When the news came that Simon Mayo was writing his first YA novel, I for one was pretty excited. I remember spotting his first book in a supermarket and buying it. I really enjoyed the Itch series so I was pretty excited at the news of his first YA novel. When a copy landed on my doorstep to read and review, I couldn’t wait to get started and see what happens.
In a completely different United Kingdom, there’s a new type of criminal: heritage criminals. ‘Criminals’ who are sentenced to do time in family prisons for the unpunished crimes of family members. Ant and her brother Mattie are heritage criminals imprisoned in Spike, one of these prisons. Tension builds within the prison and it’s not long before a riot breaks out. Ant takes the one chance they’ve got to break out and show the world that they’re not to blame.
First of all, this book is incredibly detailed, which is similar to how Simon wrote the Itch books; there’s a lot of detail, so much so you can picture scenes with barely any doubt as to what a certain detail is supposed to look like. This helps you build a real sense of emotion and empathy with the characters, this may not be for everyone, but I think a lot of people will like it.
Ant and Mattie are really amazing characters too. They’re described well and we get to know their personalities. The book is written in the third person, which I think makes it a little more impressive. At the same time, you’d expect to learn a lot about the characters in first person but there is a lot of attention given to describing the characters in detail. Every trait in the character is explored.
However, one thing that I noticed with this book is that it’s quite slow to start with. There’s a lot of build up before the book reaches its main event, the riot, certain readers may prefer this. You learn a lot about the book, its setting, characters, backstory and plot in detail before anything happens, but other readers may not like it. I would urge those who aren’t too keen to try and stick with it because the book reaches some really interesting developments, but only in the later stages.
This book is completely different from the Itch series, not including the obvious fact that this is a YA and Itch was more MG. It’s got Simon’s writing style which I’m impressed by once again but it’s a really big jump from Itch. I enjoyed it despite the fact it took me far too long to read from start to finish.
Sure, this might not be a book for everyone, but stick with it. You’ll find it’s a well planned, well thought out and developed novel in store.
- Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop
