A while ago I read an absolute tear-jerker of a book. Tears, because it was so well written and both simple and complex; with a lot of smiles, because it was so realistic. That book was Downham's Before I Die. A really good review of it can be found here, on the Guardian's site.
On Chris' slush pile was Downham's latest, You Against Me. It's about teens again - Mikey, whose sister has been allegedly attacked and raped, and Ellie, sister to the supposed rapist. Again, its realistic and confronting and so far (up to chapter 13) it's living up to my expectations.
If you have a teen girl, go out and buy these novels. Read them first & you'll be amazed at the conversations you'll be having with your girl. I was.
EDITED TO UPDATE: This is a good read. Not a great read, but certainly good. While Downham's first didn't pull punches, I got the feeling that towards the end, in this book she did. Rape, denial, false allegations have such a taboo to them, even more so that a child dying, that there were avenues that I thought she could have gone down. All in all tho, still one to get the mind thinking.
No comments:
Post a Comment