SmartYellow™ is the story of a young
girl, Katrina Williams, who finds herself on the wrong side of social
services. After becoming pregnant with only a slight notion of the
father’s identity, she is disowned by her parents and goes to live on a
social housing estate. Before long she is being bullied by a gang
involved in criminal activity and anti-social behaviour. Seeking help
from the authorities she is persuaded to return to the estate to work as part of Operation Schrödinger, alongside a surveillance specialist. But she soon realises that Operation Schrödinger is not what it seems.
Exploring themes of social inequity and scientific
responsibility, Jacqueline A Christy’s first speculative fiction novel
leads her heroine Katrina to understand how probability, hope and
empathy play a huge part in the flow of life and are absent in the
stagnation of mere survival. As readers we also start to question how we would know if the power of the State to support and care for the weak
had become corrupted into the oppression of all those who do not fit
society’s norms.
SmartYellow™ offers a worryingly
plausible and chilling glimpse into an alternate Nineties Britain. For
the sake of order and for the benefit of more fortunate members of
society, those seen as socially undesirable are marked with
SmartYellow™, making it easier for them to be controlled and maintained
in a state of fruitless inactivity. Writer, Jacqueline A Christy, turns
an understanding and honest eye not only onto the weak, who have failed
to cope with life, but also onto those who ruthlessly exploit them for
their own ends. At times tense and threatening, at times tender and
insightful, SmartYellow™ is a rewarding and thought-provoking read.
