Review: Shockingly realistic
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 9, 2013
Scott Williams, private school boy from a reasonably well-to-do family, couldn't have predicted the outcome of his innocent trip to town to buy a book for school. Unable to find the one he wants, he goes into a cafe to get a drink and something to eat with the twenty pounds which his mother has given him.Imagine his surprise, when a strange but - to him - beautiful street girl called Jet demands he buy her a drink and then eats his cake while his back is turned. Jet is utterly fascinating to fifteen-year old Scott, who is both attracted to her, but also repelled by her - what is to him - lack of morality and ethics. Jet, the same age as Scott, is a shop-lifter and already, sadly an apprentice prostitute.Robert Fowler's work is well-written, sensitive and his characters finely drawn. Scott and Jet are people you might want to shake until their teeth rattle for their behaviour, but they are also children in whom one cannot resist investing care. The outcome is definitely not what a reader would have hoped for, but is not unexpected, bearing in mind the lives of the protagonists.A superb piece of writing and I hope to read a full length novel by this author in the future.