Topics about which I know nothing - Patrick Ness

Scintillating, surprising, inventive fiction from one of the most expressive younger writers in Britain. A book that is stuffed to the gills with giddyingly inventive writing and warming, puzzling emotions. Here be the Seventh International Military War Games Dance Committee Quadrennial Competition and Jamboree in all their televised, tacky, terrifying glory. And here are some of the choicest urban legends, each of them sliding toward Truth. Or a report on the trend of groomgrabbing -- the involuntary-but-not-violent seizure of the sartorially challenged by their well-meaning (and dapper) elders. And perhaps the most menacing (but then they're all menacing) telesales operation you could ever wish to encounter. This is a world ruled by fashion and the media, by branding and self-help jargon, by disinformation and paranoia, but it is a world where those that are being ruled tend not to comply readily, to forget themselves, to disobey and disappear. It all makes for a book that crackles with tension, wit and awe.