Anomaly by Emma Lord

With a string of awards going to Anomaly, (Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards 2025, Aurealis Awards 2024 and Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children's Literature shortlist 2025) I knew that the book was going to be a great read and I was not disappointed. I was unable to put it down, reading it in a couple of sittings while following the plight of Piper Manning, a young woman who has survived the apocalypse. She has stayed on an isolated farm with her dog Griff as companion, learning to control the electricity that surges through her afterr the virus attacked her. When she finds Seth, an injured boy on the shoreline close to her home she cannot leave him, although she doesn’t know if he can be trusted. Together they face the danger that is following closely behind him.  What will they encounter as they try to find sanctuary? Can Piper use her strange new power to defeat the enemy?

Anomaly is a tense, exciting novel with all the best features of the dystopian genre: relatable characters, exciting chases, dangerous allies and a desolate countryside. Piper is an engaging character, who is trying to come to grips with ghosts from her past as well as her dangerous new power. Seth is hiding many secrets which, when revealed, will prove surprising and the force that is hunting the pair is very frightening. The reader will be dragged along as Piper tries to find answers to her new power in the community that Shepherd their leader dominates and will be thrilled as new danger threatens her and Seth.

Anomaly is a very suspenseful, edgy novel with an ending that leaves room for a sequel. Readers may enjoy other dystopian novels like the classic Z For Zachariah by Robert O’Brien, Tomorrow when the war began series by John Marsden and Sunny at the end of the world by Steph Bowe.

Themes: Dystopian fiction, End of the world, Viruses, Memory, Survival.

Pat Pledger