Capturing young people’s language is impossible. Slang is wildly outdated before it hits the keyboard, let alone the page. Instead, Alex Wheatle captures the rhythm and movement of language though simile, humour and redefinitions of meaning.
He puts his words into the mouths of young people living in Crongton, a run-down series of neighbourhoods that comprise failing schools, high-rise estates and “slab” blocks. It is split between north and south, with each area contested by territorial gangs who are caught in a cycle of death and revenge.
The focus this time, following last year’s Guardian children’s fiction prize winner Crongton Knights, is women, young and old. Maureen, AKA Mo Baker, is 15 and permanently vexed, not least because of Lloyd, the “flabulous dickhead” boyfriend her mum favours over Mo.
Food and even Mo’s money are passed on to Lloyd, leaving Mo hungry at home and school. When she exacts revenge on Lloyd’s precious Real Madrid football shirt, he storms into her room while she is sleeping and hits her so hard he knocks her out of bed, making her nose bleed. Mo’s mum still refuses to get rid of him.
But Mo has Elaine, her best friend, protective and sensible. There is also a recent addition to the friendship group: shoplifting, extrovert Naomi, who is hiding her own grief and anger. Naomi, Elaine and Mo don’t have fathers around to support them. Nor does Sam, the aspirational boy whom Mo has loved for years. Finally, it looks as though Sam really wants to make their relationship work.
Straight Outta Crongton is a book full of humour and tenderness. But it deals with tough subjects: domestic abuse, gang violence and its consequences, and the pressures on women trying to keep their families together under extreme circumstances. It is also about the good and the bad sides of unquestioning loyalty. As the violence escalates, Mo learns the power of revenge and makes a decision to take sides.
Wheatle ensures that Mo, in spite of the challenges in her life, is never a passive character. She will fight back, even physically, if she must. So her decision to take part in a horrific crime is not forced on her: she has every opportunity to drop out without consequence. But anger drives her into an even greater tragedy. And her loyal friends, the ones who could act as her moral compass, who care for her when her mother doesn’t, are by her side, egging her on. Still, I rooted for Mo. I didn’t like her choices, but there was hope for her, beyond the book.
In some ways, Straight Outta Crongton feels like an easier read than it is. The richness of the dialogue, the banter between friends, and the vividness of the language distract you from the neglect, abuse and underlying sense of menace. It works as a book, but Wheatle is also a playwright. On stage, these words would be hench.
•Patrice Lawrence’s Orangeboy is published by Hodder.
• Straight Outta Crongton is published by Atom, £6.99. To order a copy for £5.94, go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99.
