Have just read the above book, by Chris Cleave. Had heard about it and the somewhat awful luck it had to come out the day of the real London bombings on July 7, and saw it in the bookshop, read a couple of pages, and decided to buy it, even though I had no real book budget this week.
I started reading it fully, rather than skimming, at the bus station, even before getting home. I could not physically put it down, and finished it off less than three hours later. A truly gripping read. There are weak points, of course, but the core of the story, the grief of a mother for her son, the believability of a football match being targetted by terrorists, and the believability of the immediate aftermath of the attacks sears into the back of your mind.
There is a howl of loss and horror throughout the book. It is hard to describe beyond how I have already. And an amazing job for a first book - there are weak points, but it can only get better from here, surely.
Two good reviews, a shorter one here, a longer, Guardian based one, here. There are other reviews around, less than complimentary, but if you need to find bad ones, after me raving about the whole thing, google's always available LOL.
Pauly
I started reading it fully, rather than skimming, at the bus station, even before getting home. I could not physically put it down, and finished it off less than three hours later. A truly gripping read. There are weak points, of course, but the core of the story, the grief of a mother for her son, the believability of a football match being targetted by terrorists, and the believability of the immediate aftermath of the attacks sears into the back of your mind.
There is a howl of loss and horror throughout the book. It is hard to describe beyond how I have already. And an amazing job for a first book - there are weak points, but it can only get better from here, surely.
Two good reviews, a shorter one here, a longer, Guardian based one, here. There are other reviews around, less than complimentary, but if you need to find bad ones, after me raving about the whole thing, google's always available LOL.
Pauly
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