“You never know when everything is going to change, when everything you’ve taken for granted…is going to get smashed to pieces and you’ll realize that there’s nothing you can do, there’s no way out”, Will, the protagonist of the novel, confides to the reader. In The Returners, this is exactly what happens to 15 year old William Hodges. This dystopian novel, set in the very near future of 2016 England, examines issues relevant to current societies around the world: issues of politics, race, immigration, prejudice, and ethnic cleansing.

The novel is suspenseful, engaging, and disturbing. Dream sequences of historical attrocities, including WWII concentration camps and the Rwanda genocide, are constant throughout the book and may be disturbing to the reader. Themes include loss, grief, despair, bullying, regret, betrayal and redemption.

In spite of the weighty subject matter, the novel is exciting and profound, with plot twists unexpected by the reader. Recommended for those fans of dystopias.