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Anthony McGowan
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Book
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Publisher | Random House | ||
ISBN | 9781862306066 | ||
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Reviewer
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Janice
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Synopsis
He is coming to kill me. Now would be a good time to run. I cannot run. I am too afraid to run. Paul Varderman could be at any normal school - bullies, girls and annoying teachers are just a part of life. Unfortunately 'normal' doesn't apply when it comes to the school's most evil bully, Roth, a twisted and threatening thug with an agenda quite unlike anyone else. When Paul ends up delivering a message from Roth to the leader of a gang at a nearby school, it fuels a rivalry with immediate consequences. Paul attempts to distance himself from the feud, but when Roth hands him a knife it both empowers him and scares him at the same time ...This thought-provoking and original novel highlights the terrible consequences of peer pressure and violence, and casts a spotlight on the worrying rise in knife crime among teenagers.
Review
Anthony McGowan has tackle a subject that I think is the bain of many cities around the world but also on the streets of London and the whole of the UK.
Reading this book was not easy and it does have a warning on the back cover- 'stating not suitable for younger readers' - and I must ask parents to be aware of the theme that this book plays out and the destruction that destroys communities when gangs build up around schools and towns.
What happens when two rival gangs decide to take on each other after school one day and the consequences of this action are born out in Anthony McGowan's Book 'The Knife That Killed Me' , each chapter has a picture of a knife and just a few short sentences underneath, which do remind all who read, that knife crime doesn't pay.
The book is very well written,with tension, with fast action and amazing pace. If the intention, was to make young people understand that if you carry a knife you must be prepared for the consequences Anthony puts this across very clearly and passionately. One of the Characters Paul Vanderman, ends up knowing what a deadly weapon a knife is and at the end of the book he is speaking to his parents, who really cannot understand how he has slipped into the culture of a knife carrying youngster. Their hurt and fears are so well expressed in their meetings with their son in the concluding chapter.
There is a comment on the back of the book by Mal Peet, of the Guardian which states 'McGowan is excellent on the anxieties of teenage life and writes a scapel-sharp dialogue'.I cannot agree more.
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