BfK I’m Not Scared HHHH


Niccolò Ammaniti, trans. Jonathan Hunt, Walker Canongate, 240pp, 978 1 4063 3027 4, £7.99 pbk


Adult and children’s worlds are placed in stark contrast in I’m Not Scared. The juxtaposition of the two and the bewilderment between one and the other is accentuated by the searing heat of the 1978 Italian heat wave which adds an other-worldly dimension to the setting.


It is against this scorched backdrop that the children of Aqua Traverse set out upon bicycles, exploring the countryside and their environs as their parents stay indoors waiting for the temperature to cool. The arrival of a stranger at Michele’s house leads to a revelation which Michele must come to accept.


Social interaction, a desire for betterment and the difference between adult and child perspectives drive this distinctive and highly original novel forward. Published initially by Canongate, Walker Books have chosen this as one of the titles for their new crossover venture ‘Meet at the gate’. This is a strong and surprising rites of passage novel that leaves a lingering legacy of thought and intrigue, an equal offering for adult and adolescent readers.


JHo


resonance and relevance. The formidable combined talents of Gray himself, Melvin Burgess, Anne Fine, Mary Hooper, Sophie McKenzie, Patrick Ness, Bali Rai and Jenny Valentine cer tainly succeed in investing their subject matter with both stylistic and thematic variety and although the overall tone of the collection is quite serious (the Hooper and Rai stories, for example, are minor masterpieces of viscerally power ful writing) there are some delightfully humorous moments also: Fine’s story, with its beautifully observed contemporary classroom setting – condoms, bananas and hapless teachers – and its wistful evocation of earlier days and earlier attitudes, manages to be both witty and poignant. But if we are in the business of distributing merit badges, then Ness’s story, ‘Different for Boys’, must run off with the top award. On the sur face it may simply be seen as yet another (but here very accomplished) attempt to address the ‘growing up gay’ theme in adult fiction. But, much more than this, it is a tender, clever and stylistically teasing exploration of adolescent difference and, above all, loneliness. ‘We just sit there… for a long, long time,’ says Ant, its narrator, ‘letting night fall outside, not saying anything at all, just the two of us sitting there, waiting for the month or year or whenever in our lives when we’re allowed to stop being lonely.’ The pain of youthful yearning is not often as succinctly conveyed.


RD Beautiful Malice HHH


Rebecca James, Faber, 256pp, 978 0 571 25523 8, £7.99 pbk


Beautiful Malice is an action packed story by Australian author Rebecca James. It moves between the past and the present: the narrator Katherine is now a young mother and we soon learn of the central tragedy of the story – the death of her talented younger sister Rachel. In an attempt to deal with the past and escape her devastated family, she moves to a school in Sydney to try to start a new life of quiet anonymity.


Losing It HHHHH


Edited by Keith Gray, Andersen, 256pp, 978 1 84939 099 6, £5.99 pbk


Virginity, rather like nostalgia, is not what it used to be – and writing about the loss of it (even, or especially, for teenagers) is not going to cause the rumpus it might once have done. It may, therefore, be the case that for many of today’s young readers the eight short stories comprising Keith Gray’s anthology will do little more than elicit a cynical ‘So what?’ But, undoubtedly, there will be others for whom they will still have at least some degree of


But the quiet, hardworking life she seeks is not to be. At school Katherine is ‘chosen’ by the beautiful but dangerous Alice. Alice’s charm and persistence begin to draw Katherine out of her protective shell but it proves to be a dangerous and damaging friendship and Alice’s scheming and warped ideas lead to tragedy, both for herself and others.


This is a cleverly constructed narrative, told by Katherine from a distance of five years. The story is a roller coaster of shocking events that will stir and manipulate the reader’s emotions and keep the pages turning. There is love too amongst the tragedy, romantic love and family love and an ending which suggests the possibility of happiness in the future.


14+ Secondary/Adult White Cat


HHH


Holly Black, Victor Gollancz, 320pp, 978 0 575 09671 4, £10.99 pbk


17-year-old Cassel Sharpe lives in a society made up of those who are curse-workers and those who are not. Curse-working involves changing a person’s emotions, luck or memories by touching their skin and has been made illegal in Cassel’s community. Although Cassel comes from a family of curse-workers, he has been brought up to believe that he is without the gift himself. However, during the course of this story, Cassel makes momentous discoveries about himself and his past, not only that he is in fact one of the most powerful of curse-workers but also that the girl he thought he’d killed years before is still alive in the form of a white cat and that he is the only one who can save her.


This thrilling fantasy is a gripping and intriguing read. The use of the present tense for the opening sequence and the inclusion of passages addressed directly to the reader are effective in drawing the reader in to this mysterious world from the outset. Yet this book is more than a compelling read. It expertly explores Cassel’s confusion over his identity and his place in the world, a theme which will undoubtedly resonate with many readers. Cassel has always felt like an outsider, both amongst his worker family and his friends at his privileged boarding school. Yet as he experiences shocking changes to his life he finds it increasingly difficult to hide his true colours in a bid to fit in. He is eventually forced to reveal his true self, a painful yet cathar tic process which he describes as ‘like peeling off my own skin to expose everything underneath’.


Fantasy and realism are well-balanced – the imaginative world of curse- working is grounded in the history of prohibition and the Great Depression, making the story credible as well as intriguing. The book is described as being for grown-ups and many younger readers may find the plot excessively multi-faceted and some of the detail disturbingly gory. Yet the mixture of intrigue, romance and thought- provoking themes may well make this book a rewarding read for older, ‘grown-up’ teens.


RT Girl, 16: Five-Star Fiasco HHHH


Sue Limb, Bloomsbury, 320pp, 978 0 7475 9916 6, £5.99 pbk


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Jess Jordan is a well-meaning but highly disorganized teenage girl. She and her boyfriend Fred Parsons decide to stage a Valentine’s Day dinner dance to raise money for Oxfam. As the date of the party approaches they have failed to organize cer tain necessary items, such as food, music and lighting. Before the party Jess and Fred are invited to spend a weekend in


30 Books for Keeps No.184 September 2010


the country. Jess’s friend Flora has a boyfriend from a wealthy Dorset background. At this boyfriend’s house one of the weekend’s main activities, it transpires, is for the boyfriend’s posh mates to torment the life out of Fred.


Fred decides to flee, and to pull out of the Valentine’s Day project, leaving Jess to try to make a go of the party on her own. Will the project simply collapse? Will Jess ever be reunited with Fred?


Some writers opt for a narrative outcome that makes for a happy closure. Alternatively – and more challengingly – the writer may choose to deliver a different ending, one that shows how deeply the preceding events have shaped the character and expectations of the protagonist. Limb chooses this more demanding option. This sophisticated narrative strategy sometimes seems at odds with the pacy, colloquial tone of this book with Limb’s trademark humour but this is a daring piece of literary craftsmanship.


RBu Burning Mountain HHHHH


L J Adlington, Hodder, 336pp, 978 0 340 95682 3, £6.99 pbk


Burning Mountain takes its name from mons igneus, the Latin for ‘volcano’, reflecting the central presence of Mount Vesuvius in the novel’s themes. The brief opening chapter plunges us into Pompeii in the midst of Vesuvius’s eruption in 79 A.D. The Roman soldier at the centre of this scene reappears as a ghost in subsequent chapters, which are set in the shadow of Vesuvius during the battle to take Monte Cassino in 1944. While the bombardment continues, the explo- sions, rending earth and impenetrable dust are intensified as Vesuvius erupts once more. These two stories take place within a framework set in the England of 2010 involving two teenage children, Denise and Craig, whose soldier-father was killed in the Gulf War and whose older brother, Richard, is currently ser ving in Afghanistan. Gradually, their dysfunc- tional family-life is mitigated through contact with the elderly and eccentric couple living next door, who have a link with the events in Italy in 1944.


The protagonist of the 1944 story is a young German paratrooper and Classics enthusiast who develops a friendship with an Italian girl descended from the Roman aristocracy but now living as a thief and beggar in occupied Naples. There is a close similarity between this paratrooper and Richard, a boldness which appeals directly to young Craig. But the paratrooper’s blind and terrified stumbling through the smoke and ashes of Vesuvius and Cassino suggests to him a journey across the River Styx. The frontier between life and death is a major theme of the book, which repeatedly considers ‘the one second (which it takes) to change from alive to dead’.


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