15 Days Without A Head by Dave Cousins
Jan. 18th, 2013 11:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
How far would you go to keep your family together?
Meet LAURENCE, fifteen years old and six feet tall. Very soon, he’ll dress up as his mum and impersonate a dead man on the radio.
Meet JAY, his six year old brother. He looks like an angel but thinks he’s a dog. He’ll sink his teeth into anyone who gets in the way.
Today is Tuesday – and the next fifteen days will change the boys’ lives for ever …
No suitable for younger readers because Jay Roach says so (and he bites).
15 year-old Laurence looks like a hard-man. Six feet tall and strongly built, people assume he’s trouble. In reality, he’s just trying to keep things together for his alcoholic mother (who works two jobs and dreams of a better life) and his younger brother, Jay, (whose six years old and thinks he’s a dog). Since Social Services threatened to take Laurence and Jay into care the family have been hiding out in a crummy tower block filled with cockroaches.
When Laurence’s mum fails to come home from her job at the chip shop, he isn’t too worried at first. But as the days pass, he finds himself having to look after his brother and himself and that’s not easy when he’s got no money, a nosey downstairs neighbour who’s just waiting to call Social Services. Over the next 15 days, Laurence will dress up as his mum, impersonate his dead dad for a radio quiz, meet a trumpet-playing teenage girl and come to terms with his mum’s illness and what it means for all of them …
Dave Cousins’s debut YA novel is a touching, well-written and funny story about a teenage boy who’s being torn apart by his mum’s illness and his attempts to keep everything normal for his brother.
Laurence has a great first person voice. Despite his hard exterior he’s really vulnerable as he tries to make the best of things. Scenes where he discovers that his mum has spent Jay’s savings on booze and he has to go through the flat looking for spare change to keep the two of them fed are well written and carry a real emotional punch. He has a sweet relationship with Jay, whose belief that he’s a dog is charming and injects some much-needed humour to what would otherwise risk being a bleak read and I liked his burgeoning relationship with Mina, a confident, trumpet player who’s taken a shine to him.
The scenes where Laurence poses as his dad to try and win a luxury holiday on a radio show didn’t quite work for me (slightly too long and telegraphed). I would have also liked Laurence to actively confront his mum over what she’s done but the ending has low key optimism and is believable.
All in all this is a solid novel that deals with a difficult subject in a sensitive way and it’s well worth checking out.
The Verdict:
Dave Cousins’s debut YA novel is a touching, well-written and funny story about a teenage boy who’s being torn apart by his mum’s alcoholism and his attempts to keep everything normal for his brother. All in all this is a solid novel that deals with a difficult subject in a sensitive way and it’s well worth checking out.
Meet LAURENCE, fifteen years old and six feet tall. Very soon, he’ll dress up as his mum and impersonate a dead man on the radio.
Meet JAY, his six year old brother. He looks like an angel but thinks he’s a dog. He’ll sink his teeth into anyone who gets in the way.
Today is Tuesday – and the next fifteen days will change the boys’ lives for ever …
No suitable for younger readers because Jay Roach says so (and he bites).
15 year-old Laurence looks like a hard-man. Six feet tall and strongly built, people assume he’s trouble. In reality, he’s just trying to keep things together for his alcoholic mother (who works two jobs and dreams of a better life) and his younger brother, Jay, (whose six years old and thinks he’s a dog). Since Social Services threatened to take Laurence and Jay into care the family have been hiding out in a crummy tower block filled with cockroaches.
When Laurence’s mum fails to come home from her job at the chip shop, he isn’t too worried at first. But as the days pass, he finds himself having to look after his brother and himself and that’s not easy when he’s got no money, a nosey downstairs neighbour who’s just waiting to call Social Services. Over the next 15 days, Laurence will dress up as his mum, impersonate his dead dad for a radio quiz, meet a trumpet-playing teenage girl and come to terms with his mum’s illness and what it means for all of them …
Dave Cousins’s debut YA novel is a touching, well-written and funny story about a teenage boy who’s being torn apart by his mum’s illness and his attempts to keep everything normal for his brother.
Laurence has a great first person voice. Despite his hard exterior he’s really vulnerable as he tries to make the best of things. Scenes where he discovers that his mum has spent Jay’s savings on booze and he has to go through the flat looking for spare change to keep the two of them fed are well written and carry a real emotional punch. He has a sweet relationship with Jay, whose belief that he’s a dog is charming and injects some much-needed humour to what would otherwise risk being a bleak read and I liked his burgeoning relationship with Mina, a confident, trumpet player who’s taken a shine to him.
The scenes where Laurence poses as his dad to try and win a luxury holiday on a radio show didn’t quite work for me (slightly too long and telegraphed). I would have also liked Laurence to actively confront his mum over what she’s done but the ending has low key optimism and is believable.
All in all this is a solid novel that deals with a difficult subject in a sensitive way and it’s well worth checking out.
The Verdict:
Dave Cousins’s debut YA novel is a touching, well-written and funny story about a teenage boy who’s being torn apart by his mum’s alcoholism and his attempts to keep everything normal for his brother. All in all this is a solid novel that deals with a difficult subject in a sensitive way and it’s well worth checking out.
