Arena

Having very much enjoyed her two previous novels and read enthusiastic reviews of this one, I was very much looking forward to reading this book. And I did eventually find much to admire and like in it. But it takes a while to really get going. The set up in the first half of the book, which gives the background to this dystopian USA, where an economic crisis has been blamed on China, and its aftermath has resulted in a Stasi-like state with children taken away from "anti-American" parents, I found very unconvincing…and, I'm afraid, at times, pretty tedious. But it really picks up in the second half, with moments of considerable tension and emotional highs. Definitely worth reading if you can persevere through the early part.