Review: Dark and Sad
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 25, 2012
I have a problem with snot.  The moment this forbidding substance appears in a book (Stephen King is curiously fond of it, but thankfully, for me, numerous vistas of literature, covering a vast acreage, manage blissfully without it), I can't read any further.  I was willing to overlook one appearance here, but after the second, and dreading further cameos, I had to stop reading.  If you have a similar phobia, and can set it aside, you will discover this book to be a dark, chilling, startlingly moving, and--despite some typos, which a good edit can easily eradicate--superbly written exposé of bullying and--possible--redemption in the British school system.The main character is instantly engaging.  His love affair with his own penis becomes a shining light in his darkness: his plausibly frequent erections form a rainbow bridge out of his hell.  And believe me, he needs the escape, which seems to be his only one, as if puberty, in this world, is a child's compensation for the hideous business of growing up.  The first-person voice adds immediacy and authenticity (both psychological and stylistic), and its efficacy and poignancy never flag.  It sweeps you along into a world you never want to visit and forces you to inhabit a mind you care about but resist sharing.  Pity about the sn*t.  I would love to have read the whole book.