Southmoor Storywriters

Treacle Town
Treacle Town is a superbly written book with a multi faceted plot and complex characters. Con is written as a traditional ‘gang’ character who has a complex relationship with his gym obsessed father, but is transported into the world of slam poetry almost by chance, but for the better. The death of Biscuit, while not seen in the book, remains a topical plot point throughout the entire book, being juxtaposed at the end by the death of another character, leading to the book having an almost cyclical structure. While the characters are extremely well written, it can sometimes be a bit difficult to keep up with their dialogue and the different plot lines, but Treacle Town is still a good read in my opinion.

James

Glasgow Boys
The layout of the book is brilliant with it swapping the point of view to the two main characters. Banjo and Finlay's backstory is excellent. They are both alone, but their lives get better when they end up knowing each other. The mix of happiness and depression is perfect. Banjo's parents set the base of his life, but he manages to be better than them. No one in the story is perfect and that's what makes it good.

Noah

Glasgow Boys
Glasgow Boys is a book that helps readers to truly empathise, whether with themselves, the characters in the book, or other people in their lives. It helps people do this by displaying a grounded and realistic story, with situations that slightly older readers of around university or college age will find very empathetic. However, even younger or older readers will still find ways to empathise with the book’s message that contact between us (whether physical or verbal) is an important part to all of us.

James

Treacle Town
This book is one of the best I've ever read. It's definitely for older people (because of the swear words) and it has a lot of dark turns. The poetry is quite nice and the idea of Con's mum committing suicide adds more to the story. The fighting, murder and bloodshed in the book is perfectly balanced with the poetry and the characters being nice to each other. Overall, an excellent read with a brilliant storyline.

Noah