My First Piece of Published Writing!
If you’ve been reading for the last few weeks, thank you for indulging me! As I said last week, this review was submitted on spec to In Brief… and I’ve reproduced it here. I’ve been unable to find out anything about the author, although I found the book on Amazon. I notice the name of the sister was actually “Bobbie”, but I haven’t changed that. I’ve left the original punctuation in too…
On rereading the review, I have absolutely no recollection of the book! I can also see how much my writing has improved (as you’d hope it would in the last 20 years!)
Closer, Closer – Steve May
Sarah and her twin sister Bobby are complete opposites and don’t get along, Sarah constantly feeling inferior to Bobby, who enjoys dancing and playing in the school orchestra. She loves to be the centre of attention and all of her teachers think she’s perfect.
Sarah, however, never does anything unless she has to. She is usually left to get on with things until her new drama teacher tries to include her. One afternoon when Sarah is in the park with her younger brother Alfie, she meets Jess and her “jitter” friends, the sort of people her mother would hate.
Through Jess, she meets Lil, an elderly lady who lives with only her old dog Chippy for company. As Sarah spends more time with her friends, in a world she’d never dreamed of, she gets into more trouble at school and at home, and starts fighting with Bobby. When Sarah runs away to the Ashdown Festival with Jess, she doesn’t realise just what will happen.
I really enjoyed this book. I have read books about twins before, and they usually get on well, so it was more interesting to read a book where the girls were far from the best of friends. I could understand how Sarah felt and identified with her, so that at times I felt as irritated or as excited as she did. However, I thought Steve May could have said more about Jess’s friends.
Whilst it was unusual to see a book set out in “Acts”, this added little to the story, but all in all I thought the book was an exciting and interesting read. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a story where many different types of character come together.
You can read the other posts in this series here, here and here.