Wednesday 1 May 2013

book review: maggot moon by sally gardner

Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner
Genre: Dystopian YA, Sci-Fi
Rating: 8/10
Goodreads
What if the football hadn’t gone over the wall. On the other side of the wall there is a dark secret. And the devil. And the Moon Man. And the Motherland doesn’t want anyone to know. But Standish Treadwell — who has different-colored eyes, who can’t read, can’t write, Standish Treadwell isn’t bright — sees things differently than the rest of the "train-track thinkers." So when Standish and his only friend and neighbor, Hector, make their way to the other side of the wall, they see what the Motherland has been hiding. And it’s big...


I wasn't going to do a review of this because, as you'll see, I don't have much to say beyond, 'This is great. You should read it!' but it's a British book which I haven't seen discussed very much within the blogosphere and I just wanted to draw some attention to it.

Maggot Moon is a hard book to review because it's one of those books which is more of an experience than a story. It's not long or even particularly complicated but it's one of those books that demands to be felt and you should all get to experience it first-hand. All you need to know is this: it's set in a dystopian world (obviously modelled on the European dictatorships of the C20), it's told through first-person narration of dyslexic teenager Standish, it's dark but shot through with humour and hope, and it contains some of the most effective use of illustration I've ever seen. It's a quick read (it's made up of 100 really short chapters) but it'll leave its mark - you'll be thinking about it for days.

It's great. You should read it!

1 comment:

  1. I totally know what you mean about it being an experience reading! It sounds really interesting. I like stories with humour/hope in dark times and yes to effective illustration! I haven't heard of this before but you made me intrigued.

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