Saving Daisy by Phil Earle
Oct. 25th, 2013 11:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
”For as long as I could remember it was always about the three of us.
Me.
Dad.
And mum’s shadow.”
Daisy’s mum is gone.
Her dad refuses to talk about it.
As far as Daisy’s concerned, it’s all her fault.
As her life starts to spiral out of control, panic leads to tragedy and Daisy’s left alone.
But sometimes the kindness of a stranger can turn things around.
A stranger who desperately wants to save Daisy – if she’ll only let herself be saved …
14-year-old Daisy is a self-harmer. Cutting her arms is the only way she can stem the panic attacks that comes from the certainty that she killed her mum. Her dad refuses to talk about it, preferring to indulge Daisy in her love of cinema and particularly the movie THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION. But Daisy needs to talk to someone and when that leads to tragic consequences, she ends up in Bellfield, a residential facility where the care workers, led by Ade, try to save her.
But Daisy isn’t sure that she deserves to be saved …
Phil Earle’s second YA novel is a companion book to the critically acclaimed BEING BILLY and, given that it focuses on one of the characters in that book, I’d been hoping for another powerful contemporary tale that shines a light on real teen issues. What I found was a soapier beast and that’s because Daisy’s problems, although serious, are essentially passive. She’s not someone who drives events, even though she blames herself for them. The tremendous guilt and anxiety she feels makes her passive and reactive and her inability to stand up for herself even when bullied frustrated me (even though I acknowledge it’s true to life). I also found the internal monologues a little repetitive and when her therapy worker, Ade starts talking about the application of logic, I wish it had come sooner. It’s a very worthy book and I think there’s a lot here that could help teens struggling with self-harm, but (and I feel bad for saying this) it didn’t make for an interesting read for me and I found myself skimming the pages. It’s an okay read but not as good as BEING BILLY.
Earle gives Daisy a believable voice and I understood why she sees self-harm as a way of controlling her anxiety attacks but her friendship with Ade didn’t really convince, partly because Ade’s given mannered dialogue that I found difficult to engage with and partly because she disappears at those points when she’s most needed. The self-destructive Naomi could have been fascinating but with limited page time, she’s two dimensional at best, while the other Bellfield characters are little more than names on the page.
The events that happen to Daisy are a little soap opera at times and the ending’s too melodramatic for me. It’s an okay book but not as good as Earle’s first.
The Verdict:
Phil Earle’s second YA novel is a companion book to the critically acclaimed BEING BILLY and, given that it focuses on one of the characters in that book, I’d been hoping for another powerful contemporary tale that shines a light on real teen issues. What I found was a soapier beast and that’s because Daisy’s problems, although serious, are essentially passive. She’s not someone who drives events, even though she blames herself for them. The tremendous guilt and anxiety she feels makes her passive and reactive and her inability to stand up for herself even when bullied frustrated me (even though I acknowledge it’s true to life). I also found the internal monologues a little repetitive and when her therapy worker, Ade starts talking about the application of logic, I wish it had come sooner. It’s a very worthy book and I think there’s a lot here that could help teens struggling with self-harm, but (and I feel bad for saying this) it didn’t make for an interesting read for me and I found myself skimming the pages. It’s an okay read but not as good as BEING BILLY.
Me.
Dad.
And mum’s shadow.”
Daisy’s mum is gone.
Her dad refuses to talk about it.
As far as Daisy’s concerned, it’s all her fault.
As her life starts to spiral out of control, panic leads to tragedy and Daisy’s left alone.
But sometimes the kindness of a stranger can turn things around.
A stranger who desperately wants to save Daisy – if she’ll only let herself be saved …
14-year-old Daisy is a self-harmer. Cutting her arms is the only way she can stem the panic attacks that comes from the certainty that she killed her mum. Her dad refuses to talk about it, preferring to indulge Daisy in her love of cinema and particularly the movie THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION. But Daisy needs to talk to someone and when that leads to tragic consequences, she ends up in Bellfield, a residential facility where the care workers, led by Ade, try to save her.
But Daisy isn’t sure that she deserves to be saved …
Phil Earle’s second YA novel is a companion book to the critically acclaimed BEING BILLY and, given that it focuses on one of the characters in that book, I’d been hoping for another powerful contemporary tale that shines a light on real teen issues. What I found was a soapier beast and that’s because Daisy’s problems, although serious, are essentially passive. She’s not someone who drives events, even though she blames herself for them. The tremendous guilt and anxiety she feels makes her passive and reactive and her inability to stand up for herself even when bullied frustrated me (even though I acknowledge it’s true to life). I also found the internal monologues a little repetitive and when her therapy worker, Ade starts talking about the application of logic, I wish it had come sooner. It’s a very worthy book and I think there’s a lot here that could help teens struggling with self-harm, but (and I feel bad for saying this) it didn’t make for an interesting read for me and I found myself skimming the pages. It’s an okay read but not as good as BEING BILLY.
Earle gives Daisy a believable voice and I understood why she sees self-harm as a way of controlling her anxiety attacks but her friendship with Ade didn’t really convince, partly because Ade’s given mannered dialogue that I found difficult to engage with and partly because she disappears at those points when she’s most needed. The self-destructive Naomi could have been fascinating but with limited page time, she’s two dimensional at best, while the other Bellfield characters are little more than names on the page.
The events that happen to Daisy are a little soap opera at times and the ending’s too melodramatic for me. It’s an okay book but not as good as Earle’s first.
The Verdict:
Phil Earle’s second YA novel is a companion book to the critically acclaimed BEING BILLY and, given that it focuses on one of the characters in that book, I’d been hoping for another powerful contemporary tale that shines a light on real teen issues. What I found was a soapier beast and that’s because Daisy’s problems, although serious, are essentially passive. She’s not someone who drives events, even though she blames herself for them. The tremendous guilt and anxiety she feels makes her passive and reactive and her inability to stand up for herself even when bullied frustrated me (even though I acknowledge it’s true to life). I also found the internal monologues a little repetitive and when her therapy worker, Ade starts talking about the application of logic, I wish it had come sooner. It’s a very worthy book and I think there’s a lot here that could help teens struggling with self-harm, but (and I feel bad for saying this) it didn’t make for an interesting read for me and I found myself skimming the pages. It’s an okay read but not as good as BEING BILLY.
