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|title=The Death House

|sort=Death House, The

|publisher=Gollancz

|date=February 2015

|website=http://sarahpinborough.com/

|video=

|summary=My first knowledge of this author shows she can provide a pin-sharp portrayal of love in a hellish environment. For teens and above, this book cannot fail to resonate for a very long time indeed.

}}

Toby would appear to be lucky, having the run of an isolated country mansion on a small island off the coast of Britain. But no. His domain only exists at night, and only then because he sleeps in the day and refuses to take the 'vitamin' pills given him by the staff of an evening. He is a captive of a mansion that works as a place of exile for teenagers with the Defective gene. Whatever it would normally lead to, even having it risks becoming suddenly really quite ill, and being the cause of the night-time lift ride on the one way route to the top floor Sanatorium. But Toby has it good as these things go, the teenaged head boy almost out of the small collection of children in his Dorm, the only one not to have suffered a loss of life. But things are about to change – new inmates arrive to bulk up the numbers, and one of them, Clara, is the agent of that change. For when she stumbles on Toby's nocturnal habits she doesn't want to sleep either…

As I suggest the book reminded me of many others, but for another teenage child starting in a place of peculiar imprisonment I would shelve this next to [[The Girl With All the Gifts by M R Carey]]. We've only met Ms Pinborough before now [[Monster's Corner by Christopher Golden (Editor)|here]].

{{amazonUStext|amazon=1473202329}}