Of course there's the obvious issue of writing it late at night when I'm half asleep. There are many reasons for that, so I won't go into them. On the plus side, it keeps me on my toes, helping to improve my use of grammar, vocabulary and punctuation.
Being a one - time budding author I'd always believed that writing conventions were there to be ignored, playthings to be used, or not used as the creator of the text wishes. I can't begin to count how many times I would lose the plot and have to hold my breath when I would see the conventions of writing stifle a brilliantly creative mind. Even my own son told me earlier this week to add a clause to my sentence because it would increase dramatic effect, this in spite of the fact that I wasn't trying to create any!
This isn't a novel, I'm not trying to create a world of my own imagining; this isn't even a diary entry. At best, this is a personalised book review, so I really do need to obey a few writing rules every now and again, whether I like it or not.
Cutting a long story short (too late) I ask you to bear with me if you read my posts and they are full of inconsistencies. Chances are if you look back at my post later on, the errors will have been ironed out. Right that's the girl out of depth bit out of the way; let's move on to the Boy Underwater.
Written by Adam Baron and published in 2018 our story centres around Cymbeline Igloo (yes, that is actually his name). He's named after the titular character in a Shakespearean play. Cymbeline is 9 years old and he has a problem: he has never been swimming in his life, not even once.
So when his first school swimming lesson is announced, he inadvertently winds up being challenged to a 'swim off' by the class bully. Calamity follows when he is shoved into the pool and has a minor accident. His mother's reaction to the incident is far from minor, scaring him and others in his class and the following morning after their return home, Cymbeline wakes to find that mum has disappeared.
With dad dead what follows is Cymbeline's solo journey to find out what happened to her and why.
The poor boy has so many unanswered questions:
how did his father die?
why does mum keep painting Mr Fluffy (Cymbeline's favourite teddy) over and over?
why are his mum and his aunt on such bad terms?
The list goes on.
I'll start with a plot spoiler alert, there are several twists you see coming and one (at least) that you REALLY DON'T.
Now, I must admit that the cover illustration had me thinking this would be a totally different type of story. I expected merpeople and tales of fantastically different worlds. What I got was a long look at our real one.
The writing style goes out of it's way to remind you that we are seeing the world through the eyes of a 9 year old boy. An example of this is on page 60 where there's a chat about his best friend having a half sister and he asks 'which half is your sister?' His friend's response is simple 'the top half'.
This first person perspective and niaeve world view actually allows the author to drop in several jokes that are really intended for grown ups and would probably go right over kids' heads.
There's some deliberate London landmark confusion on one page which got my inner London tourist guide itching as I thought younger readers might buy into it. There's even a 'just joking' reference to 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' just to remind you that Cymbeline is young, even for a 9 year old.
There's also several name drops, which speak straight to my heart (those of you who know me will happily testify to this). Names such as: Chelsea football club, Carcasonne, Costa and (my personal favourite) Greggs and the enticing smell of their sausage rolls!
These little nuances aside, I found it was a good read. A lovely story that anyone from year 4 (9 year olds incidentally) could read and enjoy. It won't have the biggest impact on the reader, but it is engaging enough to hold and captivate a reader and it's style makes it easily accessible to less confident readers.
This is my 3rd book and a book set in my home town or region.
p.s. the character buys the sausage rolls
p.p.s I was lucky to have one right before lockdown started, I remember how good they are!
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