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Blackout
I am on the run.
The police are chasing me
Because they think I'm a terrorist.
The trouble all began when my Dad hid the writer of a book called The Exploded in our house. It inspired a terrorist attack on London. That's why it's a BANNED book.
We live in dangerous times. The state says books have to be sweet and pleasant, so they don't inspire teenagers to commit violent crime. Get caught reading a banned book and you go to jail.
I thought the state was wrong.
How much harm can a book do?
Then I read one.
Now I'm about to commit murder.
Now I know better.
The police are chasing me
Because they think I'm a terrorist.
The trouble all began when my Dad hid the writer of a book called The Exploded in our house. It inspired a terrorist attack on London. That's why it's a BANNED book.
We live in dangerous times. The state says books have to be sweet and pleasant, so they don't inspire teenagers to commit violent crime. Get caught reading a banned book and you go to jail.
I thought the state was wrong.
How much harm can a book do?
Then I read one.
Now I'm about to commit murder.
Now I know better.
304 pages, Paperback
First published February 4, 2010
11 people are currently reading
124 people want to read
About the author
Sam Mills
29 books24 followersSamantha Mills
Sam Mills was born in 1975. After graduating from Lincoln College, Oxford University, she worked briefly as a chess journalist and publicist before becoming a full-time writer. She has contributed short stories to literary magazines such as Tomazi and 3am and written articles for the Guardian, The Weeklings and The Independent.
She is the author of 3 young adult novels, published by Faber, including The Boys Who Saved the World, which is currently being adapted for film and the award-winning Blackout. Her debut novel for adults, The Quiddity of Will Self (Corsair) was described by The Sunday Times as “an ingenious, energetic read” and the Guardian as “an extraordinary novel of orgiastic obsession.” Sam is one of the founding members of the Will Self Club.
Sam Mills was born in 1975. After graduating from Lincoln College, Oxford University, she worked briefly as a chess journalist and publicist before becoming a full-time writer. She has contributed short stories to literary magazines such as Tomazi and 3am and written articles for the Guardian, The Weeklings and The Independent.
She is the author of 3 young adult novels, published by Faber, including The Boys Who Saved the World, which is currently being adapted for film and the award-winning Blackout. Her debut novel for adults, The Quiddity of Will Self (Corsair) was described by The Sunday Times as “an ingenious, energetic read” and the Guardian as “an extraordinary novel of orgiastic obsession.” Sam is one of the founding members of the Will Self Club.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
October 12, 2019
Another one for the "Intriguing premise, BUT..." pile. Overly convoluted plot with too many things that didn't add up, a protagonist who was annoying as hell, clumsy dialogue and writing in general... I found the whole thing irritating and impossible to get into and couldn't wait for it to be over.
November 22, 2014
This was a quick read and definitely suspenseful. I feel like there is the potential for a really great book here, if only Mills had had a better editor. Despite the great outline for a plot (dystopian Big Brother government), I found much of the dialogue unrealistic and the main character annoying and one-dimensional. I felt like Mills thought she was creating multi-dimensional, realistic characteristics by making it hard to decide if they were good or bad, but it was done clumsily and instead came off as characters acting in contrast to what we knew about them already. The plot twists fell flat because the plot was already so entangled that nothing seemed unexpected anymore.
Blackout is 1984 updated for the modern age, with iPods and the Internet, but it doesn't offer enough innovation or quality to be a worthwhile replacement. You're better off just reading 1984.
(Also, the blurb on the back refers to Omar's book as The Exploded, while in the book itself it's called The Fall. How did no one catch that?)
Blackout is 1984 updated for the modern age, with iPods and the Internet, but it doesn't offer enough innovation or quality to be a worthwhile replacement. You're better off just reading 1984.
(Also, the blurb on the back refers to Omar's book as The Exploded, while in the book itself it's called The Fall. How did no one catch that?)
September 26, 2012
Waw waw waw !!!!! Le synopsis fait penser à "Fahrenheit 451" mais comme je ne l'avais pas lu, ça tombait bien et j'ai adoré le lire !! C'est vif, l'écriture puissante et prenante et le héros attachant même si par moment j'avais envie de le frapper.
Stefan est à la fois endoctriné par le gouvernement et l'Etat dans lequel il vit (delà, j'avais envie de le secouer pour le réveiller) et à la fois rebelle (ha enfin tu te réveilles). Le seul "hic" c'est que lorsqu'il se réveille, il devient énervant et j'avais l'impression qu'il prenait tout le temps de mauvaises décisions ou ne réfléchissait pas assez.
En tout cas, ça change des autres livres que j'ai lu car le héros est anti-héros en même temps.
Une belle découverte avec un épilogue...intéressant !!!!
A LIRE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Stefan est à la fois endoctriné par le gouvernement et l'Etat dans lequel il vit (delà, j'avais envie de le secouer pour le réveiller) et à la fois rebelle (ha enfin tu te réveilles). Le seul "hic" c'est que lorsqu'il se réveille, il devient énervant et j'avais l'impression qu'il prenait tout le temps de mauvaises décisions ou ne réfléchissait pas assez.
En tout cas, ça change des autres livres que j'ai lu car le héros est anti-héros en même temps.
Une belle découverte avec un épilogue...intéressant !!!!
A LIRE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
October 23, 2011
très bon roman d'anticipation, et aussi très surprenant, je ne m'attendais pas à ça de la part d'un roman jeunesse, le héros n'est pas vraiment un héros, avec tellement de faiblesses et de défauts mais aussi tellement crédible de la part d'un ado de 15 ans trop naïf; c'est très prenant, et bien écrit, et en bonus bourré de références pertinentes!
September 25, 2011
Eh, okay. Seemed a bit too much of telling-not-showing, though some turns of phrase were lovely. Stefan annoyed me to no end--something I don't appreciate in my protagonists--but developed quite nicely towards the end. It was a lovely sort of progression, gradual, almost like growing up. Plot was pretty cool too. It was the writing that didn't do it for me. Not a horrible book.
October 11, 2015
Great idea having the near future turn 1984ish. Books have been rewritten and kids are encouraged to turn in their parents or others. Unfortunately, though there is action aplenty, it is choppy and characters motivations are never explored. Just meh for me.
February 12, 2013
Boring, hated the main character throughout the book, couldn't even empathize with him. Most parts were pointless, it was a good idea for a book but it didn't captivate me. Complete waste of my time.
August 31, 2017
Oh my goood! I couldn't let this book down, I just had to finish it - and I did, in one night - thing that did not happen to me since forever ago! It is a tight gripping book, with an insightful view of today's society - and what it could be. I loved every second of it, even though I had a hard time with the main character, which I started to like only at near the very end - but it is only because he was brain-washed and I could not relate to him.
December 16, 2024
oh my god i was searching for this book for so long!!! i read it in middle school and it left such an impression on me and i just loved it so much and finally i found it!!! i need to read blackout again, see what my grown self thinks of it now. i remember it so fondly.
March 27, 2019
Blurred image of 1984
April 22, 2025
I loved the tension of this book! Everything happening at the same time made my heart rate rise a lot! I recommend this book to all types of readers.
May 24, 2025
read as a child - approx '09-'12
November 23, 2013
I have a lot of difficulty with dystopian books, which is why you'll find I review them very rarely. At their worst for me, they tend to slide into one, a sort of malleable 'future's bad but X can sort it out' plot which barely shifts from text to text. It's rare to find ones which get that but - make it their own, you know? That make this future, this hideously real future actually - real. Too real. Like, blink and it's here real.
Ladies and gentleman, I give you Blackout by Sam Mills. I came to this a bit blindly really, picking it up off the libray shelves by happenstance, and it was a little bit of a blank canvas. I didn't know the author, I didn't know the book.
Well, I do now. Mills has given us a scarily plausible future where books are rewritten, where reading banned books is a crime, and Stefan, the son of a bookshop owner, has just discovered that his Dad is hiding the author of one of the 'worst' in his house. It reads like a YA spin on 1984, with elements of Children of Men thrown in there for the mix, and it is a proper good book.
It's also one that's difficult to precis, in that the plot twists and folds upon itself, but if you know the references above, you've got a good idea of where this is going. Blackout also has some very skillful moments where the actual 'danger' of reading is discussed and the potential of a book to change the world - for good or for bad. There's a lot here that could be used in a classroom context or in a discussion of banning books.
What I love in Mills' prose is the way this all seems so, scarily, possible. This is skill, to make the horrific believable and actual. Though there are parts of this which sag, just a little, Blackout is a really really good book.
Ladies and gentleman, I give you Blackout by Sam Mills. I came to this a bit blindly really, picking it up off the libray shelves by happenstance, and it was a little bit of a blank canvas. I didn't know the author, I didn't know the book.
Well, I do now. Mills has given us a scarily plausible future where books are rewritten, where reading banned books is a crime, and Stefan, the son of a bookshop owner, has just discovered that his Dad is hiding the author of one of the 'worst' in his house. It reads like a YA spin on 1984, with elements of Children of Men thrown in there for the mix, and it is a proper good book.
It's also one that's difficult to precis, in that the plot twists and folds upon itself, but if you know the references above, you've got a good idea of where this is going. Blackout also has some very skillful moments where the actual 'danger' of reading is discussed and the potential of a book to change the world - for good or for bad. There's a lot here that could be used in a classroom context or in a discussion of banning books.
What I love in Mills' prose is the way this all seems so, scarily, possible. This is skill, to make the horrific believable and actual. Though there are parts of this which sag, just a little, Blackout is a really really good book.
November 28, 2012
Blackout is the first book by Sam Mills I’ve read, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I’m not a YA but tend to read a lot of YA books as I tend to like the themes better. However I’d been through a few ‘duds’ in the genre lately and was apprehensive about this one.
Blackout is the story of a boy, Stefan who lives in a future London where many books are banned, the penalty for being in possession of a banned book is severe. His father owns a bookshop and tried to pass his love for books onto his son, but that’s a far more of a difficult task when the books that are currently allowed are dull, safe and don’t promote emotions like books should. The reason books are banned is all related to terrorism and rings very true in the current climate, Mills has picked a subject and run with a very good and thought provoking ‘what could happen’..
I don’t like to give away the plots and twists of books I review, but the general story arc surrounds Stefan’s discovery that his father is hiding a writer of a banned book, one related to terror no less.
Despite my reservations, Mills proves there is still live in the YA genre, and her gritty, troubling and touching story, with characters that are not always likeable, but definitely human is a must read. There are some negatives, I felt the core of the story took a while to get going, and it could of gone longer and further.
I’m looking forward to sampling Mills other offerings and I didn’t want the book to end, always a good sign!
Blackout is the story of a boy, Stefan who lives in a future London where many books are banned, the penalty for being in possession of a banned book is severe. His father owns a bookshop and tried to pass his love for books onto his son, but that’s a far more of a difficult task when the books that are currently allowed are dull, safe and don’t promote emotions like books should. The reason books are banned is all related to terrorism and rings very true in the current climate, Mills has picked a subject and run with a very good and thought provoking ‘what could happen’..
I don’t like to give away the plots and twists of books I review, but the general story arc surrounds Stefan’s discovery that his father is hiding a writer of a banned book, one related to terror no less.
Despite my reservations, Mills proves there is still live in the YA genre, and her gritty, troubling and touching story, with characters that are not always likeable, but definitely human is a must read. There are some negatives, I felt the core of the story took a while to get going, and it could of gone longer and further.
I’m looking forward to sampling Mills other offerings and I didn’t want the book to end, always a good sign!
April 7, 2023
Book 7/80 - paperback - finished: 29th January 2022
Blackout by Sam Mills
🌟🌟🌟
‘The trouble all began when my Dad hid the writer of a book called The Exploded in our house. It inspired a terrorist attack on London. That's why it's a BANNED book.’
I was recommended this by a Y10 student and it was an interesting read. I don’t read a lot of science fiction/dystopian books so I was excited to give this a try. I feel like if I was 15 I would have LOVED this book.
It’s told from the perspective of Stefan, a bookseller's son, after the government has become this hyper-involved entity within people’s lives. Books are rewritten to have more ‘acceptable’ plots and outcomes and the old versions are banned and taken away by the police. People that try to read these banned books or join this underground group called the Words can be taken away, imprisoned or brainwashed and released into society.
This was quite interesting because it was so different from what I normally read so I didn’t quite know what to expect with it. I gave it 3 out of 5 because I wish that it had spent longer exploring this new Britain and the different rules that the country had. I do get though, that it’s from the perspective of a teenage boy so he’s not exactly going to spend 40 pages explaining how everything came about and the ins and outs of the new system.
I think it was nice that it was different and I’m glad I read it because it was recommended to me but it was 3*
Blackout by Sam Mills
🌟🌟🌟
‘The trouble all began when my Dad hid the writer of a book called The Exploded in our house. It inspired a terrorist attack on London. That's why it's a BANNED book.’
I was recommended this by a Y10 student and it was an interesting read. I don’t read a lot of science fiction/dystopian books so I was excited to give this a try. I feel like if I was 15 I would have LOVED this book.
It’s told from the perspective of Stefan, a bookseller's son, after the government has become this hyper-involved entity within people’s lives. Books are rewritten to have more ‘acceptable’ plots and outcomes and the old versions are banned and taken away by the police. People that try to read these banned books or join this underground group called the Words can be taken away, imprisoned or brainwashed and released into society.
This was quite interesting because it was so different from what I normally read so I didn’t quite know what to expect with it. I gave it 3 out of 5 because I wish that it had spent longer exploring this new Britain and the different rules that the country had. I do get though, that it’s from the perspective of a teenage boy so he’s not exactly going to spend 40 pages explaining how everything came about and the ins and outs of the new system.
I think it was nice that it was different and I’m glad I read it because it was recommended to me but it was 3*
October 26, 2014
Yes, I will be reading more Sam Mills books as soon as I can get my hands on them. I can see the Robert Cormier influence in her work, particularly in the way she is unafraid to break the conventions of the YA genre. Stefan isn't a plucky likable hero who the reader can easily identify with and root for. In the first paragraph he's introduced as a murderer who has just shot a woman in a bookshop. For the majority of the book Stefan is portrayed as a bratty brainwashed conformist yet Mills does a great job in showing how Stefan is a product of his environment and its brutal conditioning. The one act that ultimately gives Stefan's character a sense of nobility is the final reveal that the book 'Blackout' is Stefan's own story, an uncensored un-heroic account of his choices and his ordeals.
There is no easy division of good vs evil, right & wrong in this narrative. Instead the dangers tend to come from extremists on both sides of the conflict who use books as excuses for oppression or terrorism. Books can be dangerous if people make them dangerous. Stefan's father talks to his son about how books are lies but books are also the truth. In the end, Stefan is committed to telling the truth and spreading the word, despite fears of how his own book may bring danger to his readers.
There is no easy division of good vs evil, right & wrong in this narrative. Instead the dangers tend to come from extremists on both sides of the conflict who use books as excuses for oppression or terrorism. Books can be dangerous if people make them dangerous. Stefan's father talks to his son about how books are lies but books are also the truth. In the end, Stefan is committed to telling the truth and spreading the word, despite fears of how his own book may bring danger to his readers.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 11, 2011
I was intrigued to read this following a few recommendations and was pleasantly surprised. As an English teacher how could I not adore the message this book preaches?
Each time I put the book down I found myself reflecting on the importance of literature (and TV, Cinema etc) in the development of our personalities and expanding our horizons. The passage regarding Lady Chatterley's Lover, although being a bit risque, was beautifully written, the reassurance and freedom it gave to Stefan felt vivid and real.
Well worth the investment of a few evenings reading this.
Each time I put the book down I found myself reflecting on the importance of literature (and TV, Cinema etc) in the development of our personalities and expanding our horizons. The passage regarding Lady Chatterley's Lover, although being a bit risque, was beautifully written, the reassurance and freedom it gave to Stefan felt vivid and real.
Well worth the investment of a few evenings reading this.
June 9, 2011
I read this book for the Lancashire Book of the Year award and thought it was excellent. It was gripping, fast moving and unique. The idea of illegal books changing people is very clever, and the story delt with a teenage going through this ordeal, as well as covering some typical teenage problems, such as drug addictions and curiousity. Though there was swearing, I believe used in moderate ammounts, it is very effective.
June 15, 2011
Brillant! Well, sort of. This book was not very clearly defined, a bit confusing at times, and quite ushed, it seemed. But i suppose that rushed style is an indication of what was occuring. All in all, I would say that this book, despite not being good enough to put in my 'cherishable' shelf, was a bit alright. I wouldnt reccomend it to anyone in search of something that would blow them to peices. Its alright if you're bored, I guess.
March 16, 2011
Oh this book is great! It was like the discussions you have after reading the likes of 1984. Some fab lines in it that I'm sure I've heard somewhere before, possibly in my own head! I'm hoping it'll encourage teens to read the banned books and consider the power of words.
The perfect drug for a book and word junkie!
The perfect drug for a book and word junkie!
June 8, 2020
I brought this book a while back when borders was closing down and can't believe I just left it on my shelf collecting dust. This is a book that I will re-read over and over again and can't wait for my cousin to get a bit older so I can lend it to him to read. I'm sure he will love it. This book will stay in my mind and heart for a very long time.
March 12, 2011
Fantastic - a novel that captures the zeitgeist and packages it for young adults. Some wonderful description within the text. Reading this could change your life like the novels it pays homage to - 1984, Lord of the Flies.
December 2, 2011
Dystopian, immediate-future London? Banned books? Teenage protagonist with divided loyalties? Shadowy secret organisations? Of course I had to read it all at once in two hours in the middle of the night!
September 13, 2015
I really enjoyed this book although would have loved another one and more details on the institute which were just skirted through. Also, wanted more made of Sally. Saying that, loved the ideas, loved the plot and think it would make a great film!
November 18, 2015
No. This book is totally and utterly ridiculous. It's so badly written. I mean, the ending! Ugh. The annoyance probably comes from having to read it too. I wish I could forger about but the coming 10 weeks it will be in my life twice a week. Here we go...
March 15, 2017
Super good start. OK Book.
May 23, 2011
A very different perception of the book world and censorship. Takes you to a different world. But could have been better. Over all a different book.
May 3, 2012
enjoyed it but felt the end dragged on quite a bit
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June 14, 2013Rigtig god bog om samfundet, morale og teenageproblemer:)
December 20, 2013
I liked this book. At the beginning I didn't expect to like it. But after a few pages I started to find it interesting. It's a nice book, but it's not one of my favorites.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews