The Disappeared by C.J. Harper (author) (UK edition)

Jackson is an academic high flyer, living in a top Learning Community and destined for a position in the Leadership. His comfortable existence is a world away from the grim and prison-like Local Academies where less gifted children go. But when he is sent with his best friend Wilson to deliver a package to a factory block, the pair are attacked, leaving Jackson badly beaten and Wilson dead. Confused and upset, Jackson returns to his Learning Community – only to find that his teachers claim not to know him. He is sent away to an Academy which trains factory workers, and immersed in a violent, semi-articulate society where the students have created a hierarchy based on fighting skill. But as Jackson struggles to survive, he realises his whole life has been based on half-truths. Can he stay alive long enough to expose the sinister lies of the Academy and discover the truth about who he really is?

Fast-paced and page-turning, yet with a streak of dark humour, The Disappeared is a very British dystopia, with shades of Orwell and Huxley.