For me this book tried too hard to look at the darker strata of society. The small town of Ketsley has everything - County Lines Drug Gangs, forced prostitution and people trafficing, a suspected paedophile ring, a thriving homeless population and for a small town a lot of dead young people. Honestly it is worse than any inner city. I'm not saying that I want the real world to be pushed out of my reading and that these things do not have a place in a novel BUT it just feels over blown and over done here.
The bulk of the book deals with Angie Watts and the aftermath of her husband's brutal murder on a local sink estate. Couple this with the onset of Universal Credit and her and her children end up in a spiral of debt that leads them in to the darker strata of society. Of course, being a novel, there is a Guardian Angel just waiting to rescue them - so if the darkness gets too much just bear that in mind.
The issues that I had with this are that whilst it makes mention of the Widows Allowance for the first 12 months what it doesn't mention is the Victim Compensation scheme. In a case such as Angie's they would not have been in such a precarious precidament as their situation (a small child (7 year old Zak) and a teenager (13 year old Grace) along with a young widow) would have meant they got a hefty payout. Yes, this would not have brought Steve back but it would have meant they weren't in danger of the terrible things that happen to the family after the event. For all the undoubted research the author has done for this to be missed irritated me and everytime money woes were mentioned it leapt in to my mind.
Angie herself also infuriated me. From sticking her head in the sand about their situation - okay, that I do get; debt is very, very scary and having bailiffs ringing you up and knocking on your door is not a great position to be in but you have to bite the bullet for the sake of the children. Her work at Bridging The Gap is definitely worthwhile but to stick to that even whilst spiralling deeper and deeper when it's not paying more than minimum wage is rash and she is simply unable to see this. Then ultimately she does not claw herself out of the mire she relies on someone else to do this for her and the final reveal about Shakil just made me shake my head in disbelief.
The writing itself is well paced and the characters are drawn well. The problem with the characters is that they don't have more than a couple of traits. Angie is downtrodden and, not to put too fine a point on it, pathetic. Martin is just revoltingly perfect. Grace is incredibly naive and read more like a ten year old than the thirteen she is supposed to be - especially for the location she lives in. The only character that really felt like she had any real depth was Emma.
I can see what the author was trying to do and it does open sections of society that we would prefer not to think about. However, it tries much too hard and by trying to add hope to the story it almost becomes a parody. If it had stuck with the spiral of debt and the true horrors that brings about then it could have been a stronger, more compelling book. Instead it spreads itself way too thin and dissipates the "message".
Although I have given this 3 Stars I cannot really recommend it unless you like misery-lit. The hope supposedly in the tale is far too removed from reality and belongs in a fairytale. The situations written about for the Watts family are unrealistic based on the situation described. In fact as I write this I am wondering if 2 Stars wouldn't have been a truer rating but I will stick with my initial notation from when I completed the book.
THIS IS AN HONEST REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED FROM READERS FIRST.
The bulk of the book deals with Angie Watts and the aftermath of her husband's brutal murder on a local sink estate. Couple this with the onset of Universal Credit and her and her children end up in a spiral of debt that leads them in to the darker strata of society. Of course, being a novel, there is a Guardian Angel just waiting to rescue them - so if the darkness gets too much just bear that in mind.
The issues that I had with this are that whilst it makes mention of the Widows Allowance for the first 12 months what it doesn't mention is the Victim Compensation scheme. In a case such as Angie's they would not have been in such a precarious precidament as their situation (a small child (7 year old Zak) and a teenager (13 year old Grace) along with a young widow) would have meant they got a hefty payout. Yes, this would not have brought Steve back but it would have meant they weren't in danger of the terrible things that happen to the family after the event. For all the undoubted research the author has done for this to be missed irritated me and everytime money woes were mentioned it leapt in to my mind.
Angie herself also infuriated me. From sticking her head in the sand about their situation - okay, that I do get; debt is very, very scary and having bailiffs ringing you up and knocking on your door is not a great position to be in but you have to bite the bullet for the sake of the children. Her work at Bridging The Gap is definitely worthwhile but to stick to that even whilst spiralling deeper and deeper when it's not paying more than minimum wage is rash and she is simply unable to see this. Then ultimately she does not claw herself out of the mire she relies on someone else to do this for her and the final reveal about Shakil just made me shake my head in disbelief.
The writing itself is well paced and the characters are drawn well. The problem with the characters is that they don't have more than a couple of traits. Angie is downtrodden and, not to put too fine a point on it, pathetic. Martin is just revoltingly perfect. Grace is incredibly naive and read more like a ten year old than the thirteen she is supposed to be - especially for the location she lives in. The only character that really felt like she had any real depth was Emma.
I can see what the author was trying to do and it does open sections of society that we would prefer not to think about. However, it tries much too hard and by trying to add hope to the story it almost becomes a parody. If it had stuck with the spiral of debt and the true horrors that brings about then it could have been a stronger, more compelling book. Instead it spreads itself way too thin and dissipates the "message".
Although I have given this 3 Stars I cannot really recommend it unless you like misery-lit. The hope supposedly in the tale is far too removed from reality and belongs in a fairytale. The situations written about for the Watts family are unrealistic based on the situation described. In fact as I write this I am wondering if 2 Stars wouldn't have been a truer rating but I will stick with my initial notation from when I completed the book.
THIS IS AN HONEST REVIEW OF A FREE COPY OF THE BOOK RECEIVED FROM READERS FIRST.