing.' Having to constantly stop and figure out what I'd just read threw me out of the story.

Apart from that, the story wasn't gripping me. I didn't know the novel was in dual POV, and there was nothing to say when one ended and another began, so I was surprised to go from running around the Strip to suddenly in a high tech surveillance centre. The lack of backstory was confusing too; who created the Strip, why, how did people get trapped in it? Maybe things were explained later, but I wasn't inclined to stay around.

Not my kind of story, I'm afraid, but I'm sure other people will enjoy it. Thank you very much for the chance to read it, and I hope to read more in the future.

Received a free review copy via netgalley payment being an honest review. Set in a dystopian divided London, Two characters , one has adhd and is a skilled gamer is recruited to fly observational and then armed drones , the other is the son of a leading "terrorist" on the opposing side. We see both boys struggle with the same challenges of disapproving parents, peer approval and first love. All set against the ethics of the military use of drones. Although the premise of this was interesting , this is a slight book, with characters not very developed and the with a lot of time spent on plot development at the beginning and then a gallop to the end, so the timeline of the story covers several years in the last few pages, almost as if the author lost interest in his characters, once the climax of the story had been reached. A useful title for fans of Patrick Ness books.

Once again, William Sutcliffe tackles the Israel - Palestine situation, this time imagining that the setting is London, This makes uncomfortable reading being on home ground. There is no attempt to explain how the situation arose, only what is with ordinary people on both sides doing what they have to to survive. There is much heartache and loss in The Strip, the 'prison' that keeps people trapped in a heavily damaged city with a minimum of supplies. This is shown in the lives of Lex and Zoe and their families, and on the outside Alan struggles for acceptance from his mother and his work colleagues as he carries out what he believes to be his patriotic duty.
Despite the grimness of it all, I was drawn into the lives of both Alan and Lex and felt their frustrations and joys and just how awful it must be to live in such a situation.