Book excerpt: Winner Trinity Schools Book Award 2018 Winner Gateshead YA Book Prize 'I love reading Sarah Govett - she's whip-smart, funny and by plugging into the hope and energy of the youth makes me feel better about these dark times.' Dame Emma Thompson Noa Blake is just another normal 15 year old with exams looming. Except in The Territory normal isn't normal. The richest children have a node on the back of their necks and can download information, bypassing the need to study. In a flooded world of dwindling resources, Noa and the other 'Norms' have their work cut out even to compete. And competing is everything - because anybody who fails the exams will be shipped off to the Wetlands, which means a life of misery, if not certain death. But how to focus when your heart is being torn in two directions at once? 'Truly heart wrenching! ... the 1984 of our time' The Guardian online 'Gripping dystopia with a keen political edge' Imogen Russell Williams, Metro 'This is a truly exceptional novel, exciting, gripping and intense' BookTrust 'pacy dystopian fantasy thriller' Telegraph's Best YA Books of 2015 'thrilling and thought-provoking' The Times 'powerful and shocking' Children's Books Ireland 'a terrific book. It simply is.' Bookwitch 'brilliant' Teen Librarian 'Brilliantly plotted, utterly gripping' Gemma Malley (The Declaration) One of The Telegraph's best YA books of 2015