The Roar

Although Ellie doesn’t garner as much narrative space as her brother, her presence is crucial to the story’s momentum. Like a ghost hovering just out of reach, Ellie draws Mika into a world of conspiracy and manipulation. Like Mika, Ellie possesses unique abilities, abilities coveted by Gorman and the powerful elite who seek to wage war on the vested interests outside The Wall. Ellie displays a deep empathy for animals, particularly Puck, a capuchin monkey who becomes her only friend during her captivity. Even as a little girl, she weeps for the animals killed during The Plague, animals reported to be so feral and ravenous they would tear humans to bits without a second thought: “‘Poor bears and tigers and birds and moles!’ Ellie sobbed. ‘They’re all dead! We killed them all!’” (10). It is this empathy that gives Ellie a profound connection to nature—emphasizing The Interconnectedness of the Natural World of which humans are only a miniscule part—a world she believes is lost forever but once rediscovered, is worth fighting for.

In some respects, Ellie and Mika are two halves of the same character, complementing and fortifying each other for the battle ahead. They are both defiant, suspicious of authority, and willing to take extreme risks to secure their freedom. Ellie’s captivity—her testing and training under Gorman’s supervision—gives her a leg up in the psychic ability department, but she and her brother are similar in so many ways that it’s only a matter of time before Mika develops his own ability and the twins become an unstoppable force.

Gorman, the Minister for Youth Development and Clayton’s Dickensian antagonist, is the antithesis of his position. Over 100 years old and kept alive with pharmaceuticals and life support machines, Gorman has neither understanding of, nor empathy for, young people. He represents a decidedly antiquated view of children—namely that they should do as they’re told and stay out of the way. Gorman sees all mutant children merely as cogs in his Machiavellian plot. Part of Gorman’s villainy comes from his decrepitude. His “papery skin” and protruding eyes are a frightening sight to children. In contrast to their youthful vitality, Gorman is death in the flesh. His use of Everlife pills to stave off death suggests that his aversion to children may be due to resentment over lost youth, a youth he can never recapture no matter how many pills he takes. He envies these children and their abilities and will use every resource at his disposal to control and manipulate them.

Gorman’s malevolence is not subtle. It’s archetypal. His function in the narrative is to pose a clear and present danger to the protagonists, free from the entanglements of psychological complexity. His evil is an end in itself, and Clayton doesn’t muddy the waters with unnecessary explanation. His motives are self-interested, and his methods extreme, as evidenced by the fact that he is willing to use children as cannon fodder.

Audrey becomes Mika’s gaming partner for the Pod Fighter competition, and her skill as a gunner is crucial as they advance to the final rounds. They are a symbiotic team with his deft flying and her pinpoint targeting of enemy ships. She also becomes his partner-in-crime as Gorman’s real intentions are revealed. Together, they steal a Pod Fighter, evade pursuit (as well as borg sentries), and escape over The Wall. Audrey’s “borg eyes”—she was born sightless—make her a mutant just like Mika, and those mutual differences, along with the ostracization that comes with them, forge a strong bond that keeps them united when the heat is on.

Simmering beneath their gaming partnership is a romantic tension that is never articulated but manifested in subtler ways. Their physicality is playful, they have pet names for each other (he calls her “Noodle head”), and the attraction, while never addressed directly, is mutual. Further, Audrey proves herself up to every challenge as she and Mika defy Gorman and his henchmen, resist his tests however they can, and put their heads together to puzzle out Gorman’s ultimate plan. It may be Mika’s love for Ellie that draws him like a magnet to her, but it’s fair to say that without Audrey, he wouldn’t have the emotional support or technical skill to get as far.

Mika’s parents serve two purposes: They provide a literal grounding for the protagonist in a familial structure, but in a metaphorical sense, they also represent the space many adults occupy in the middle grade literary genre. They are clearly loving parents, but their authority is compromised by their position as secondary characters. Even at their most authoritative—when they refuse to let Mika continue in the competition after he is wounded by a harpoon—they quickly relent in the face of Mika’s emotional blackmail. When they issue an order, readers understand that it’s just a matter of time before that order is disobeyed.

Asha and David are not one-dimensional characters, however. Clayton is careful to give them enough backstory to contextualize their behavior. Forced to take menial jobs and live in cheap, dilapidated housing, they are understandably blinded by the offer of a new apartment in the Golden Turrets, even when that apartment comes at a dangerous price. David and Asha’s presence in the narrative is essential to root Mika’s existence in reality, and also to act as an authoritative buffer against which Mika can exercise autonomy.