Children of the Batcave

by Nick Razer

When thirteen-year-old Ruby Carter wakes at 4:17 a.m. to the sound of car doors and hushed voices, she knows the world she's been holding together is about to collapse. For years, Ruby has kept her younger sister Lily fed, warm, and protected while their parents spiral deeper into addiction. Placed in a foster home run by 'devout' caretakers with cruelty in their bones, Ruby and Lily learn that some cages are built of rules, fear, and prayer instead of bars. Fleeing into the neon-lit alleys of London, the sisters plunge into the city's underbelly — night buses, sleepless laundromats, Soho runaways, punk kids, predators, and the fractured remnants of the goth underground. Raw, urgent, and emotionally relentless, Children of the Batcave is a survival thriller rooted in the grit of working-class London and the defiant spirit of subculture.