Welcome to my eight-part blog series about the main themes in Atlantic Split. Each Thursday, I will be discussing one of the themes in my blog, and in the second blog of the series I’m discussing the theme of growing up. Warning: This blog contains some mild spoilers.

Part 1: Prejudice

Coming of age and growing up is a key part of a young adult novel, and that’s why I knew that Atlantic Split had to be part of the young adult genre. Whilst Atlantic Split focusses a lot on prejudice, and the first part is more like a crime novel, the book is a coming of age novel, and that will be reflected in the rest of the series too. Luke Bright is only nineteen years old and he has always hated the fact that he has been treated like a child by those around him. He especially hates the fact that Steve regularly calls him a ‘kid’ to bait him and it’s an issue that gets Luke very riled up throughout Atlantic Split. Luke’s always felt he’s been hindered in life and is very unprepared for what happens in Atlantic Split. However, throughout the book, he starts to learn about the adult world and how he has to grow up before his time to survive in the situation he’s been placed in.

As many young people find it hard to deal with growing up in normal situations, let alone if you’ve had a huge life-changing event happen in your younger years, I hope that Luke Bright will be an inspirational character for young people who can learn more about growing up through him. When I was eighteen, I too had a hugely devastating thing happen in my life and, like Luke, I was forced to become an adult quicker than I was ready to. That itself has helped me hone in on Luke’s emotions and the challenges he’s faced as I can draw on my own experiences of what it’s like to have your life skew into an unexpected direction.

Throughout the book series, Luke will face various challenges and other characters who will aid him on his journey of growing up, and as he progresses through his life, he makes some realisations about his views on his age. I hope readers understand that age isn’t something that should hold you back from making your life what you want it to be, and it’s not a negative thing to be young. By making Luke a young character, I wanted young people to realise that if you want to make a difference then you should, regardless of how old you are. Everyone is an individual, and everyone can do what they want to do if they just put their mind to it.

I end this blog with a quote from Atlantic Split about prejudice where Luke Bright realises that, at nineteen years old, he’s going to take on the fight against the Atlantic Split. Despite his young age, he’s discovered his true purpose in life and he’s ready to embrace it.

“In these last two weeks I’d learnt more about who I am, and who I want to be than I had ever done in the past nineteen years of my life. I was ready to finally work out who I’m going to be.” Luke Bright – Atlantic Split

Thank you for reading this blog, and next Thursday I’ll be back with the third theme of Atlantic Split: Optimism.

Atlantic Split is the first book in The Luke Bright Series and is available to purchase NOW! Please follow me on my blog and my social media links below and use the links on my website to purchase a copy if you have not done so. Don’t forget to leave a review! Thank you once again for taking the time to read this blog post.

N.A.K.