In this story Osbert is pushed to the limits of his endurance by a clique of evil and sadistic school teachers. Eventually he cracks and begins a well-thought out assassination programme, killing one teacher at a time. The descriptions of each murder are graphic and bleak. The book ends with him following one of his fellow female students down a dark alley clutching a meat-cleaver. Is this funny? Is this a good book to give to primary school children? Despite all the hype I think the publishers have got this one very wrong.
I read this as a book group choice so perhaps it wasn't something I would have naturally picked up. But I loved the first few chapters. He seemed like an interesting character and I genuinely wanted to know whether he would pluck up the courage to confront his parents about his decision to have a western girlfriend. But when it finally got down to the real issue of his father's mental illness the pace fell off and it was like wading through treacle. Suddenly there were numbered paragraphs, footnotes, bullet points, arguements for and against and all the other tell-tale signs of a university student essay. I began to wonder if he'd even written this book for an audience or just as a way… Read more
I picked this up at work because I was looking (and failing) to find something to give to my year 7 boys' book group that wasn't just another action adventure. It's so hard to find any light relief for boys of that age these days. But this hit the nail on the head perfectly. This was actually laugh-out-loud funny. I started reading it on the bus home and got very strange looks! It's such a breath of fresh air in a market dominated by high-octaine thrills, explosions and murders as if that's all that teenage boys want to read. Sometimes they just want to have fun too. I'm just slightly concerned that this is the start of a series called the Magnificent 12. That implies another 11… Read more
