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Joyride was the first release in theBBCClass novels series. It was written byGuy Adams, who had written forDoctor Who andTorchwood previously.

Publisher's summary[[edit] |[edit source]]

"So, can you just leap into other people's bodies? Take them over? And while you’re in control, you can do whatever you want? Brilliant."

Poppy is a quiet girl, right up until she steals acar and drives it through ashop window.

Max is a nice guy, but then he kills his whole family. Just for fun.

Amar always seems so happy, so why is he trying to jump to his death from the school roof?

Some of the students ofCoal Hill School are not themselves. Some of them are dying.Ram has just woken up in a body he doesn't recognise, and if he doesn't figure out why he may well be next.

Plot[[edit] |[edit source]]

to be added

Characters[[edit] |[edit source]]

• Ram Singh
• Charlie Smith
• Miss Quill
• April MacLean
• Tanya Adeola
• Matteusz Andrzejewski
• Garry Fletcher
• Steve Hopley
• Jackie MacLean
• Jarvis Adeola
• Damon Adeola
• Varun Singh
• Veronica Cutler
• Toby Moore
• Poppy
• Max Collins
• Tommy Collins
• Amar Sai
• Viola Cummings
• John O'Donnell
• James Banks
• Barry Taylor
• Imogen Farmer
• Danielle Westby
• Lowe
• George Barker
• Mandy Taylor
• WPC Delano
• Stephen Patrick
• Gregson
• Mike
• Veltham
• Cheryl O'Donnell
• Sandra
• Nigel
• Garth Todd
• Alien pilot

Worldbuilding[[edit] |[edit source]]

Individuals[[edit] |[edit source]]

• Ram's mother is calledJaneeta.
• One of the first boyfriends of Garry Fletcher'smother was asquaddie.
• Fletcher often buysdoner andchips fromRanesh at the localkebab shop.
• Damon Adeola wonders if he should tell his motherVivian about the strange call from Ram.

Locations[[edit] |[edit source]]

Shoreditch locations[[edit] |[edit source]]

• Poppy works at the supermarketMorefields.
• Mandy Taylor works at abetting shop onHigh Street.
• Stan is the manager ofPig & Lettuce bar, sometimes visited by Gary Fletcher.
• Fletcher's companyJoyriders is set in a former industrial estate that can be reached fromSwallow Avenue via a small access road.
• Fletcher picks up James Banks and Barry Taylor atOld Street station.
• O'Donnell in Ram's body runs alongGreat Eastern Street.
• Ram cuts throughLeonard Street on the way from Great Eastern Street to Swallow Avenue.

Other locations[[edit] |[edit source]]

• Stephen Patrick bets on horse races inAintree.
• George Barker is offered a return ticket toBasildon.
• Quill takes theCentral line to get home.
• When Ram walks along Swallow Avenue, he finds himself onOld Street.
• Barry Taylor assumes that, since Charlie is an alien, he must be fromMars.
• Fletcher drops Mrs Cummings atBarbican.
• Mike was thrown under a tube train atEdgware Road.
• Fletcher plans to run away toDubai after making enough money.
• Steve once had a girlfriend fromLeeds. He thinks of running away with his family to Leeds orManchester.
• James Banks transferred to a body of an eighteen-year-old fromBrixton.

Technology[[edit] |[edit source]]

• Poppy tries to break a window of a silverHonda. Ram thinks that nobody would like to change aPorsche for aFiat.
• TheLondon Transport machine won't top upMiss Quill'sOyster card.
• Charlie owns aniPad.
• Max Collins playsXbox with hisheadphones on not to disturb his parents.
• Max and Tommy Collins' parents usesecateurs andtrowels for gardening.
• Imogen Farmer removes thebattery from thesmoke alarm in the Collins' house to prevent it from going off.
• The news about Max Collins spreads from oneWi-Fi network to another.
• Quill throws abiro cap inLowe's forehead.
• Mike brings apetrol poweredgenerator that can deliverelectricity up to 230 volts.
• Fletcher uses alump hammer and Mike uses acrowbar to kill the aliens.
• Steve tells Fletcher he thinks Joyriders does someVR thing.
• Ram surmises that the body-swapping technology cannot be bought in anApple Store.
• Not all humans know how tosplit an atom.
• It is strange for Ram to be without amobile phone.
• Buses usehydraulic brakes.

Police[[edit] |[edit source]]

• Poppy's body is removed from the car bySOCOs.

Media[[edit] |[edit source]]

• Quill observes many passengers with copies ofMetro.
• Tanya checksBuzzfeed and usesFacebook.

Organisations[[edit] |[edit source]]

• Matteusz suggests a possibility of donating money onJustGiving.
• Mike owns a company namedSparkz Mobile Disco.
• AUNIT team are brought in to take away Fletcher's alien technology.

Culture[[edit] |[edit source]]

• A splatter from a skull shot through by a bullet in a computer game is compared to paintings byJackson Pollock.
• Tommy Collins is wearingIron Man pyjamas.
• Ram compares his being insomebody else's body to aRyan Reynolds movie where he swaps withJason Bateman, who gets to be Ryan Reynolds and decides not to have sex withOlivia Wilde.
• Toby Moore remarks thatviola, the first name of Viola Cummings, is a musical instrument.
• Quill and Charlie hear sounds of anacoustic guitar.

Science[[edit] |[edit source]]

• Quill assigns calculatingcentripetal force as homework.

Food and drinks[[edit] |[edit source]]

• April burns aHawaiian pizza.
• When April comes to school, her breath smells ofvodka. She says she is "not the one to downwhisky when things get messy."
• Garry Fletcher orderschicken Chow Mein.

Animals[[edit] |[edit source]]

• Tanya thinks about a small dog attacking anAlsatian.
• Damon notes that Swallow Avenue has the same name as abird.
• Steve scrunches himself into a ball like ahedgehog.

Notes[[edit] |[edit source]]

• The UK print erroneously refers to Coal Hill as "Coal Hill School". It is also inconsistent in spelling April's surname, giving the correct "MacLean" on some occasions and an incorrect "MacClean". The US print corrects the misspellings of April's surname to their proper form, but does not correct the references of Coal Hill as a school.
• In this story, the alien presence inShoreditch is not related to the Rift atCoal Hill Academy: thealiens arrived using their own space/time travelling technology six months prior to the events ofTV:For Tonight We Might Die.
• This story must take place betweenThe Coach with the Dragon Tattoo andNightvisiting: Matteusz hasn't yet moved in with Charlie as would happen in the latter, and Coal Hill is in-between head teachers, meaningCo-Owner of a Lonely Heart hasn't happened either.

Audiobook cover.

Audio release[[edit] |[edit source]]

• The story was released as an unabridged 6x CD audiobook along with the US version of the novel by Blackstone Audio and HarperCollins with Quill Tree Books as imprint^[1][2] on3 October2017,^[2] read by Steve West.^[2]

Continuity[[edit] |[edit source]]

• Miss Quill fought theRhodians and became a slave to theRhodian prince. Then both of their people were wiped out by theShadow Kin. (TV:For Tonight We Might Die)
• TheTwelfth Doctor saved Charlie and Miss Quill and tasked Charlie, Matteusz and the others with protecting people. Charlie and Matteusz discuss him and refer to him as "the man from space... the impossible man". (TV:For Tonight We Might Die)
• April MacLean shares a heart withan alien king. (TV:For Tonight We Might Die)
• At the prom,Ram Singh's girlfriendRachel was killed byCorakinus, who also chopped his leg off, which is now replaced by an alien prosthetic limb. (TV:For Tonight We Might Die) Unlike his friends, Ram does not want to talk about it. (TV:The Coach with the Dragon Tattoo)
• Ram's football skills have taken a serious hit due to the alien prosthetic limb. (TV:The Coach with the Dragon Tattoo)
• Ram remembers the deaths and gore surrounding the situation with CoachDawson. (TV:The Coach with the Dragon Tattoo)
• Tanya plays a computer game with her brotherJarvis. (TV:The Coach with the Dragon Tattoo,Nightvisiting)
• Tanya checks outSeraphin's videos. (PROSE:What She Does Next Will Astound You)
• April's father intentionally crashed their car with her andher mother on board. All three survived it, but Jackie ended up in a wheelchair. (TV:Nightvisiting)
• Varun Singh already knows what really happened to his son at the prom. (TV:The Coach with the Dragon Tattoo)

External links[[edit] |[edit source]]

• OfficialJoyride page atPenguin Books

Footnotes[[edit] |[edit source]]