“Josh has 25 minutes left to live. Lying alone in a pool of blood, Josh has not much time to think. Yesterday he stabbed his best mate, and now it has happened to him. But there are questions he cannot get out of his head. Like, how did he get into this mess? Will anyone find him in time? Will his girlfriend forgive him, and what really happened to his older brother? As his life slips away, the events of the last 24 hours start to look very different.”
“Dead Boy Talking” is a story told mainly from two perspectives. In the minutes after he’s been stabbed, Josh looks back on events in his life with a new outlook. There’s also a third-person perspective of the day before, when Josh stabbed his best friend. These two perspectives intertwine, meaning that the reader never truly knows what happened until the end of the story.
The length of the book reflects well the little time that Josh has left to survive. At less than 200 pages, it strikes a nice balance between telling the reader everything they need to know and making them understand that time is running out.
I think this story would do well as an educational resource. It’s a short but engaging read that highlights the issues of knife crime and gang culture without seeming like a lecture. The one thing I picked up on that made me think the book was amazing was the fact that Strachan never tells the reader what the gang name YHT stands for. That said to me that gangs ultimately stand for nothing and that there’s no point in the tension they cause. Whether the author meant to make this point or not, I can only speculate.
It wasn’t just a book about knife crime though. Occasionally one of the supporting characters got to step into the spotlight with a story about their home life. While it wasn’t strictly necessary to have these chapters, it gave a great insight into why the characters acted the way they did, making them seem more human.
This story made me appreciate the life I lead and I felt thankful that people in my area don’t feel the need to join gangs or carry weapons. I’d recommend this to any teenager looking for a short, serious read that they can be drawn into.
Review by Kate
This sounds like such a powerful read. I think knife crime is a subject that teens really should be made aware of.
Posted by: Sophie | 19 July 2010 at 02:02 PM
The cover's gorgeous!
Posted by: Ria | 20 July 2010 at 07:34 AM
wow, that sounds really good.
Posted by: Anna | 20 July 2010 at 09:24 AM