End Of Story by Louise Swanson (Audiobook)

 

In the near future fiction, in any format, is banned. Books, writing and TV are all banned. Fern Dostoy, a once famous author, now works as a hospital cleaner and is regularly visited by government officials to ensure she isn't writing. Through journal entries Fern chronicles joining an underground organisation that runs a telephone hotline reading bedtime stories to children. As Fern becomes more involved the risk of being discovered and punished becomes greater.

This is a fantastic addition to the genre of dystopian fiction. Author Louise Swanson has set it just near enough in the future to make many of the technological advances seem reasonable and sit easily alongside the everyday objects we have now. We see that there is a fine line between advanced technology making our lives easier and the ability for organisations to track our every movement, internet search and communication.

Even more disturbing is the banning of books. When fiction holds a light to some questionable practises by government organisations it is quickly banned. Writers are relocated, publishers closed down and only state run bookshops selling approved non-fiction exist. The idea of censorship is appalling, a means of controlling information and the population.

End Of Story isn't just about how the restrictions are a form of oppression, it's also about how the lack of story-telling has an impact on children. A lack of stories inhibits creativity and imagination and this is having a negative impact on the mental health of children.

When Fern learns of an organisation that reads stories to children you feel rebellious and joyful, knowing that the human spirit, the thirst for fiction, cannot be quashed. There is also the growing sense of fear as through journal entries we learn not only of the visits by officials who check up on authors but also of the punishments that are carried out for those people who break the law.

Slowly, as I became more and more engrossed by the story, I started to piece things together and I had an inkling of where the story was heading. I only guessed a fraction of what was happening, Louise Swanson has produced a work of fiction that kept me engrossed, involved, terrified and surprised. My only criticism is that I wish I'd read this rather than listened to the audiobook as I kept wanting to go back and check parts of the story.

End Of Story by Louise Swanson will be published in hardback, ebook and audio format on 23rd March 2023. My thanks to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton Audio for a review copy.