Thank you to NetGalley and 47North for providing me with an ARC for this book in exchange for an honest review.

Though I did enjoy this book quite a bit, some things really bothered me.

First of all, this book is told from multiple perspectives but we do have a main character that we see more than the others : that did not work for me. Though I understand the choice as it allowed the reader to get more info about the world the book is set in that our mc doesn't know, a lot of it seemed unnecessary and I was just left mostly in the unknown about what happened to all of those characters. I would have better enjoyed either a book told from one perspective or a book entirely told from multiple perspectives (like the Passage trilogy in the same genre).

Second of all, some parts of the book just seemed added in to explain the rest and I felt that in the writing ; some parts I thought were well written, not too flowery, just the right amount of description but others were so matter-of-fact with a bit of drama (that was never resolved, where are all the side characters seriously?).

To always end a good note, I did like that the story was very character-driven and I also quite enjoyed the dystopia aspect of it, which made me think a lot of The Darkest Minds and of the Passage trilogy due to the living in camps situation. I also liked the issue of immigration that is very relevant to our society today.

Overall would recommend if you like dystopian and character-driven stories but I have read better in this genre.

At some point in the future, maybe a decade, maybe a century, an indentured illegal refugee Caleb is sewing shirts up on the rooftop of an apartment building in an Enclave - part slum, part suburb ringing aa wealthier city, housing people who are not quite desirable, people who have chosen to not, or not been allowed, to be microchipped with a chip which makes them better citizens, suppressing the urges which make them wasteful and unpredictable members of society. Caleb has come from Spain, a country where water is now scarce, hoping for asylum and citizenship in the UK where resources, thanks to recycling, aquaponics and rain, still exist. But a child on his own is in danger from nearly all those around him and Caleb has to grow up far too fast to survive.
Bridge 108 is told by multiple perspectives, each giving us an insight into this at once and unfamiliar England; Caleb himself, Ma Lexy who has indentured him, Skylark who first found him, Ma Lexy's gangster brother in law and immigration agents, all linked by Caleb himself, even as they occupy different places and spaces. Chillingly prescient and tautly written, this dystopia feels far too relevant as we stare Climate Change in the face whilst policies around refugees get more and more inflexible. Truly a story for our times. Recommended.

Thank you Net Galley for the free ARC. Interesting take on dystopia here. Caleb comes from somewhere south of Spain and is a refugee in England. He was separated from his family and is surviving by sewing shirts in a sweat shop. He eventually surrenders to authorities and becomes part of an indenture system. The genius here is that it could be right after Brexxit or a hundred years from now, nothing is so different, but just enough.