BfK 14+Secondary/Adult continued New Talent Rosie Loves Jack HHHHH


Mel Darbon, Usborne, 352pp, 978-1474937832, £7.99pbk


Rose Tremayne is aged sixteen years and ten months. She is a British student at a college in Henley. She also has Down’s syndrome. Her boyfriend Jack also attends the same college, in a specialist unit. Jack had a brain injury when he was very young, leading to difficulties in literacy and anger management. Jack is involved in a dangerous episode. He loses his temper with a teacher. He throws a chair, which breaks a window. The teacher gets a shard of glass in her eye. Having been on the brink of dismissal from the college, Jack is now sent away to a residential treatment centre in Brighton. Rose


is distraught at absence. She decides that


Jack’s she


will set out to find Jack and bring him home. The biggest


problem


attaching to this plan is that Rose’s father disapproves of her relationship with Jack. He doesn’t believe Rose is ready for a serious relationship,


least of all with


someone as volatile as Jack. When Jack sends Rose postcards from the treatment centre, her father intercepts them and conceals them. The question now is whether Rose can find Jack and (as she sees it) rescue him? And if so, at what cost? It is a rarity among books for


young readers to find a narrative recounted in the first person by a disabled


are problems. As part character. Offhand


this reviewer can think of only a handful. On the whole, Darbon’s book is a praiseworthy effort. But there


of


the introduction of new characters; Ruffles might implicitly invite us to be absorbed by Mizuki’s composition of a single shot, or her preference for night-time images. At times, the novel almost becomes a travelogue of oriental wastelands. Readers will need to enjoy the careful, even self- conscious, crafting of the descriptive language; or the nuances within mundane conversations between the two which may, or may not, reflect slight shifts in their relationship. Things seem to be edging forward,


with Arlo regaining some self-confidence and engagement with his surroundings. Then – a misunderstanding. Arlo’s restoration crumbles. He’s alone, adrift. Before long, he’s in flight again, this time home to his roots, a seaside town and the caravan park where he grew up with his parents, playing each day with young Luke, the son of the site owners. Here, in time, there is hope for Arlo


and maybe Mizuki too. Colour Me In resists conventional YA classification;


her impairment in the book, Rose herself also struggles with literacy, which limits the scope of the text. At a few points, it strains credibility that Rose manages to express herself as fluently as she does. Nevertheless Rose’s voice is quite distinctive. Once the


reader has


become accustomed to her style of construction, as with regional or


national dialects


becomes habituated. The most


accomplishment of contentious


see issue the


novel is that it tackles head on the


of disabled sexual


exploitation and disability, in a highly dramatic context. Most writers by default


people as


asexual creatures. Recognising this issue is important both for disabled and non-disabled people, forming as it does a significant element in a wider context of marginalisation. RB


Read Rebecca Butler’s interview with Mel Darbon here.


perhaps it is a literary – a poetic - case study of one, or maybe two, precariously poised young people who retain just about enough self-belief, capacity for loving friendship, artistic creativity, to keep trying to move forward. It’s one of those YA books where prior subjective reading preferences may shape response. One reader might be fascinated by Arlo’s mental and geographical journeys and the way they are told. Another’s reaction to those sections might be impatience. Novels with mental health at their heart do tend to divide readers. GF


A Boy Called Ocean HHHH


Chris Higgins, Hodder, 266pp, 978 0 340 99703 1, £6.99 pbk


A resonant and compelling contemporary story steeped in the author’s love for and knowledge of the Cornish coast that has you rooting eagerly for the main protagonists Kai and Jen. Kai and his Mum have been on the


30 Books for Keeps No.232 September 2018 reader


important Darbon’s


move for much of his early life finally settling near a small cove in Cornwall. Kai is an anxious boy prone to walking out of situations he can’t handle. At school Jen takes Kai under her wing and the two soon become inseparable. Fast forward a few years and Jen and Kai are still best friends but both are beginning to have feelings for each other and neither quite knows how tell the other. Kai is convinced Jen fancies the hunky lifeguard, Macca and Jen is sure Kai is not interested in becoming more than friends. Then Kai decides he will declare his feelings and books the best table as the restaurant when he works as a surprise for Jen. But nothing goes to plan and between misunderstandings, some mixing from Jen’s best friend Ellie and disaster in the restaurant the evening culminates in a complete meltdown by Kai. To cool off he decides to take Macca’s favourite paddle board out to sea.


And he does not heed the


warning that a storm is on its way. Very quickly he is at the mercy of the elements and is pulled so far out to sea he can barely see the shoreline. Told in alternating chapters this is the story of the life or death situation Kai is forced to confront, how he faces his demons and comes to a greater understanding and acceptance


of


himself and the world around him. This is a pleasure to read; the power


of the sea and the danger Kai faces is palpable, the dedication of the lifeboat crew both moving and tender plus the romance feels entirely genuine without any trace of cloying sweetness. Above all this is a feel-good story with the tightknit bonds of family and friends pulling together at its heart. JC


The Price Guide to the Occult HHH


Leslye Walton, Walker Books, 288pp, 978 1 4063 7350 9, £7.99 pbk


In the novel’s closing lines – and not for the first time – Nor feels “the hair on the back of her neck” prickle. She knows someone’s watching her, probably with malign intent. Perhaps readers can expect a chilling sequel. Author’s Acknowledgements follow, and then two lists prefaced by “If you or a loved one is struggling with self-harm, please remember you’re not alone....” The first list names UK support organisations, the second suggests “Additional Resources” such as Mind and the Samaritans. Leslye Walton’s Acknowledgements


include her thanks to “all you brave and beautiful souls who trusted me with the stories of your struggles with self-harm,” though Nor’s adventures on


the island of Anathema are


surely a long, long way from anything readers might know first-hand. The isle is crowded with witches, black magic, extreme pain inflicted just for the hell of it, the laying-on of healing hands, raging wild fires, drownings and cracking human bones. There are numerous deaths, some moving, some of no more impact than those in a computer game. Driving everything is the ferocious


treatment daughter by her mother. of a


That relationship will bring us back


to the matter of self-harm, but first we need to go back to the roots of it all. The island of Anathema lies off the North-West Coast of the United States. Among its earlier settlers was Rona Blackburn, a formidable woman and a formidable witch. From her have descended eight Blackburn daughters, none so powerful as Rona, but each with a different gift (their “burden”), mostly used for good in the island’s community. The sixth generation daughter was Judd Blackburn (a healer), her daughter was Fern, and Fern’s daughter is our contemporary, Nor. Her burden is that she can hear the thoughts of animals and plants. Unusually for a Blackburn woman, Nor has further gifts, which she keeps quiet about. Fern is the mould-breaker; she pushed her magical powers to their limits and then beyond into black magic. Her pleasure is to inflict pain, even to kill; nothing else gives her such exquisite joy. There is a cost, though. At first she sheds her own blood to shed that of others – until, that is, she realises that she can conserve her own strength by drawing on on the blood of others. Nor is a convenient choice. So frequently does she abuse her daughter that Nor’s body is disfigured by the wounds. In the course of this, Nor discovers a sense of release, of pleasure almost, stemming from self- inflicted cuts. In her embarrassment, she keeps as low a profile as possible at school and around the island, covering her scarred wrists with knitted bands and mittens to hide her shame. She wants only to live quietly with Grandmother Judd. There is some relief for Nor when leaves


her mother the island to


exercise her powers on the American mainland. But then Fern publishes a best-seller – The Price Guide to the Occult – in which she not only reveals spells


of black magic, but offers


to cast them – for a fee - for eager buyers. Soon she is a celebrity with thousands of followers, each sporting a writhing fern tattoo to proclaim their loyalty


to their idol. Somehow, Nor


knows her mother will soon be back on Anathema For the reader, staying astride the wild and whirling plot is a rodeo ride, plunging and bucking among death, evil and blood – Walton herself says the plot was “a feral beast” at times. There are balancing elements. The island has become a kind of theme park for tourists with an appetite for the occult. Walton has some fun with that throughout the book. There’s a tentative YA romance (or even one- and-a-half


romances) for Nor, and


witty exchanges between her and best-friend Savvy provide light relief among the gore-stained adventures. Nor needs every scrap of courage she has, but she also shows a kind of relish in taking on whatever makes those hairs prickle on the back of her neck. The novel may well work best for those who are similarly inclined – within the safety of a fiction. GF


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