Living Hell – Catherine Jinks
Allen & Unwin, 2007
281 pages
RRP: AU$16.95
ISBN: 978-1-74114-828-2

Reviewed by Nicolee Baxter

Travelling through space in search of a habitable planet, 1400 humans alternate between stasis and active duty on the ship. When the ship passes through a strange emission wave, it mutates into an organic lifeform. The ship’s non-organic systems suddenly begin to behave in a manner similar to the human immune system. These systems identify the human crew as foreign invaders and begin to attack them.

Living Hell is told from the point of view of Cheney, a 17 year old boy and member of the active crew. There are also a number of other young characters of varying ages. The kids are not particularly heroic or extraordinary in their actions but the way they cope with their traumatic situation does portray them with a plausible heroism. The reader experiences the characters’ horror as they struggle to survive in an inescapable environment that was once safe and protective but now bristling with hostility. The characters also have to deal with the death of colleagues and family members.

I think the target audience of ages 12+ will identify with the 17 year old character and narrator of the story, appreciating the events from Cheney’s perspective. However, the writing is so good that even as an adult reader I found the book thoroughly entertaining . Despite the target audience, the story is not overly simplified or romanticised. The young characters are dealing with death and trauma and there is a realistic but positive ending rather than a fairy tale ending. The dialogue and actions of the characters are completely natural and appropriate to the action unfolding in the story.

Although the genre is science fiction, there are no overly-technical scientific concepts to grasp. Interestingly, the story explores how humans cope with technology behaving like an organism as opposed to technology behaving like a machine.

I didn’t think Living Hell would appeal to me as much as it did due to the target audience of the book but I was totally wrong. I would recommend it for all ages. Catherine Jinks writes across a number of genres and for both adult and young readers.