Title: The Day the Screens Went Blank
Author: Danny Wallace
Type: Fiction
Page Count/Review Word Count: 234
Rating: 4/5
This is a children’s book, but with a difference. In this case, that difference is that it’s super entertaining for adults, perhaps even more so. I read it in one sitting while on the exercise bike and found myself genuinely laughing out loud at it.
The idea here is that one day, every device with a screen stops working. We see the chaos that then unfolds through the eyes of a typical family, which realises that perhaps they ought to go and check in on grandma.
After all, chaos is the right word here. People can no longer access their bank accounts and they’re panic buying toilet paper, which we all know means that the proverbial shit has hit the fan. The roads are screwed, and that means that our protagonists have got their work cut out for them because grandma lives on the other side of the country and they don’t have a map.
They could just use a satnav but… well, you get the picture.
What I particularly like about this book is that there’s not exactly a happy ending as such, but rather just people coming to terms with a new normal, a bit like we had to do after COVID. Good stuff!
