Mhairi has left the Sudan while the world is in turmoil due to global climate change. She is trying to get back to Scotland, to the Isle of Arran where she was born and where her grandmother lives. She loses everything and sees death first hand. This book is terrifying. It asks such powerful questions like - what will the world be like when climate change makes everything different? What rules and laws will be put into place to prevent anarchy and will anarchy happen anyway? The book is about how a young person copes with severely traumatic events by divorcing herself from her feeling but how her human nature cannot be put aside. She knows that looking after the young boy she finds along the road is foolish but she can't help looking after him just as he can't help needing her. I would highly recommend this book for the older young adult reader and adults also. It is very well written and I couldn't put it down.

I read many YA books, but I am so glad I chose to read this and recommend this to anyone, young or old(er)
This is a story about the highly possible results of climate change and the destruction being caused our future.
Mhairi Bain is a fantastic main character, and we follow her story as she struggles to find her way home and the boy she meets on her journey.

Nicky Singer has written a beautiful and thought provoking story that will stay with me for a while.

Thank you NetGalley for granting me access to this prior to publication. A chilling tale of what might yet come to pass.
In our future climate change has reached what might be seen as an inevitable conclusion. Parts of the world are inhospitable. The world’s population is moving northwards and, inevitably, some react better to this than others.
We follow 14-year old Mhairie as she escapes the detention centre she’s placed in after travelling illegally from Cairo following the death of her parents. She is determined to walk to Arran, the home of her grandmother. Along the way she reveals snippets of her story which it might be easy to miss as they’re quite understated. These snippets build a truly terrifying picture of this new reality.
Once she - and a young boy she saves en route - make their way to Arran it would be lovely to think their story was over. Far from it. In fact, it’s once they arrive with Mhairie’s grandmother that the difficult questions start.
Some very difficult questions raised in this, and the ending of the novel rather took my breath away.

This book wasn't just enjoyable, it felt educational.

Everyone has heard about the plight of refugees but for many of us living a relatively cosy life in the West, myself included, it's very hard to imagine what those fleeing horrific situations at home might be facing.

Mhairi is Scottish but has spent the last few years of her young life in the Sudan, where her parents worked, until global warming forces her northwards. North means freedom and life. The reader is dropped into her situation, when she has almost reached the safety of Scotland.

We find out, as Mhairi remembers, about the horrors she has faced. What happened to her family and to her friend Mohammed. 

Seeing Mhairi come to care about a young boy she found alongside the way was beautiful.
Her character's journey was one that reminded me about the importance of being kind, of not judging others before walking a mile in their shoes, and ultimately is one that I would recommend book clubs and teachers to utilise. 

Mhairi's experience shows how difficult reaching safety can be and while her story is fictional it really does pull at the heart strings. 

By the heart-stopping ending, I was completely enthralled by the world that Singer has created. There were a few sections towards the end of the book, once it seemed like the immediate danger to Mhairi might be over, that felt a little slow but overall The Survival Game barely slows down for a moment.

A gripping and emotional read. 

Thank you to Netgalley, Hachette Children's Group and Hodder Children's Books for the opportunity to read.

Captivating, mesmerizing, and so so powerful! Its been a long time since a book has moved me like this. Mhairi lives in the near future, where climate change is changing the world and melting the ice caps. Deserts have become unlivable and the global population is trying to migrate north. She is 14 ,not yet deemed and adult and trying to find her way back to her family in Scotland. She has to grow up quickly, relying on her intelligence, resourcefulness, cunning and bravery in her attempt to get home. 

The remarkable thing about this book is its power despite (or maybe because of) its lack of flowery prose. The writing is stark and simple yet paints vivid pictures and give the story authenticity. Primary themes are heavy hitting and thought provoking - migration, division of resources, what it means to be human. But there are so interesting philosophical elements too - concepts of time and sub-conscious. The story is so cleverly and subtly woven that I was hooked from the start and couldn't stop till the inevitable but unpredictable end. This author is clearly a master!

Mhairi Anne Bain is 14 and alone in an overpopulated and over heated world. She has one thought to get to her grandmother in Scotland and safety. She trusts no-one until a small boy gradually wheedles his way in, but she doesn't realise quite how much until tragedy threatens. I love dystopian worlds and as a teen I would have revelled in this book. The chapters are short and snappy; Mhairi doesn't have time to dream she concentrates on surviving and forgetting what has happened to her. The background to this story is particularly relevant to the world today. What if we were ones needing safety from a dangerous world?

What is it about :

A grim dystopian tale, set in the near future after climate change has changed the planet and its politics.

Mhairi Bain is left alone after her parents are killed and she’s travelled back from Sudan to her home in Scotland. She has suffered severe hardship and trauma and comes across a young, mute boy she calls Mo and claims to authorities , that he’s her brother. But this is called into question and she is brought to court for bringing an ‘illegal’ into the country. 

There are detention centres for people without documents and these are harsh, and there are deportations and punishments. To control the population people are given the needle when they reach 75, and in some circumstances you can gift your life years to others. 

What did I like :

I liked Mhairi, a 14 year old that has seen and done too much already at such an age. She is clearly traumatised and uses the ‘castle’ to store bad memories. Much like Sherlock Holmes has a mind palace. .


What I didn’t like so much: 

I would have liked a little more background into how the world climate had changed.

Would I recommend:

Absolutely, Nicky Singer has created a believable and awful world, which at times mirrors the current refugee crisis and the heartbreak this causes



I would like to thank the The author/the Publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a fair and honest review

This maybe listed as a young adults read, however it does contain very grown up themes and I enjoyed the ease of the read.
Another first for me, as I have never read anything by this author before. recommend it.

In a world full of checkpoints and controls, can love and hope defy the borders? A searing, timely story, as arresting as it is beautiful. 

Mhairi Anne Bain owns only two things: a gun with no bullets and her identity papers.

The world is a shell of what it once was. Now, you must prove yourself worthy of existence at every turn, at every border checkpoint. And if you are going to survive, your instincts will become your most valuable weapon.

Mhairi has learnt the importance of living her own story, of speaking to no one. But then she meets a young boy with no voice at all, and finds herself risking everything to take him to safety.

And so Mhairi and the silent boy travel the road north. But there are rumours that things in Scotland have changed since she has been away. What Mhairi finds there is shocking and heart-breaking, but might finally re-connect her to her sense of self and to the possibility of love.

An extraordinary story about survival and what it costs, about the power of small kindnesses to change everything.

"Remember, Papa said, whatever happens, the world is beautiful."

Take a terrifying dystopia where climate change has finally caught up with us.

Masses of people fleeing from famine, drought and war near the equator have given a new meaning to the European migrant crisis. Children have never received more special protection--in that, unlike those over the new age of majority of 15, they get nutritious food and a psychologist when they're detained at borders. Prisons have been abolished--because crime is punishable by forcing the criminal to undergo lethal injection earlier than the universally mandated death age of 74. It's in this world that Nicky Singer introduces Mhairi Anne Bain, a 14-year-old who by the second chapter confesses to us that she is twice a murderer.

Writing at a time when the migrant crisis has reached a watershed, Singer illustrates just how many times worse it could get with the climate change reckoning. Certain sequences are dead ringers for the chaos of Europe's migrant camps, from the Calais jungle to the Budapest Keleti station of which we all remember photos. The main difference is that The Survival Game transplants these scenes from continental European cities to the Scottish countryside. The end result is a little heavy-handed, and the message of look at what could happen could not be clearer, but the emotional notes ring true.

Through this nightmare that takes place less than a generation from now, The Survival Game tells an intimate, touching story of simple human kindness in the face of unspeakable cruelty. A mere vision of our darkest future wouldn't be anywhere near as compelling as the journey of one hardened girl and one selectively mute boy bound first by circumstance, then by love. It's a tragedy in and of itself that they're fourteen and six respectively, and have witnessed more horrors than most adults living in developed nations today. 

Mhairi is an indefatigable protagonist, resourceful to the point of travelling ten thousand kilometres through a dying world alone. She's nothing as simple as likeable; she's someone I want to give a big hug and keep safe forever. Same goes for the boy, eventually named Mo, who's far too pure for the insane world he grows up in. And for all of the other characters who help Mhairi and Mo along with the tiniest spoonful of compassion, since in this future, offering a blanket is a kindness beyond comprehension. This book understands and fosters empathy so well.

Minor caveat, the surreal writing style and extremely short, snapshot-like chapters (there are 110 in a 384-page novel) take some time to get used to. I promise that it's worth it. I couldn't stand the vague allusions and incomplete information at the start, but it grew on me big time. Eventually, the evasive narration makes for a powerful tool to demonstrate the trauma Mhairi suffered. The story is rather hazy and slow-paced at the start but it really does get much better.

Nicky Singer's prose is highly quotable and filled with insight. Normally, this amount of introspection in a dystopian novel would bother me, but it works in The Survival Game for a couple reasons: First, the book is pretty short and Mhairi's reflections are given time broken up with action. Second, Singer has a unique writing style that gives her narration a conversational tone without a hint of pretentiousness. That genuine voice helps her get away with a lot of YA tropes that would be annoying in another writer's hands. After all, migrant/borders twist aside, The Survival Game reads a lot like many other near future post-apocalyptic dystopias. It's Nicky Singer's knack for empathetic storytelling, first and foremost, that makes this one memorable.

One last thing I appreciate about The Survival Game is that, just as contemporary migrants' stories don't end when they reach the shores of Lesbos or Lampedusa, the story doesn't stop when Mhairi and Mo get to material safety. On one end, they carry a lifetime's worth of emotional scars; on the other end, the locals of their new home carry nativist fear that needs no introduction. The Survival Game handles both issues with tact and realism. I especially admire the ending, which gives a fitting tug at the heartstrings. It's beautiful in its own way.

I recommend this book to anyone with a love of gritty YA or grounded dystopias. You won't be disappointed. I love the story Singer has created, but for the sake of just about everyone, I hope it isn't prescient.

I loved everything about this book and it earned a rare 5 star rating from me. While this is classed as a YA book it tackles very adult themes including attempted rape and murder, consider yourself warned.

Some people may say do we need yet another YA dystopian story and I would say yes we definitely need this one, in fact I think all young people in privileged countries like the UK should read this to get an understanding of what it means to be a refugee, to have nothing or to have lost everything you ever had including your sense of self.

The dystopia in this book comes from a lack of resources left on earth and the fact that "Global Citizens" have signed up to an agreement (think Logan's Run) to control population. The usual refugee story is turned on its head because the main character Mhairi is a 14 year old Scottish expat trying to return to the Scottish Isle of Arran and finding that being from somewhere doesn't mean you are automatically welcomed back.

I loved the central characters Mhairi and Mo. Mhairi has done questionable things but as the book progresses we get to see how her character changes and how events lead her to act as she does. Mo never speaks a word and yet he has a major impact on the story, Mo will break your heart with his silence.

I like the fact that this book is not black and white it allows room for shades of grey. It asks the question in a world where resources are scarce how do you decide who gets what and should compassion for one person be put ahead of the needs of society as a whole? The fact is I can easily imagine the world of this novel becoming reality given the right circumstances.

Here are some quotes I just have to share

"Because this is what hope does, what the heart does. It refuses to know what the head knows."

"I used to think time was simple. And also numerical, that it ticked by at a certain rate. I have discovered that this is not true."

"But what about the no-real. the fictions? The things we make up ourselves and then give names to as if they were as real as rocks? Things like: 

Rules

Nations

Countries

And also borders.

Always borders.

Borders. Borders. Borders."

Who would like this book? I would recommend this to those who enjoy dystopian fiction with a deeper message that makes you think. This book will do that, it will break your heart and if you are anything like me you will want everyone to read it to learn about compassion. Seriously read it already and if you don't enjoy it you can always blame me.

I really enjoyed this book. It's refreshing (if that's the right word!) to read an apocalyptic story where the issues covered feel alarmingly and believably around the corner. Climate change renders the southern hemisphere unliveable and the resulting immigrants are now all moving north. Interestingly the main character Mhairi Bain tells this story of desperate and dangerous migration through the eyes of a 'western' child, trying to make her way home from Sudan to the Isle of Arran in Scotland. The story follows the extreme hardship faced, along with the development of her emotional and physical survival skills, as she makes her way through various border crossings pushing for home. As a YA novel, this is a wonderfully empathetic read where both sides of the immigration argument are laid bare. From the desperation, resourcefulness and humanity of the migrant, to the native communities determination to protect their resources in order to survive. Overall a very enjoyable read!

I read this in a week when the news was filled (as it still is) with the horrors of children snatched from their parents just because their parents seek to give them a chance of a better life, in a week where I read about a young Syrian girl in a refugee camp who had been walking on home made false limbs made out of trash. With such tragedies in the real world, a book about white, British refugees in a climate changed world seemed almost indulgent, but sometimes the horrors of the news can be too much and fiction can bridge the link between sympathy and empathy. I think this book achieved that, its harsh, uncompromising, uncomfortable truths very close to home. 
It's first person present, like so many YA (and non YA) fantasy/dystopia. Despite its prevalence it's a tricky tense to get right and I've given up on many a book which might have worked better in a more traditional third person past format. Here though, the tense works perfectly, adding to the unease and sense that anything that can happen. Mhairi is near the Scottish border, trying to get back to her Grandmother on the Isle of Aron. She's alone and she's travelled all the way from the Sudan. This is all we know and the story of how she came to be alone is slowly revealed through the book. She's also fourteen and hard enough to give Ayra Stark a run for her money, so when she falls in with a small refugee boy, compassion is the last emotion she feels. But somehow he gets under her skin, changing her plans and putting in place a series of events with no simple way out.
This is not an easy read, it's uncomfortable, shocking at times, desperately sad and terrifyingly prescient. Highly recommended.

Not at all what I was expecting, it was slow, but still had intrigue. Parts weren't fully explained... I still don't fully understand the castle references?? I wasn't sure where it was headed, however the end was emotional and makes you think!! I liked it but didn't love it.

The Survival Game is one of the best YA books I’ve read, told from the point of view of Mhairi, a tough fourteen year old travelling home from Sudan.
Set some time in the future, this book couldn’t be more relevant to the current immigration issues and fears. Mhairi is travelling home to the island of Arran in Scotland, when she accounters a small mute boy without a guardian. In a overcrowded world where the luxury of crossing any border is no longer an option without endless security checks and papers, will Mhairi and the boy find the place they belong. This is a fantastic read, so often we are led by our own emotions and the views of the media, this is an example of what could happen if we stand for nothing and fall for everything.

The reason I love dystopian fiction is that it makes an excellent vehicle for telling a story, really exploring what character’s do when you shove their backs against a wall. Honour, pity, compassion and even morality become luxuries rather than essentials in those circumstances. I suppose that’s why I’m a sucker for ruthless protagonist who nevertheless manage to hold on to a certain level of humanity. I just didn’t feel like that about this book. It was pretty standard YA dystopian fare with a likeable enough MC. It was a swift read and asked some interesting questions. I did like the book. But it didn’t rock my world. I think those who have read less dystopian fiction will get more out of it – some may even find it revelatory. It had less effect on me because I’ve been asking myself the questions it propounds since Louise Lawrence’s Children of Dust. A good book but a bit samey for me. Recommend for the generation that missed out on the Hunger Games.

A gripping YA dystopian novel. The main character did irritate me at times with some of her decisions and thoughts, but  as a 14 year old the character is portrayed very well. My favourite character was little Mo. 
I enjoyed the plot, I can definitely see some of these things happening in the future (especially the tagging, which I was actually discussing with my partner before I reached that point in the book!) And there were a few edge of my seat moments.
I certainly did not see the ending coming, and it broke my heart. If you like fast paced, first person dystopian novels I recommend The Survival Game.
3.5 stars (rounded to 4)

I loved this book so much. As a young adult dystopian novel, I didn't know what to expect when it came to The Survival Game, but what I got was so much more. Set in the not so distant future, the story follows 14-year-old Mhairi as she travels from Sudan back to her homeland Scotland after the collapse of the world due to climate change. We join her already in England when she comes across a small boy. Despite her best efforts to remain alone and unrestricted, they become travel companions. What blossoms is something so much more as Mhairi learns what love, family and friendship is in a new and broken world.

Told in both the present as these two companions make their way through England and across the border into Scotland, and also back into Mhairi's recent past over the previous 12 months as she made the thousands of miles from the Sudan to somehow make it home. Through doing so she learns that 'home' is more than just a place. It's the people you love and the people you refuse to lose.

The Survival Game is slow to start but once it grips you, you are unable to put it down. Beautifully written, it is a wonderful exploration of what it is to be human. Our fears, our distrustful nature, our exploitation of power but also our capacity to love. With echoes of current affairs - the climate and migration -The Survival Game provides snapshots of a possible future which are uncomfortable and hit a little close to home. Both Mhairi and the boy are wonderful characters and I became invested in their journey, wanting to know where it ended. And wow, what an ending. Emotional and moving, it left me in tears.

Although The Survival Game is a young adult novel, I would say it was 14+ at least due to the content and topics covered, however this is a story that adults would no doubt enjoy too.

This is an older MG, younger teen and YA book that every adult should read.

Nicky Singer perfectly captures the likely dilemmas we will be facing as climate change hits us harder, and refugees will not just be fleeing aggressive regimes but aggressive weather conditions.

We follow MAB - Mhairi Anne Bain, as she travels north, making her way through many and dubious ways from the encounter with Saharan border guards where her parents died, to the place she thinks of as home - where her Grandmother still lives - the Isle of Arran.  There are plenty of triggers for me on her journey, not least a tour of Glasgow that is both vivid and frightening.

The story is gripping and relentless.  The voice of Mhairi is clear, concise, and takes you through all the dangerous things in her past that she keep reliving until she consigns them to the 'Castle' to be locked safely away.  It's a great coping mechanism.  The voice of the boy she befriends is even clearer - amazingly, because he is mute.

This is a brilliant book, which I recommend to all.  Not just because of the dangers, institutional barriers faced, and cruelty of people in charge of inhumane conditions, but also because of the moral dilemmas Mhairi's Grandmother expounds.  We should all do to think on these things, and think deeply.

An immediate addition to my list for Book of the Year.

I had forgotten what this book would be about when I read it.  I had no idea beyond the title which is misleading - survival is not a game in a baking hot world where north is safe and Scotland is safest - until it isn’t.  The central character talks to people who have taught her things and we hear of her journey across the world to get to the aisle of Arran.  And, in following her, we learn something about how teenagers can teach older folk what it is to be truly human, and six year olds know even more.  Clever, moving book which I will be recommending to everyone.

For readers who enjoyed books such as Hunger Games, this is another 'future world' fiction with a strong female character. Mhairi has had what sounds like a strong moral and humane upbringing by loving parents but is now alone in a world falling apart, presumably due to climate change. Survival and belonging are the two key themes. This book has great potential and I will be recommending it. However the references to 'Castle' by Mhairi are not clear and are never really explained. It feels like the author had some clear thought process going on in her head but never really explained it to us reading the text so we are left guessing in rather an unsatisfactory way. Apart from that a great read, good for teens too. Will there be a follow up?