Future Girl

Piper McBride is a sixteen year old girl in a near future Melbourne, Australia. She also happens to be deaf. In this imagined world everyone must eat what is called Recon, a nutritionally balanced chemical mix supposedly tailored to the nutritional needs of the consuming individual. It is possible to grow real food, known as ‘wild’ food. But to do so is considered radical and eccentric. Piper’s mother Irene McBride plays a key role in the regime. She is the chief research scientist at the company that manufactures Recon. In this book Piper grows into her deaf identity and learns to question what she thought she knew about the safety of Recon.

The most striking feature of this book is that Piper is deaf. Her deafness does indeed have major impact on her life. But it is very far from the only thing the reader learns about Piper and it is far from being the dominant feature of her character in the novel. There are certain aspects of this story of a disabled character which a disabled reviewer recognises as the sign that the author shares the experience of an impairment. The range of emotions Piper feels in relation to her deafness is huge, and all these emotions are convincingly displayed. Two of the other characters in the book are also disabled. One is deaf and the other is a wheelchair user. They both exert a truly positive influence on Piper’s life. She has a boyfriend whose hearing is unimpaired. His mother however is deaf. She is the one who teaches Piper to sign. The relationship between teacher and pupil is exquisitely portrayed. Asphxia’s artwork is so potent that it almost becomes a character in its own right. The book will be read with profit and pleasure by all readers, whether or not disabled.