Wardini Book review: Bite Risk – S.J. Wills (Simon and Schuster, $20.99)

Bite Risk is a ripper of a tale by S.J Wills

REVIEW

Sel Archer is a boy on a mission: to bend the rules and have as good a time as possible on the one night every month the kids can do as they like, confinement night.

Sel’s world looks like ours to a certain extent – schools, shops, communities – but there’s a virus in the bloodstream of every human that causes adults to “turn” on the full moon.

The word “werewolf” isn’t used in polite company, but that’s what we’re dealing with here. Society has developed procedures to deal with this: every adult has a young caretaker who makes sure their person is safely incarcerated on the night in question, and that secondary safety measures are in place should there be an escape.

The kids are also armed with tranquiliser guns in case of an uncontained breakout. It works - until it doesn’t.

Sel and his best friend Elena spend their time hanging out, visiting their (literally) old mate Harold at Shady Oaks retirement home, playing an online game called Happy Trappers and avoiding their nemesis, Ingrid, who seems to hate Sel for no apparent reason.

When odd things start to happen in their relatively safe and secure town of Tremorglade, Sel and Elena tune in to Harold’s suspicions about Sequest, the scientific group formed after the collapse of the world’s governments in the face of the virus.

Bite Risk is full of humour and adventure. The young protagonists, who are around 12 or 13, have to take charge as the adults around them are compromised during confinement, or oblivious to the suspicions the children have about the body currently governing them.

Complex issues around social manipulation, justice and truth are presented clearly enough for the intended audience of about 10 and up to comprehend, and the scenes of horror are just scary enough to satisfy readers who love a good monster story, like me. I loved it.