Will I love The Bridge?

The premise of The Bridge, a sci-fi/dystopian young adult novel, grabbed my attention off the hop.

The protagonist, Nik Stais, one of Tornmoor Academy’s top graduates, is shocked when Internal Security and Intelligence Services selects his peers as recruits but leaves him behind. Questioning his privileged Cityside upbringing, Nik is soon forced to venture over a bridge into the hostile Southside, where he finds answers—and also warring factions bent on destroying the City and each other.

Higgins’ complex world-building reminded me of Lois Lowry’s The Giver, John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids, and Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games. With… show more.

I cried at the end of this brilliantly crafted novel about the futility of war.

It shows how an unnamed society might respond to ongoing conflict. Both sides have de-humanised the other; both are committed to revenge and retribution for the daily tragedies; and groups on both sides believe there can’t be peace without the total subjugation of the other.

I really appreciate how Nik’s worldview is shaken – and ultimately widened – when he crosses into enemy territory to find a captured friend. This story is a lesson in how peace can never come without justice, or empathy, told… show more.

This book had me hooked on the first line. We rode to war in a taxi cab. 

Nik and his friends live in a divided city. They are in the wealthy Cityside which is guarded against incursions from poverty-stricken Southside. In Cityside, ISIS (Internal Security and Intelligence Services) select the best and brightest from Nik’s school to become elite agents. He is clever, he’s quick thinking and smart so why is he not chosen?

The world is in chaos, kids are forced to fight for survival. But who is the enemy and are things really as they’ve always been taught?… show more.