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Hoxton
You lucky person.
These is few, these books. Had to be written – too much lost over the cycles, and it’s time to record what we can. Not me doing the pen scratching – leave that to the educated few, like her – Hoxton. I got stories though and they’ll leak out onto a few pages before I’m dust in the Parkplace. I’m good with the machinery and when ink’s for the having and Bert’s found the right paper we get the job done.
She’s a bit cranky, the old press, so forgive the odd typography glitch.
Jake the Prophet, Londonia, 2070
These is few, these books. Had to be written – too much lost over the cycles, and it’s time to record what we can. Not me doing the pen scratching – leave that to the educated few, like her – Hoxton. I got stories though and they’ll leak out onto a few pages before I’m dust in the Parkplace. I’m good with the machinery and when ink’s for the having and Bert’s found the right paper we get the job done.
She’s a bit cranky, the old press, so forgive the odd typography glitch.
Jake the Prophet, Londonia, 2070
315 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2017
1 person is currently reading
394 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 25, 2017
Hoxton is a finder (she finds and trades items in possibly the year 2070) She is hired by a woman who lives in the Cincture(a higher and safer society) to find a piece of 2018 IKEA furniture and while entering the Cincture she is told by someone she has had a child which is something she didn't know because Hoxton doesn't remember really anything about her past years.So she now sets out on this new journey trying to find her child not knowing its not safe to bring the people in her past into her future.
I was a giveaway winner and I am so thankful I got to read a copy of this books because it was absolutely one of my favorite books I have got to read this year.Kate has created this beautiful post apocalyptic world where Londonia is very drab world while the Cincture is the very opposite. This book had me in the edge of my seat then almost crying and then happy.It is a amazing book and I loved it.
I was a giveaway winner and I am so thankful I got to read a copy of this books because it was absolutely one of my favorite books I have got to read this year.Kate has created this beautiful post apocalyptic world where Londonia is very drab world while the Cincture is the very opposite. This book had me in the edge of my seat then almost crying and then happy.It is a amazing book and I loved it.
June 9, 2017
An intriguing title Hoxton: place or person, male or female?
Kate has created a believable world, set in 2070, with enough detail to sketch the setting for the reader, and enough left to one's imagination to ensure you create your own version.
Fifty years earlier something dreadful happened and the effects are still apparent; Hoxton works very hard to survive in this post apocalyptic society. Here is a story with hope, love, kindness and achievement throughout which makes it timeless, although Hoxton's dilemmas seem stark in the reclaimed&recycled city of 2070; thought provoking ....... what choices would I make ? how would I survive ?
Whilst not a fan stories set in the future this book wouldn't have been my choice, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The detailed descriptions of a community with vestiges of the urban environment familiar to many at the beginning of the 21st century struck a chord with me. Just as I enjoyed the non fiction books ( The House By The Thames and The Fields Beneath) by Gillian Tyndale where she explores back in time, real places in London; buildings, communities and people ..... here we have Kate doing the same as fiction set in the future.
Hoxton, is a story of a new type of 'everyday folk' that would appeal surely to many. Young adults beginning their lives independently in a new place, to those with enough life experience to see that possibly all of Hoxton's Londonia in 2070 is an inevitable path that society has already embarked upon. Best stocked in bookshops on various shelves as not easy to categorise potential readership !
Kate has created a believable world, set in 2070, with enough detail to sketch the setting for the reader, and enough left to one's imagination to ensure you create your own version.
Fifty years earlier something dreadful happened and the effects are still apparent; Hoxton works very hard to survive in this post apocalyptic society. Here is a story with hope, love, kindness and achievement throughout which makes it timeless, although Hoxton's dilemmas seem stark in the reclaimed&recycled city of 2070; thought provoking ....... what choices would I make ? how would I survive ?
Whilst not a fan stories set in the future this book wouldn't have been my choice, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The detailed descriptions of a community with vestiges of the urban environment familiar to many at the beginning of the 21st century struck a chord with me. Just as I enjoyed the non fiction books ( The House By The Thames and The Fields Beneath) by Gillian Tyndale where she explores back in time, real places in London; buildings, communities and people ..... here we have Kate doing the same as fiction set in the future.
Hoxton, is a story of a new type of 'everyday folk' that would appeal surely to many. Young adults beginning their lives independently in a new place, to those with enough life experience to see that possibly all of Hoxton's Londonia in 2070 is an inevitable path that society has already embarked upon. Best stocked in bookshops on various shelves as not easy to categorise potential readership !
April 6, 2017
The lead character, Hoxton, has the same sort of strong, instantly believable voice that got me to read The Hunger Games. (Just to be clear, it's nothing like Hunger Games). The story is credible and the world-building excellent. I'm not a Londoner, but the descriptions spoke of an intimate knowledge of the city, detailed enough to be able to render it ruined after the sort of drastic climatic change that is becoming easy to believe possible and still let the smells of the streets come up to you from the pages.
I would say that the characters seem drawn from life, they are so rounded and true to it, but I doubt there are many professional scavengers, living in old churches in post-apocalyptic London on which to draw decent character sketches, so I'll have to say that the invention here is extremely good. I believed these people and that they would do the things they did.
It is post-apocalyptic rather than dystopian, but the book that came most readily to mind when reading it was Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. Hoxton is a free agent and religion hardly plays a part in the book, but there are issues that anyone attracted to Handmaid's would find treated here as well. I can't say which without giving spoilers to the plot.
I'm surprised this is still a self-published book, rather than one that has gone mainstream yet. I saw a sample of it on You Write On some years ago and was interested to see how the whole book turned out, having had my interest caught by the concept and the sheer strength of Hoxton's voice. It doesn't disappoint.
I would say that the characters seem drawn from life, they are so rounded and true to it, but I doubt there are many professional scavengers, living in old churches in post-apocalyptic London on which to draw decent character sketches, so I'll have to say that the invention here is extremely good. I believed these people and that they would do the things they did.
It is post-apocalyptic rather than dystopian, but the book that came most readily to mind when reading it was Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. Hoxton is a free agent and religion hardly plays a part in the book, but there are issues that anyone attracted to Handmaid's would find treated here as well. I can't say which without giving spoilers to the plot.
I'm surprised this is still a self-published book, rather than one that has gone mainstream yet. I saw a sample of it on You Write On some years ago and was interested to see how the whole book turned out, having had my interest caught by the concept and the sheer strength of Hoxton's voice. It doesn't disappoint.
October 21, 2017
Margaret Atwood meets Mad Max. “Hoxton”, set in post-apocalyptic London (or is it only two minutes into our current future?), gives us the pleasure of recognizing our world carried to one of its potential logical conclusions: no overarching rule, trade by barter, languages and cultures conflated, a series of tantalizing and imaginative answers to what if....
The eponymous heroine is an appealing, gutsy free spirit with a mysterious past that she is driven to uncover in the clinically sterile, covertly brutal world of the Cincture.
An intelligent good read indeed. Well suited to our troubled times.
The eponymous heroine is an appealing, gutsy free spirit with a mysterious past that she is driven to uncover in the clinically sterile, covertly brutal world of the Cincture.
An intelligent good read indeed. Well suited to our troubled times.
May 28, 2017
This is one that I didn't want to put down! Great story telling - imaginative and fast paced - with sympathetic well drawn characters, meant that I was easily drawn into this dystopian yet all too believable world.
Hoxton will appeal to lovers of various genres. Whilst the story is ostensibly 'sci-fi' it is no more so that than, say, The Drowned World or similar 'future dystopia' fantasy novels. With sweet romantic story lines and some half decent recipes too there is something here for everyone really.
I won't make this a long review - suffice it to say that it the story pulls you through and you really root for the main character, the eponymous and seriously feisty Hoxton herself. A ripping yarn.
Hoxton will appeal to lovers of various genres. Whilst the story is ostensibly 'sci-fi' it is no more so that than, say, The Drowned World or similar 'future dystopia' fantasy novels. With sweet romantic story lines and some half decent recipes too there is something here for everyone really.
I won't make this a long review - suffice it to say that it the story pulls you through and you really root for the main character, the eponymous and seriously feisty Hoxton herself. A ripping yarn.
January 18, 2018
I loved Hoxton. On first pick up I read right through Chapter 5 and realised I was hooked. Set in the not too distant future it follows the journey of women who survives by finding sought after items for others and trade. The imagery and description of this world is fascinating and it would have been sufficient just to explore this version of London in itself. The plot though reveals all sorts of horrors and for me drew plenty of parallels between the present day British class set up. The play with language is great and very believable. Won't post any spoilers, Hoxton comes highly recommended from a highly picky reader.
January 10, 2018
I really enjoyed reading HOXTON on many different levels, here are a few:
Language; from the readability to the descriptive, the play on future language – that I have started using!
Scenario, yeek, what can we do to prevent this?!
Imagination, my mind became totally absorbed (indicating great book) and could see the book in technicolour.
Great read
Tana
Language; from the readability to the descriptive, the play on future language – that I have started using!
Scenario, yeek, what can we do to prevent this?!
Imagination, my mind became totally absorbed (indicating great book) and could see the book in technicolour.
Great read
Tana
November 24, 2020
Marvellously readable and unforgettably vivid.
I can entirely imagine it being made into a film. Read it now before it is!
I can entirely imagine it being made into a film. Read it now before it is!
April 20, 2017
I'm a big fan of dystopian science fiction. I had recently met the author at one of her partners' concerts (he's a pianist) We got talking about what we do, as you do, and I was astonished to discover that she had just written a book in a genre that I knew well. Kate was very kind and sent me an advance copy of the book which I started reading with a bit of trepidation. I knew that she would want to get some feedback from me, and although I'm very honest it is often awkward giving negative feedback. Anyway from the first sentence it was clear that Kate knew what she was doing, poetic yet economic prose, very well rounded and real characters, and a premise and setup that was visceral, smelly, and believable. Tonally it reminded me of a cross between Paul Auster's In The Country for Last Things and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaiden's Tale. Both are set in post apocalyptic worlds and both also have a great kick ass female lead! as does Hoxton! I really liked her as a character, she felt real and very substantial, I liked her foibles and insecurities, desires and at times irrational behavior. The support characters where great and believable too particularly Jarvis. There was some lovely details all through the novel to do with cultural shifts, particularly in the differences between the zones. It's not explicit what cataclysmic event occurred to desolate society as we know it, but what is evident is that it happens pretty soon to our current timeline. The detritus of our contemporary culture all of a sudden becomes archeology something the Kate handles very well throughout the novel, sometimes in surprising and humorous ways. I particularly like the relationship and importance of the animals in Hoxton's life, and her reliance and co dependence on them. I'm not going to give any spoilers away, but the narrative structure is strong and kept me engaged in the characters and setting. I did love the detail of the world that Kate imagines but ultimately I'd say that it is the strength of characters and how they dealt with survival and adversity, particularly Hoxton, that really stood out for me.
May 2, 2017
One of the strengths of this intriguing book is its almost tangible sense of place. Kate has created a rich and extraordinary setting in Londonia, which can be clearly visualised, heard, smelled and even tasted. Although a post apocalyptic city, eccentric and dark at times, it is also an oddly familiar place with recognisable cultural references to the present and recent past.
The inhabitants of Londonia have adopted a patois influenced by French, which is an intrinsic element in the novel. This linguistic device adds depth, humour and character and I felt that the book would not have been the same without it.
Like the other reviewers, I believed totally in the eponymous Hoxton. She is a likeable and rounded character in this crazy world and the first person narrative brings her vividly to life.
This book touches on so many themes:- friendship, loyalty, family, politics, feminism, consumerism and numerous others. It is a curious, fascinating and well crafted novel.
The inhabitants of Londonia have adopted a patois influenced by French, which is an intrinsic element in the novel. This linguistic device adds depth, humour and character and I felt that the book would not have been the same without it.
Like the other reviewers, I believed totally in the eponymous Hoxton. She is a likeable and rounded character in this crazy world and the first person narrative brings her vividly to life.
This book touches on so many themes:- friendship, loyalty, family, politics, feminism, consumerism and numerous others. It is a curious, fascinating and well crafted novel.
December 6, 2017
Really enjoyable read. Fast paced and intriguing. I loved Hoxton's story and the world she lives in. It was believable and multi -faceted. One of those books that stays with you. Excellent.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews