Lili Wilkinson – The Erasure Initiative (Literature Review)

Lili Wilkinson’s latest psychological YA thriller, The Erasure Initiative, is a masterpiece.

If you read a lot of young adult or children’s fiction, you would have no doubt heard of Wilkinson.  During her time at the Centre for Youth Literature, the Australian author founded the Inky Awards and youth writing community website, Inside A Dog ,which she now watches from afar as the YA community continues to flourish.

In 2006, she published her debut novel, Joan of Arc and has since enjoyed a successful career within the YA and children’s genres with notable fan favourites including Pink, How to Make A Pet Monster and, After the Lights Go Out.

Now, Wilkinson looks set to continue that success. The Erasure Initiative is the story of Cecily, who wakes up from a deep sleep on a self-driving bus to nowhere. Neither she or her six companions have any memory of who they are or how they came to be on this bus.

Together, they must work through a series of tests, which begin innocently enough, but soon turn deadly in nature. Now Cecily must not only fight for her memories, but her life.

In my interview with Wilkinson she said,  “the books that inspire people to engage in activism are the ones that ask thorny ethical questions but leave the reader room to make up their own minds. This is something I always try to do in my own work.” I can tell you unequivocally that in The Erasure Initiative, she achieved it. The book is everything a great novel should be.

The minute I saw the cover I was intrigued. And once I read the first page, I was hooked. Driven by questions of morality and mortality, The Erasure Initiative is the definition of a rollercoaster ride. One minute you’re up, the next you’re down, all your hopes pinned on the secrets the characters uncover throughout their journey.

Often as a reader, you need to get to know a character to care about them. In this novel, we didn’t really have that luxury and yet, the characters Wilkinson created were so well-developed and relatable that it wasn’t a problem. If anything, it made the book even more engaging and fast-paced as we followed Cecily and her band of misfits on their fight to reclaim their identity, and survive a hopeless and terrifying situation.

Wilkinson’s The Erasure Initiative is fascinating. It’ll keep you guessing from the very beginning and once it’s over, I can guarantee, you’ll still be thinking about it.

The Erasure Initiative is out now through Allen & Unwin. To keep up with Lili Wilkinson’s work, visit her website.

This review is part of my Spotlight on Australian Authors series. If you want to read more articles in the series, click the image below.

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