Boy A, by Jonathan Trigell

Boy A by Jonathan Trigell


My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I wish I could find a way to adequately convey my love for this book without sounding like a gushing groupie. But, I can't, so I'll soldier on with my groupie flag flying.

What can I say other than this book is amazing. I can't begin to say how amazing it is in a short review, and I'm a fair hand at wordplay. I'll do my inadequate best.

Trigell takes the story of Jack, a newly-released-from prison, twenty-something convicted child murderer--as in, he was a child when convicted of murder (the victim was also a child) and makes you wallow in it. He takes you into the mind of Jack and makes you love him. He takes you to the slimy, dark, gritty underbelly of English society and makes you lie on your back and lick it. You can't help but do what he wants as he weaves the story through the minds of various characters, crafting a perfectly plotted, perfectly paced, perfectly terrible story of attempted redemption. As you slough along towards the inevitable conclusion, you know what's coming, but you breathlessly keep reading, wanting to look away but utterly unable. Such is the hypnotic control Trigell masters in this artfully honed masterpiece of suspense. As difficult as it must be to create such tension in a book where from the start you know almost without doubt of the story's outcome, Trigell does it, and does it well.

Although his writing style is more gritty than poetic, Trigell can turn a phrase with beauty and almost magical precision. I can't count the number of times I had to stop and savor a sentence and wish ardently that I could weave words together with such breathtaking rightness. Because each of these sentences shows craft and a kind of heartrending accuracy. You find yourself thinking simultaneously that you'd never think to put words together in that way and that it's the exact way they were created to fit together.

In short, from the first words this book grabs you by the throat like a vicious, one-eyed mangy dog with oozing pustules and shakes you senseless until the last breathtaking sentence.

Although I can't recommend it to everyone due to its graphic nature, I wish I could.




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Review Wednesday: Smack, by Melvin Burgess

Smack by Melvin Burgess


My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Like many of my 5-star books, I've resisted reviewing this one because there is no way to do it justice in a few sentences.




This is one of the most intense books I've ever read. I could not stop reading even when it got so intense I got the shakes reading about the kids' journey into heroin addiction. Like Burgess's other books, it drew me in, grabbed on with talons and claws, and would not let go. I think I stayed up all night finishing this one. The first half was engaging, but the second half was...indescribable. I literally could not put it down if I tried. I had to keep reading, even as it got more and more horrifying. Burgess knows how to draw the reader in and keep you there until the climactic scene, which is so intense and awful you will at least want to cry. This book is like...well, like being addicted. You can't stop even when you want to, even when you wonder if it's actually doing some psychological damage.




I read this a few years ago, but to this day the scene where the girl shoots up between her breasts while nursing her baby is probably the most horrifying thing I've ever read. I loved this book, but I'm not going to say it's for everyone, because it is VERY graphic in terms of scenes of drug consumption. But, powerful and worth reading if you can handle it.




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