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Review
Praise for Steve Cockayne: 'Startlingly original ... an important new writer has arrived' STARBURST 'A novel that creates its own mythology and marvels' INTERZONE 'Intricate, important and moving' CHINA MIEVILLE 'Compelling' SFX
Book Description
A dark fantasy novel for young readers from one of Britain's most highly acclaimed new fantasy writers.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
"But now everything's changed, everything's different. Why do they always have to grow up?"
15 Nov 2009
Format:Paperback
The Second World War is fast approaching, but brothers Robbie and Kenny Storey are too lost in the make-believe world of Arboria, which they've created from the lake and woods adjoining their family home, to feel its effects -- at first. But when the violence and tragedy of the war finally intrude, Robbie, the elder, takes on the responsibility of adulthood and leaves Arboria for the difficult, dangerous real world. Young Kenny, however, makes a different decision.
But is Arboria make-believe after all? With Kenny as our narrator, it becomes increasingly difficult to tell. The fast growing-up Robbie shrugs the childhood game off easily enough, but Kenny remains thoroughly under its spell, along with the two girl evacuees who seem to exist half in Arboria's faerie world, and half in the real one -- the ever red-eyed Janny, and Nadia, whose fondness for swimming in the lake won't surprise anyone with an anagrammatic eye. But ultimately, The Good People isn't about whether Kenny's world is literally real or not, and at times it deliberately muddies the water so the reader can never truly be sure. Instead, it's about the hazy, half-real, half-imaginative hinterland on the borders of adolescence, a world as dangerous, complicated, and treacherous as the real one, as Kenny soon finds.
Published by Atom Books, who seem to be a YA-branch of the Little, Brown tree, I'm surprised this book is considered a YA novel, as it's much more about looking back at childhood, and about the failure to escape childhood, than what YAs will want to read about, which lies in the other direction. As a no-longer-Y A myself (nearer to an MAA, I must admit), I thoroughly enjoyed its nostalgia for the imaginative play-worlds of childhood, its very real warning about the price that must be paid for failing to leave them behind, and its plaintive lament for the lost opportunities that follow as one takes the first decisive steps into one's own version of adulthood.
In the end, is Kenny mentally disturbed, or does he just have special sight? I think it's a mixture of both. The Good People is a book which takes its reader on a genuine imaginative journey, a journey that, whatever the reality of its fantasy elements, certainly rings true on the level of the human experience, which is, if we're honest, always to live with at least one foot in the world of the (often perilous) imaginary.
But is Arboria make-believe after all? With Kenny as our narrator, it becomes increasingly difficult to tell. The fast growing-up Robbie shrugs the childhood game off easily enough, but Kenny remains thoroughly under its spell, along with the two girl evacuees who seem to exist half in Arboria's faerie world, and half in the real one -- the ever red-eyed Janny, and Nadia, whose fondness for swimming in the lake won't surprise anyone with an anagrammatic eye. But ultimately, The Good People isn't about whether Kenny's world is literally real or not, and at times it deliberately muddies the water so the reader can never truly be sure. Instead, it's about the hazy, half-real, half-imaginative hinterland on the borders of adolescence, a world as dangerous, complicated, and treacherous as the real one, as Kenny soon finds.
Published by Atom Books, who seem to be a YA-branch of the Little, Brown tree, I'm surprised this book is considered a YA novel, as it's much more about looking back at childhood, and about the failure to escape childhood, than what YAs will want to read about, which lies in the other direction. As a no-longer-Y A myself (nearer to an MAA, I must admit), I thoroughly enjoyed its nostalgia for the imaginative play-worlds of childhood, its very real warning about the price that must be paid for failing to leave them behind, and its plaintive lament for the lost opportunities that follow as one takes the first decisive steps into one's own version of adulthood.
In the end, is Kenny mentally disturbed, or does he just have special sight? I think it's a mixture of both. The Good People is a book which takes its reader on a genuine imaginative journey, a journey that, whatever the reality of its fantasy elements, certainly rings true on the level of the human experience, which is, if we're honest, always to live with at least one foot in the world of the (often perilous) imaginary.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is well written; the characters are engaging and the story moves along nicely.
However, in the end, it left me feeling more than a little disturbed and with the impression that it was more about mental illness than about fantasy. The fantasy elements are tenuous - I was never sure what was 'real' (in the fantasy world) and what was in the imagination of the protaganist.
If you intend to read it then you should be aware that the book is somehwat disturbing. If you like a happy ending - then this book is probably not for you.
However, in the end, it left me feeling more than a little disturbed and with the impression that it was more about mental illness than about fantasy. The fantasy elements are tenuous - I was never sure what was 'real' (in the fantasy world) and what was in the imagination of the protaganist.
If you intend to read it then you should be aware that the book is somehwat disturbing. If you like a happy ending - then this book is probably not for you.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I found this on sale and the cover intrigued me so I brought it.
I started reading it and thought... mmmm... how long are these chapters!! Anyway it's very well described and I managed to read it no problem until reaching chapter six. Then all of a sudden it was jumping all over the place and I wasn't really sure what was happening.
All over, I would recommend it to over fifteen's.
Nicolle.x
I started reading it and thought... mmmm... how long are these chapters!! Anyway it's very well described and I managed to read it no problem until reaching chapter six. Then all of a sudden it was jumping all over the place and I wasn't really sure what was happening.
All over, I would recommend it to over fifteen's.
Nicolle.x
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