Review: Year One by Nora Roberts
Year One, along with the subsequent parts of the trilogy, has become part of my re-read rotation. You probably have some of your own, those books that you know well and come back to when life is so busy and demanding that you need to be reading or listening to something that doesn’t require your full attention. Where you know what’s going to happen, so that you can enjoy the story without anxiety for what may be about to come.
Year One
Piatkus, 2017
Year One is the first in a trilogy: The Chronicles Of The One. It begins on a farm in Dumfries, Scotland (and features a truly shocking Scottish accent or two on the part of the Audible narrator. She’s brilliant for the rest of it though, so I’ll forgive her) with a family gathering to celebrate Hogmanay and the start of a new year. As the family depart and each head away to their own destinations, they carry with them the beginning of a deadly virus which will soon spread across the globe.
Written and released in 2017, the world had experienced a couple of viral outbreaks which had threatened to spread wildly - swine flu, avian bird flu - and perhaps these influenced or inspired Roberts in the writing of the book. In the first couple of chapters, she tells of the rapid spread of the virus, and the ensuing breakdown of civilised society, as hospitals, communications networks and supply chains become overwhelmed and then break down. I read (listened) to this first in late 2019, when I was coming to the end of a job with an hour-each-way commute. There were many times I had to sit in the car for a few minutes when I arrived at work, in order to listen to ‘just a little bit more’, as each subsequent chapter built up the drama and tension. So when, just a few months later, we experienced our very own IRL pandemic, it was hard not to think back to the utter chaos Roberts depicted in Year One and be just a little bit afraid. My food stores were well built up within days of the first Covid rumours, that was for sure!
Thankfully our experience of pandemic life was, while not exactly fun, significantly less apocalyptic than the Year One tale. A third of the global population dies within the first weeks of this imagining, and societal collapse does for a lot more. Even on re-reads, I’m right in amongst the fear and confusion. Roberts gradually introduces a cast of characters which the reader gets to know well throughout the trilogy. Not every character makes it, though, and others will be put through terrifying ordeals time and again.
It’s a bit of everything, Year One. It’s dystopia, for sure. There’s fantasy, with some survivors discovering previously unsuspected powers in the days following the pandemic. But it’s also family epic, and coming-of-age, good-versus-evil, drama and societal commentary. The One (of the trilogy’s title) takes their time about appearing, but the thread of the coming saviour is woven throughout this first book. The world-building is as good as many I’ve read. There are a few key story arcs, and Roberts switches between them with just enough frequency that there is a dual sense of disappointment and anticipation at each transition.
The book does work as a stand-alone, but there’s enough hook left at the end that the next instalment is a must-read. I’d say it’s not for under-14s, or thereabouts: warnings for swearing, some sexual content including depictions of sexual abuse, and ‘scenes of peril’, as the movie classification people say. However there are a lot of jumping-off points for discussion with young adult readers, including issues of consent, friendship, war, life goals … plenty to dive into here. Younger readers will no doubt identify with Fred, or The One, or another of the vibrant young characters. In another reminder of my rapid ascent to middle-age, I found myself much more in sympathy with the mothers trying to put food on the table in trying circumstances!
If you pick up Year One, or have already read it, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Let me know in the comments below, or over on Instagram or Facebook.
