This is Matt Holmes’ story, as far as it goes as he’s only eighteen or so, told in his own words, in his own way.
It is clear from the beginning that he has a mental health condition. Its nature, origin, development, and effects on him and those around him emerge as he narrates in a non-linear way, significant events of his last ten years.
The first of those, at age eight, happens when on holiday a coastal caravan park with his mother, father, and elder brother, Simon. Simon has Down’s Syndrome and by the end of the holiday is dead. Exactly how is not immediately revealed, but it is clear that Matt feels responsible. Is this the source of his problems? Or were they already present, dormant, biding their time to shine?
It goes on from there, jumping back and forth on Matt’s adolescent slide into erratic behaviour, isolation, dependency, therapy, care, and medication. All told from Matt’s point of view, sometimes calm and dispassionate, sometimes angrily and even violently.
The novel is a
valiant attempt to put the reader in the shoes, or head, of a sufferer of
mental illness. As Matt is self-aware, articulate, and creative in his writing,
the account is eminently readable. And the hook of discovering how Simon died
keeps interest alive to the end, along with the hope that Matt finds an inner
peace.
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