The Hush

The Hush is the seventh novel by British-born Australian author, Sara Foster. Seventeen-year-old Lainey Aitken fears she may be pregnant. Getting a test done has turned difficult with the government's new rules, but her imaginative best friend, Sereena Mandalia has a plan.

While Lainey has a very understanding mum, being pregnant is a problem: pregnant teens, and sometimes their families, are disappearing without a trace; and the number of stillbirths has risen dramatically, with no good explanation. So Lainey is worried. And having that pesky Liam Whittaker, who happens to be the son of the government Health Secretary, hanging around her doesn't help.

Overworked, exhausted and demoralised by the stillbirths she attends, midwife Emma Aitken is concerned for her daughter, especially when she is detained by police for taking part in a protest. But when her serious situation is revealed, she does not hesitate to back Lainey up with all she has in reserve, even if it means begging help from the mother who abandoned her.

The near-future that Foster describes does not stretch the imagination very far at all: compulsory wearing of government-issue smart watches that track and monitor; laws that restrict freedoms surreptitiously passed; a much-worsened climate crisis; corrupt, greedy politicians; all are realistically depicted.

Her characters are believable, the reader is quickly invested in their fate, and it is heartening to see these women support each other in their fight for basic human rights. The story is fast-paced, taking place over a mere eight days, leading up to a nail-biting climax.

Topical, relevant and entirely credible: this is the best dystopian fiction you will read this year, so gripping that once you pick this up, you won't want to put it down until the final page. This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley, Better Reading Preview and Harper Collins Australia.