Electric Life
Written by Rachel Delahaye
Publication date: July 2023
Ages: 12+
Format: Paperback / 198 x 129 mm / 352 pages
ISBN: 9781912745326
Rights available: World
UK retail price: £8.99
Alara’s incredible gaming skills bring her to the attention of the leaders of Estrella, the ‘Star city’. She is chosen to go on a dangerous mission to London Under, the original older, long-deserted and distrusted city on top of which Estrella was built. Her task is to gather vital intelligence.
Estrella is the ‘perfect’ society: an immaculate, sanitised, hyper-connected environment where everything is channelled through the digital medium. There is no dirt, no pain, no disease and no natural world. Feelings like boredom are frowned upon and discouraged.
Alara is dropped down to London Under and into a new-old world that bewilders and disorientates her. How will she survive in a society where noise, dirt and sometimes pain are everyday experiences, and where food is not synthetic and tastes real? Will she accomplish her mission? Who can she trust? How will she get back to her family and her worry-free life in Estrella?
This fast-paced and thrilling story set in a fictional yet believable future explores important themes and asks some big questions about where our society could be heading.
Media
Awards & selections
Shortlisted for the Bristol Teen Book Award 2025
Longlisted for the UKLA (UK Literary Association) Book Award 2025
Winner of the Hampshire Book Award 2024
Longlisted for the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing 2024
Shortlisted for the Iris Award 2025
Reviews
“I’ve said it before, but have to say it again - Rachel Delahaye is an outstanding writer who really knows how to create believable worlds and compelling characters, immersing the reader completely in the story. Electric Life is impossible to put down once started.”
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