Fantastic story made me smile and laugh so much!
This is such a fantastic story that made me smile and laugh so much! Shaun, aka MC Growls, loves to wrap and is excited about entering Raptology with his friend Shanks. Wanting to also impress a girl he likes from school, Shaun decides to film while he and Shanks practice their rapping together live. But something embarrassing soon happens and Shaun and Shanks struggle to deal with everyone now laughing at them.
This is such a fun and interesting story told from Shaun’s point of view. From the first pages this book had me laughing due to how funny and silly Shaun can be. The humour is really good and I couldn’t help but enjoy the funny way Shaun talks and makes mistakes with the things he says or does. At the start of the story Shaun, aka Growls, desperately wants to be a rapper because of the cool lifestyle associated with it. He also desperately wants to impress the girl he likes at school called Tanisha too. When Shaun and Shanks start practicing their rapping in Shaun’s bedroom, his mum soon comes in and spoils not only their fun, but ends up embarassing Shaun, airing his dirty laundry (literally) to everyone watching the live feed. And soon Shaun is the laughing stock of the school and finds he’s being noticed, for the wrong reasons, everywhere he goes.
From the start Shaun is such a brilliant character to narrate this story. I love some of the silly things that happen to him, like the mention of the eyelash Vaseline incident, what happens at the cinema including the snack Shaun brings, and that pushchair scene really made me laugh out loud at how funny and silly they are. In fact this book just kept on being funny, even though it has some more serious moments, there’s so much good humour throughout you can’t hep but keep laughing. Shaun is a character I instantly liked and I know lots of teens could relate to him.
As the story continues it does tackle some more serious topics. Even though the humour does continue, some more serious things happen especially after the live feed goes wrong for both Shaun and Shanks and later Shaun’s family face being evicted from their home, as well as another character facing their own difficult problems too. I like how these issues were tackled in this book and how even though Shaun has a moment here and there where he struggles with what’s happening, he’s ultimately a good character with a good heart. I especially like what happens when Shaun meets Siobhan and how their relationship develops in the story, with us finding out more about her life, showing some more difficult issues but in a good way.
Throughout the story there are raps that Shaun does, which I enjoyed reading, and I love the silly things he keeps saying, mixing up phrases or words making them sound so silly you can’t help but laugh. The story has so much humour that it makes the harder moments in the book easier to deal with and I found myself laughing so many times despite all the difficult stuff Shaun and some other characters face. The story has a good build up to the ending and what happens at the end is so brilliant that it made this book not only one that made me smile but it felt like a brilliant and heart-warming one too! I love what happens to Shaun at Raptology, and afterwards that triple epilogue, it was all such a perfect ending to Shaun’s story and one I have loved every minute of reading! Even the author’s acknowledgements made me laugh (you should read them too!).
Overall this is such a good book which will make any teens reading it laugh and smile. It tackles some difficult subjects, which honestly, some teens reading may not be familiar with like facing eviction or money problems, but for other teens this may well be a book they will relate to more because of these difficult issues mentioned in the book. For me this book feels all the better because it tackles these difficult subjects, like impending homelessness, mental health and money problems, and does this in good a way. It’s definitely a good book at showing the good side to people from a working class background too. So many stories I know set in places where Shaun lives are often seen as gritty or dark, and I love how this book give a different side and vibe to what it’s like to grow up in a poorer neighbourhood (which for some of my childhood I could relate to), andshowing how these characters are still good and good things can happen to them.
I do feel I should mention one thing about this book considering it’s been the reason for some negative reviews I’ve seen. The book’s narrator does speak a lot in slang and in the type of language or way which some do use from South East London. It doesn’t make the book too difficult to read, but for older readers or those not used to the slang language or way that Shaun speaks could find it a little harder at first to get used to the book’s narration. However, even though I didn’t know all of the slang words used today, I did pick them up very quickly and I did really enjoy reading this and found it such a fun and brilliant read (although I am also from London so this might have influenced some of my enjoyment too considering it’s set there! 😀 ). A great book that I’d recommend for how much it will put you in a good mood after reading it. This has become a favourite of the year and I’ll definnitely be re-reading this whenever I need something to make me smile. I can’t wait to read more books from this author in the future too! 🙂
This is such a fun and interesting story told from Shaun’s point of view. From the first pages this book had me laughing due to how funny and silly Shaun can be. The humour is really good and I couldn’t help but enjoy the funny way Shaun talks and makes mistakes with the things he says or does. At the start of the story Shaun, aka Growls, desperately wants to be a rapper because of the cool lifestyle associated with it. He also desperately wants to impress the girl he likes at school called Tanisha too. When Shaun and Shanks start practicing their rapping in Shaun’s bedroom, his mum soon comes in and spoils not only their fun, but ends up embarassing Shaun, airing his dirty laundry (literally) to everyone watching the live feed. And soon Shaun is the laughing stock of the school and finds he’s being noticed, for the wrong reasons, everywhere he goes.
From the start Shaun is such a brilliant character to narrate this story. I love some of the silly things that happen to him, like the mention of the eyelash Vaseline incident, what happens at the cinema including the snack Shaun brings, and that pushchair scene really made me laugh out loud at how funny and silly they are. In fact this book just kept on being funny, even though it has some more serious moments, there’s so much good humour throughout you can’t hep but keep laughing. Shaun is a character I instantly liked and I know lots of teens could relate to him.
As the story continues it does tackle some more serious topics. Even though the humour does continue, some more serious things happen especially after the live feed goes wrong for both Shaun and Shanks and later Shaun’s family face being evicted from their home, as well as another character facing their own difficult problems too. I like how these issues were tackled in this book and how even though Shaun has a moment here and there where he struggles with what’s happening, he’s ultimately a good character with a good heart. I especially like what happens when Shaun meets Siobhan and how their relationship develops in the story, with us finding out more about her life, showing some more difficult issues but in a good way.
Throughout the story there are raps that Shaun does, which I enjoyed reading, and I love the silly things he keeps saying, mixing up phrases or words making them sound so silly you can’t help but laugh. The story has so much humour that it makes the harder moments in the book easier to deal with and I found myself laughing so many times despite all the difficult stuff Shaun and some other characters face. The story has a good build up to the ending and what happens at the end is so brilliant that it made this book not only one that made me smile but it felt like a brilliant and heart-warming one too! I love what happens to Shaun at Raptology, and afterwards that triple epilogue, it was all such a perfect ending to Shaun’s story and one I have loved every minute of reading! Even the author’s acknowledgements made me laugh (you should read them too!).
Overall this is such a good book which will make any teens reading it laugh and smile. It tackles some difficult subjects, which honestly, some teens reading may not be familiar with like facing eviction or money problems, but for other teens this may well be a book they will relate to more because of these difficult issues mentioned in the book. For me this book feels all the better because it tackles these difficult subjects, like impending homelessness, mental health and money problems, and does this in good a way. It’s definitely a good book at showing the good side to people from a working class background too. So many stories I know set in places where Shaun lives are often seen as gritty or dark, and I love how this book give a different side and vibe to what it’s like to grow up in a poorer neighbourhood (which for some of my childhood I could relate to), andshowing how these characters are still good and good things can happen to them.
I do feel I should mention one thing about this book considering it’s been the reason for some negative reviews I’ve seen. The book’s narrator does speak a lot in slang and in the type of language or way which some do use from South East London. It doesn’t make the book too difficult to read, but for older readers or those not used to the slang language or way that Shaun speaks could find it a little harder at first to get used to the book’s narration. However, even though I didn’t know all of the slang words used today, I did pick them up very quickly and I did really enjoy reading this and found it such a fun and brilliant read (although I am also from London so this might have influenced some of my enjoyment too considering it’s set there! 😀 ). A great book that I’d recommend for how much it will put you in a good mood after reading it. This has become a favourite of the year and I’ll definnitely be re-reading this whenever I need something to make me smile. I can’t wait to read more books from this author in the future too! 🙂