I have yet to read Annabel Pitcher's first novel, My Sister Lives On The Mantelpiece, but after finishing her award-winning second book, the ambiguously titled Ketchup Clouds, I quite want to. Pitcher has a knack for storytelling, the convincing voice of a teenager writing letters that will never receive a reply.
Zoe, as she calls herself, has done a terrible thing. All that keeps her going is writing down her story to Mr Harris, a Texan man on death row for murder. As the story progresses, she moves from referring to him as Mr Harris to Stuart, then Stu and finally, as My Dearest Stu. Despite not getting any replies, Zoe confide in this man as they have something in common: they both killed someone they were supposed to love.
I found it hard to comprehend how someone who looks so innocent as Pitcher can write such a tale with such a dark underlying current but of course, you mustn't judge a book by its cover!
I was glad that such a worthy book won the Waterstone's children's book prize, a realistic story with a teenager's guilty torment at the heart of the story rather than yet another paranormal love story. While few of us are guilty of being responsible for the death of someone we're supposed to love, many readers will be able to relate to Zoe's feeling of not being able to tell anyone.
Too much is expected of her, especially from her lawyer-parents, and she's overwhelmed. That is something everyone has felt at some point, when everything is too much and you don't know what to do or who to turn to. For Zoe, the perfect confidant was Mr Harris, the American inmate.
At first, it seemed obvious who Zoe must have killed but as it transpired, there was more than one potential victim. And they were brothers. Max and Aaron, the two boys Zoe meets at a party; the two boys she wants to keep on meeting. The book picked up pace once I realised it wasn't so obvious who had died, and Zoe continued to write about the weeks and months leading up to the fateful day.
All the while, there is the backdrop of Zoe's home life. Her parents aren't happy, constantly arguing; her ten-year-old sister Sophie is being bullied and the baby of the family, Dot, isn't doing as well in her speech therapy lip-reading classes as she should be.
The two conflicts: Zoe's home life and The Big Bad Thing she did, keep the book moving though I found it lacked a big climax, a Wow moment. Opportunities were rife to punch the reader in the gut but never came. However, the tale is not about drama so much as admission and Zoe moving on from what happened.
We are privy to Zoe's maturation from what she did to understanding that it can't be changed, as she grows closer in her unrequited relationship with Mr Harris, finally revealing to him her real name as though she finally understands herself.
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