Marshland Readers

The Final Year
"The Final Year" by Matt Goodfellow is a heartwarming book about a boy transitioning into Year 6, where he goes through friendship issues and family problems. The book is written in a poetic form which I thought I wouldn't like but I quite enjoyed it as poetry can be used as a form of expression. It is a lovely story that helped me understand mental health, personal growth and change. I liked how Mr Joshua was with Nate from the start and stayed by his side. This helped the story develop as Mr Joshua supported him as well as his friends. I can't think of anything to criticise about this amazing book. It brings up issues that some people face everyday. I recommend this book.

zainab

The Final Year
The first thing to say about 'The Final Year' is a comment about its structure. It is a novel in verse form. In this case it is highly effective driving the story on giving it real pace and drive also really helping the narrative voice to emerge. Some reviews on the website are in raptures about this as a form. I first came across this in a modern novel in 'Weight of Water' from 2013. I have seen it countless times since then. It is by no means new and not always effective. Here it helps. You can't help feeling sorry for Nathan and the miserable existence described here of poverty and neglect. In the second half of the novel the family is thrown into crisis but the read up to that point is mostly uncomfortable as the way he is neglected and has to provide care for his siblings is very bleak. All these concerns nip away at him as the story goes on. There are some rays of sunshine in Nathan's life, such as his teacher but he is mostly surrounded by irresponsible and selfish adults.

Mr Hyde

Play
I thought the book play was undeniably amazing. I loved how the POVs alternated to each of the characters stream of consciousness. The ending surprised me more than I can express. I do think the middle of the book was hard to read as it was quite slow paced but overall I think it was a great book and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

Sophie

Treacle Town
I have mixed views when considering ‘Treacle Town’. On one hand it is a gritty, down to earth and quite depressing depiction of life in a Glasgow suburb, among a group of unemployed and alienated gang members. Their life is hopeless, drug and alcohol fueled, punctuated by acts of extreme violence along the sectarian divide of the city. Their language while sounding genuine here, is generally unacceptable in a wider society. Particularly when depicted in a book aimed at teenagers. We have of course seen this before from this author with ‘When Mister Dog Bites’. That is a book that never made it onto the shelves of my school Library because that type of foul language is simply not tolerated in that environment. This I fear will be another. The Glaswegian dialect is another issue. On the other hand I found the relationship between Con and his father as the most interesting aspect showing how it changed when there is a death in the family prior to where we, as readers, join them. There is an uplifting tone to save the novel near the end but it comes at a terrible cost. It reminds me of the Robert Frost poem ‘The Road Not Taken’ as Con too takes the path less travelled and that ‘made all the difference’.

Mr Hyde