Tuesday 17 June 2014

The Losers Book Club - The boy who could see Demons

We decided to start the losers book club, as a way of reading a book together and taking a moment from the hectic shifts and lives we lead.

We decided to pick a book, one of us chooses one then the other and so on and take it in turns to read the chapters together. It seemed like a loserish idea so I came up with the name The losers book club, although I don't think Andri was that impressed "we are not losers because we are reading a book"
We started with Carolyn Jess-Cooke's The boy who could see Demons, Andri's choice.

I chose the book because I was feeling a bit shit and fancied a dark read. So I searched a few things in the search engine looking for a book to fit my mood and this one jumped out at me. It seemed like it would be a good mix of darkness and an insight into mental health with a refreshing, innocence of childish charm as the main character is a ten year old boy and it is written from his perspective, bad jokes included.

The book is written from two perspectives in alternating chapters, one as mentioned is from Alex Broccoli,(awesome name!) the ten year old star of the book, and the other is his therapist Anya Molokova, not without her own problems and hidden demons as well.

Alex is a seemingly troubled child without actually being troubled. His best friend is a demon called Ruen, who is one of many demons he can see, Ruen never looks the same and is just as good to Alex as he is bad.
Throughout the book runs the powerful bond and love Alex and his mother have for each other, this doesn't go unnoticed by Ruen, the question is what wouldn't Alex do for his mum? and what would he do for Ruen, is he willing to kill?
Alex is a bit of an eccentric, older than his years, dressing in old tweed suits, waistcoats and bow tie included, all being too big for him and rolled up in all the right places. His favourite food is onions on toast and his jokes are terrible. I'm sure you can guess which one of us found these jokes hilarious whilst the other was less amused, still managing to sneak in the occasional laughter.

The other main character is Anya, a complicated woman with her own heartbreaking problems that have forced her to live her life in part of a code she has adapted while throwing herself wholeheartedly into her job. She wants to help but her own personal issues sometimes cloud her vision. As she searches for answers and closure to her own past, how much will her relationship with Alex effect her ability to be the ever perfect professional she aims to be.

The changes in pace from Alex's chapters to Anya's compliment each other brilliantly and Alex's view on the world and his good nature makes you root for his dilemma from the start. He is loveable, independent and headstrong for a child of his age that has been forced to grow up before he needs to. The switch from the adult perspective in Anya's chapters, where she is continually deconstructing everything she can fathom. Hers reads more like a troubled detective in contrast to Alex's youthful idealism's.

The main question we kept asking and talking to each other about at the end of every chapter was..

IS RUEN REAL?

We became increasingly torn between what could be plausible answers for some of the events that unfolded involving Ruen, questioning do we even want him to be real? is this a book about a boy with early onset schizophrenia or is he actually befriended by a demon? in this case a Harrower.
If Ruen is real, is he Alex's friend as he portrays himself to be or are his sinister motives all part of a big game plan to destroy Alex?

A major point of this book is the setting. Based around the resurrection of Northern Ireland, Belfast following its political downfall,  it is too with this hope that we watch as Alex takes the same courageous journey as his home town in his personal recovery. With the added pressures of growing up in a country attempting to repair itself from the violence it has somewhat escaped and being raised by a struggling (both financially and mentally) single parent in a less than desirable council house in an impoverished area. We find ourselves dwelling on the severity of the possible paths Alex could take.

There were laugh out loud moments, lumps in the throat moments and a desire to find out the truth. All of the characters had a real depth to them proving that only through a struggle can you truly appreciate what you have and that no matter how bad it gets there's always a light at the end of the tunnel, the question here is how will any of them get to that light?
We loved this book.





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