The Fallen Children
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: BUY
Source: Waterstones at YALC

Young people on the Midwich Estate don't have much hope for their futures. Keisha has lived there her whole life, and has been working hard to escape it; others have just accepted their lot.

But change is coming . . .

One night, everyone inside Midwich Tower falls mysteriously unconscious in one inexplicable 'Nightout'. No one can explain what happened during those lost hours, but soon afterwards Keisha and three other girls find they're pregnant - and the babies are growing at an alarming rate.
As the news spreads around the tower, its residents turns against them and the situation spirals toward violence. Keisha's life unravels as she realises that the pregnancy may not have just ruined her hopes for the future: she might be mother to the end of the world.

The Fallen Children is a story of violation, of judgement and of young people who must fight to defy what is expected of them.


I was sitting at the SFF now panel at YALC and there was an author there called David Owen and I knew I recognised the name. When he said he was the author of The Fallen Children, it clicked where I knew him from. Almost everyone on my Twitter has been talking about this book but I knew virtually nothing about it. When he gave us a synopsis, I was instantly transfixed...

What I found most interesting about this story is that it's a contemporary setting with elements of sci-fi. Sci-fi in YA is something I don't come across as much as I'd like to, so finding a book that is sci-fi AND contemporary, is somewhat of a rare find for me. Especially when the book involves extraterrestrial beings...

The story is told from several different character's points of view. Something I usually really dislike as it leads to a lot of confusion on my part but David has written characters with so much individuality, that I didn't even need the headings to tell me who's chapter it was. I usually find a book with several narrators isn't very flow-y and some narrator changes feel very abrupt, but this book most definitely changed my opinion on that.

The story focuses on four women, who wake up one day, to find that they have all been impregnated and the babies inside them are growing at a rather rapid rate. Let's rewind a little there...

Keisha, Maida, Siobhan and Olivia are all very different girls, from very different backgrounds, but all reside in the same block of flats. One night, Midwich Tower is involved in what is described as "Nightout". Everyone falls unconscious but when everybody in the Tower awakens, there are four new residents...

Over the coming days, all four girls realise that they're pregnant and all cope with it in very different ways. They all feel violated and realise something very unnatural is happening to them. One of the girls was live gaming when the "Nightout" occurred and she managed to capture some footage of their attacker on her webcam. What they uncovered was not what they expecting...

I can't say too much more without spoiling the book and I most definitely do not want to do that.

I just want to applaud David Owen right now for making some really adult content and themes, YA friendly. A lot of books handle this poorly, which is why I'm so in love with this one. It's most definitely a must-read from me.