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Home > Categories > Books > Young Adult > The Erasure Initiative review
I wake up, and for a few precious seconds, I don't realise there's anything wrong. The rumble of tyres on bitumen, and the hiss of air conditioning. The murmur of voices. The smell of air freshener. The cool vibration of glass against my forehead.
A girl wakes up on a self-driving bus. She has no memory of how she got there or who she is. Her nametag reads CECILY. The six other people on the bus are just like her: no memories, only nametags. There's a screen on each seatback that gives them instructions. A series of tests begin, with simulations projected onto the front window of the bus. The passengers must each choose an outcome; majority wins. But as the testing progresses, deadly secrets are revealed, and the stakes get higher and higher. Soon Cecily is no longer just fighting for her freedom - she's fighting for her life.
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Review by: mizim (Miriam)
Dated: 11th of June, 2023
Most people will have heard of the Trolley Problem (a series of thought experiments in ethics and psychology, involving stylized ethical dilemmas of whether to sacrifice one person to save a larger number), The Erasure Initiative takes this idea and turns it into a psychological thriller. Cecily wakes up on a bus - no driver as it's fully automated - and fellow passengers, all who, like her, have no memory of who they are, where they come from or even if the name on their tag is theirs at all. After a while they begin to be asked a range of questions, easy at first but inevitably they begin to cause worry with the direction they're taking, and soon the stakes begin to rise.
People cramped into a small place are guaranteed to start sniping at each other, pushing each other's buttons and becoming suspicious of each other, throw in total amnesia and the tension soars through the roof. The people on the bus soon have to apply the trolley problem to themselves and their fellow passengers, leading to clashes between genders, ages and even just shirt colours. This was one of those days I was happy for a very quiet day at work, I didn't want to put it down. I'm really looking forward to seeing what else Wilkinson publishes.
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