The Drowing Day

by Anne Cassidy

When the floods come, truth rises to the surface… It’s 2052, a time when enormous floods can devastate the land at any moment. Jade lives in the Wetlands, a place that will be devastated by the floods. Safety can be found behind the walls of North-Hampton, but it’s a town steeped in prejudice against Wetlanders. When the siren sounds the flood-warning, Jade and local boy, Bates, must join with outcast Samson to head to North-Hampton. But the threesome are carrying secrets, secrets that are even more dangerous than the impending floodwaters. A thrilling, thought-provoking story of survival and hope, from the award-winning author of Looking For JJ.

Genres: Dystopia, Middle Grade

164 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 7, 2022

Reviews

[Les McFarlane · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read but so close to the knuckle of truth that I wouldn’t say it was an easy read. Really well written which made it a pleasure. It moved at a real pace, no time to get bored!

[Philippa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to the author, the publisher and Netgalley for giving me this ebook in return for a review.
I chose to request this book because I had read and thoroughly enjoyed two of Ms Cassidy’s other books, Looking for JJ and its sequel. I’ve been able to recommend them to students on many occasions. This book is aimed at a younger audience, I would say but should appeal to a broad base of young adult readers.
The book takes place about 30 years in the future after an ecological disaster caused by the melting of the ice caps. Our protagonist, Jade, aged 12, has to travel inland like the rest of her beach dwelling neighbours for protection as the water rises. The hope is that this will be a temporary state of affairs and that they will be able to return after the floods have receded. We follow Jade and her friend, Bates on their journey to the inland town, through the troubles of death, grief, a missing sister and a mysterious treasure. As well as a theft and a meeting with a group of people who are called ferals who’ve somehow got a resurgence of Small Pox.
The storyline is strong and moves at a cracking pace. It doesn’t patronise and gives us a solid, likeable and dependable heroine who is keen to find her own way in life. There is little time to discuss motivations or develop relationships here but the story is about confronting your fears and dealing with grief, so whilst it may lack those qualities for an adult, overall I don’t think it would bother its main target audience.
The thing that struck me most was how appropriate it would be for a classroom setting. Whilst it has a female lead, it does have many male characters around her that young boys would be able to latch on to and identify with. Its issues of environmentalism and epidemics seem very up to date and relevant - perfect for class discussions and non-fiction based writing.
Perfect reading for an 11 year old who likes dystopia but maybe is not quite ready for The Hunger Games or Divergent.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dystopian novel, set in mid 21st century Britain, following two Great Floods which, as the result of climate change, have destroyed much of the South East and East coast of Britain and have left much of the area as wetland where communities struggle to survive, using whatever means left to them.
This is one of those novels where it feels very wrong to say that you enjoyed it. It is prophetically terrifying, especially considering it is set only 20-30 years from now, and many of the effects of climate change mentioned are already all too obvious.
The characters, their relationships, and the way communities are portrayed as coming together to help and support each other, is what raises this story from a level of despair. Yes, there are still those characters who take advantage of the situation, and there is still exploitation and discrimination in society (dystopian, not Utopian), but there is hope in the way many ordinary people pull together.
This said, the novel is a stark and timely warning to us all that we are running out of time to save our planet and humanity. I think that this should be included in every secondary/high school library and used to start those important, albeit uncomfortable, discussions we all need to be having right now.

[Sehnthujan Bajeekaran · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first option about this Dystopia book set in the future, is that it's the story is really super doing by Anne Cassidy (the author behind: the "Jennifer Jones" series, "The Murder Notebooks" series, "No Virgin" series, "East End Murders" series and other standalones books written by her). the main characters (Jade, Bates and Samson) are starting to become my favourite characters as I started to read the book since the near near-end of February 2023. Also the world of the book has dragged me to follow the journey of the threesome, who each carrying secrets with them, and how it will end. Secondly, this book of fictional survival has a lot of different vocabulary that I have discovery whilst reading the book, plus I didn't know each of it's means, but I created a list of these so I can find out the meaning of each word. Additionally, there was a few twists and thrills in this book that made me love the author and the book wasn't even boring at all.

[Brenda Daniels · Rating 3 out of 5]

In The Drowning Day Anne Cassidy creates a convincing future world, set in England, in which people from coastal areas have to flee to higher ground because of rising sea levels due to climate change. In the background are two other serious themes: pandemic-type illness, and child slavery/sex trafficking. The three themes teach lessons of climate responsibility, avoiding stereotyping, and seeing through the injustice of the upper and lower class system. The language is very simple, and the story is exciting, with child characters Jade, Mona, Bates and Samson suffering either loss of family through death or separation, ostracism, slavery, or the responsibilities of adulthood. It’s a book that imagines what the children of our generation might have to bear should we do nothing about climate change now.

[Brigita · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Drowning Day is a dystopian middle-grade adventure story - a combination that makes it a fast and suspenseful read. I liked that, despite the post-apocalyptic situation, what the story focused on was Jade and Bates's adventure, rather than putting the devastated nature to the forefront. This way it avoids being preachy and makes sure children will devour it. That doesn't mean, however, that the novel isn't thought-provoking, especially after the emotional opening. The floods that devastate the land are very believable in light of the global warming we're experiencing today and that makes them scary and perhaps a little less in the fantasy genre realm.

Highly recommend it!

Thank you, UCLan Publishing and NetGalley, for the advanced copy.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in a dystopian future thirty years from 2022, this middle grade novel explores the harrowing effects of global warming and the dire consequences we could all face if humanity doesn't do more to save the extraordinary planet we're living on. Swept up in grief, loss, and survival of the oncoming tide that threatens to flood the land and drown all its inhabitants, The Drowning Day is a moving book with friendship and found-family at its heart that, hopefully, readers will be impacted by and take further steps to determine a greener way of living.

[Penny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in the mid 21st Century in the South East of England, amidst a dystopian landscape caused by flooding, this story tells the tale of three children, Jade, Bates and Samson as they try to make it to North-Hampton before it closes off.

Each has their own reason for journeying to the relative safety of the city... and these reasons are potentially more dangerous than the ever-encroaching flood waters.

This is a very topical story and would definitely promote discussion around the impact of climate change. The characters are likeable and the story moves at a good pace.

[Fiona · Rating 4 out of 5]

A middle grade book set in the near future where climate change has caused widespread destruction. The friendship that develops between the three main characters is heartwarming, given the prejudices of the adults in the story. This is a society divided by fear, greed and bigotry - nothing much changes.
A thoughtful, well observed novel that should encourage debate amongst its young readers. Anne Cassidy at her best!

[Jovelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is probably the best dystopian novel I have ever read!
Although it is really short, it's also really well-written and engaging. It is about as unique a premise as can be with the genre, and the characters and plot are all very well crafted.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this dystopian story about a 12-year old girl who is trying to escape the rising waters in her town and escape to the safety of North-Hampton with her friends and family, including her unwell granddaddy.

The writing is really well done and then story is nice and easy to follow making it a great story for the younger readers that it is aimed towards.

There is also great character development and underlying themes that tell people to quite literally "not judge a book by it's cover" and to learn to know people before you judge them in anyway.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who asked me.

Thankyou to NetGalley and UCLan Publishing for this ARC.

[Freddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the story-telling: fast-paced, no cliché characters, setting up a dystopian society and a race against a natural disaster without being emotionally taxing or stressful on the reader.