Boy A

*Contains potential spoilers*

This is not a review. These are just a few of my thoughts on a book that touched me.

I don't often read books for grown ups and I review them even less. I'm not a literary critic I'm just the guy that writes immature reviews of old Power Rangers episodes. But occasionally I read something that really has an impact on me and feel the need to share it.

Boy A is the story of Jack, a young man who has spent most of his life in juvenile institutions, as he tries to build a normal life after his release. Before becoming Jack he was known as Boy A one of two boys convicted of the murder of Angela Milton. Over twenty six chapters and through various characters connected to Jack we learn just how hard it can be to move on from a dreadful event.

This book came to my attention after the most recent controversy surrounding the killers of James Bulger. Photos of what one of the killers looks like now were making their way round Twitter and Facebook which was leading to a renewed hatred for the pair. Among the worrying calls for various cruel and incredibly violent punishments for the convicted killer was a tweet asking if someone had read Boy A. I was unfamiliar with it so I quickly Googled it and managed to find a copy in my local library. 

It was a refreshingly easy book to read. It's well written with chapters of a nice length. But it gets harder to read the deeper you get in and it has nothing to do with the quality of the writing. This book does an extraordinary thing. It makes you care deeply about a character that murdered an innocent child. Jack is such a likable character it's often easy to forget what he's done. This is a book about second chances and makes us think about whether everyone deserves one. What Jack did was a terrible thing but he was a child himself and he lost his formative years to incarceration surely he deserves the chance to rebuild his life? Maybe it's easy for me to say this when it isn't real. I don't have to look at pictures of the victim. I know no one really lost their life. I'm not involved. So forgiveness comes easy. 

Boy A demonstrates something that a lot of people can over look when demonising those involved in such atrocities. Every "monster" has a story and that story often shapes who they are as a person. Jack is a boy who was bullied, had a father that struggled to form a bond with him and met another damaged boy that filled a void in his life. Perhaps in this day and age we should think more about what people have been through before we judge them a monster. Jonathan Trigell presents us with a character it's hard not to root for and this is what makes the latter parts of the book so hard to read. Once you reach the half way point and everything is going so well for Jack you just know things are going to take a turn for the worse and every chapter fills you with dread as each page turn brings you closer to the inevitable heartbreak. 

This is one of the best books I've ever read and it's a story that will always stay with me. It's a book that made me think differently and feel for characters I never thought I could care about. If you haven't read this book then you really should it's very much worthwhile. Jonathan Trigell has earned himself a life long fan. If he decided to dedicate the rest of his career to writing My Little Pony fan fiction I'd read every damn word and be glad of the chance to. Luckily this seems unlikely and instead I'll settle for reading his most recent novel Genus instead.