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A review by alice_digest
Martyn Pig by Kevin Brooks
2.0
I read The Bunker Diary last year and was blown away by it. What a novel. It left me wanting to read more Kevin Brooks, and this is the one I slightly randomly grabbed off the shelf. This is his first novel, and while it's certainly a strong start, and well written.. I just didn't love it. It was ok. I finished it... at 26 I think I might be a bit too old for this one!
Martyn Pig is the son of an abusive drunk, with an absent mother who abandoned them some time ago. One day he accidentally kills his Dad, and then doesn't call the police. His neighbour Alex helps him deal with the situation.. they realise his Dad recently received a £30,000 inheritance, and things spiral out of control.
There are many reasons I should feel sorry for Martyn but.. I did not like him much. I never warmed to him, and I sort of hated him a little bit towards the end. I definitely didn't care about him.. and I hoped he'd be caught! I think what I objected to was how full of himself and his own intelligence he was, he came across pretty smug. He's also cold. The only bit of emotion you get is his clichéd adoration of Alex - the older, alternative girl in oversized jackets. He is obsessed with detective novels, so perhaps part of this was the typical cool, collected character he was trying to inhabit.. but it didn't do it for me.
In the end.. I was glad that he got what he did! Not as a clever as you think, are you Martyn!
Alex was the average alternative older girl (she's seventeen) cliché, complete with horrible boyfriend on a motorbike. Martyn is constantly referring to how beautiful and wonderful she is, and of course she has no interest in a fourteen year old. I did question why on earth she is helping him cover up his Dad's death.. money or not! Your fourteen year old neighbour has his father's corpse rotting in the front room... Just call the police!
There is a good twist, and it is tightly written. It's the dark kind of material I expected from Brooks but it didn't grab me. It is one of those Young Adult books where the 'teenageryness' of it bugs me.. but fourteen year old Alice would have eaten this up!
Now it's March and I'm going to read just comic books and/or graphic novels! Pretty excited about that.
Martyn Pig is the son of an abusive drunk, with an absent mother who abandoned them some time ago. One day he accidentally kills his Dad, and then doesn't call the police. His neighbour Alex helps him deal with the situation.. they realise his Dad recently received a £30,000 inheritance, and things spiral out of control.
There are many reasons I should feel sorry for Martyn but.. I did not like him much. I never warmed to him, and I sort of hated him a little bit towards the end. I definitely didn't care about him.. and I hoped he'd be caught! I think what I objected to was how full of himself and his own intelligence he was, he came across pretty smug. He's also cold. The only bit of emotion you get is his clichéd adoration of Alex - the older, alternative girl in oversized jackets. He is obsessed with detective novels, so perhaps part of this was the typical cool, collected character he was trying to inhabit.. but it didn't do it for me.
In the end.. I was glad that he got what he did! Not as a clever as you think, are you Martyn!
Alex was the average alternative older girl (she's seventeen) cliché, complete with horrible boyfriend on a motorbike. Martyn is constantly referring to how beautiful and wonderful she is, and of course she has no interest in a fourteen year old. I did question why on earth she is helping him cover up his Dad's death.. money or not! Your fourteen year old neighbour has his father's corpse rotting in the front room... Just call the police!
There is a good twist, and it is tightly written. It's the dark kind of material I expected from Brooks but it didn't grab me. It is one of those Young Adult books where the 'teenageryness' of it bugs me.. but fourteen year old Alice would have eaten this up!
Now it's March and I'm going to read just comic books and/or graphic novels! Pretty excited about that.