vormals THE CAGE FIGHTER

Blood. On his lips and in his mouth. That last punch split his cheek. Spinning him sideways to thud against the metal bars of the Cage. And he knew he'd taken a cut. Blood has a stale taste. Brings back a memory. Don't think about that. Move. Fast. Kai straightens. Beyond the Cage winks the red light of the camera. The fight would be on the Internet that evening. Would any one of his rotten family be watching? The blur of a fist. Kai dodges. Too slow. A whack to the side of his helmet leaves him dizzy. Now Leo will come in to finish him off. Gloves up. But there's no one there. 10 runaway homeless teens are handpicked by The Fight Master to compete in a cage fighting tournament. The fights are filmed and streamed to a fast-growing online audience who bet on the results, and the teenagers are promised a cut of the profits. They must live, train and fight in secrecy in a deserted network of London underground stations. With the final fight looming, tensions between Kai and Leo grow as it becomes clear that not only are they being manipulated by the Fight Master, but they have not all been honest with each other about who they are, and how they came to be there. Theresa's debut novel won the Kathleen Fidler Award, and she went on to win the Carnegie Medal with WHISPERS IN THE GRAVEYARD, her remarkable story about a boy with dyslexia. Her work has been sold in more than ten languages and dramatised for TV and radio, with her novel DIVIDED CITY being adapted as a muscial and staged by Glasgow Citizens Theatre.