Age 10+

About the book

It’s 2045 and the world is full of tech. Eddie has a bot in his ear giving him advice all day, a bathroom scale that identifies illnesses, and classroom bots keeping track of him at school. The streets are full of delivery bots and game tech is amazing.

But tech can’t help the police find a missing boy called Theo, who was last seen at the river. When they abandon the search, Eddie and his friends sneak down to the river to look for clues. What they find doesn’t make any sense.

Then strange things start happening to Eddie. He’s never been sporty but suddenly he’s a brilliant runner. When a friend is caught in the bottom of the pool, Eddie rescues her from drowning by holding his breath for a suspiciously long amount of time. He has excellent night vision – and there are hair-like feathers growing out of his skin.

It’s exciting. It’s terrifying. How can it be both?

And what do the changes in Eddie have to do with Theo’s disappearance?

The Wild Unknown is a gripping adventure set in a near-future world where the truth can be difficult to find and where real friends will always be better than the smartest tech.

 

Listen: Emily Gale discusses The Wild Unknown with author Adrian Beck on Be More Bookish.

Read: Q&A in Good Reading Magazine.

Listen: Final Draft – Great Conversations, Emily Gale’s The Wild Unknown.

Read: Interview on Have You Got a Minute? the newsletter by Cassy Polimeni.

Listen: Words & Nerds with Dani Vee.

Read: Q&A on Novel Feelings.

 

 

Praise

“This smart, suspenseful story uses a near-future mystery to explore friendship, fear and moral courage…Compelling, thoughtful and impossible to put down.”

 

Karys McEwen

“A thrilling adventure with all the ingredients of a classic. Loved it.”

Nova Weetman

“This is the perfect book for young readers…It will fire their imaginations, it will get them thinking about our own growing reliance on AI, and it is just an excellent mystery that will have them turning the pages.”

Helen Farch Forest Hill College Library

“I was enamoured by the futuristic world that Emily created. It’s exciting, imaginative, and completely within the realms of possibility…It’s tense, fast paced and just when I thought I had a grip on the story, it shook me up and flipped the script.”

Middle Grade Musings

“A suspenseful read that presents a near-future that is easy to imagine…Eddie’s gradual transformation keeps the reader on their toes.”

Books+Publishing

Other Books by Emily

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About the author

About the author

I’ve worked in the children’s book industry for over 25 years in various roles: in-house editor, consultant to a literary agent, children’s book buyer, reviewer, freelance manuscript assessor, and as a writer-in-residence in a high school library.