A review by cdjdhj
Slake's Limbo by Felice Holman

4.0

In looking for a book to read with my high school remedial reading class, I happened upon this little book, originally copyrighted in 1974. At only 117 pages, it was short and an easy read for the four boys in my class who read well below their grade level. I was leery after reading S. E. Hinton's Rumblefish with the class. I found Rumblefish violent and inappropriate, but this book was quite the opposite. Slakes Limbo is about a young boy, Aremis Slake, who is constantly abused and bullied at home and at school. He escapes his tormentors in the subway system of New York City. He finds a secret hole in the subway wall, well down the track away from the station, and this cave, really an extra room created as the result of a mistake in constructing the foundation of a hotel many years before. In this literal hole in the wall, he finds a refuge of sorts from his life of abuse and torment. He meets kind people who help him, in their way, and eventually, with the aide of others, he gains the strength to leave the subway and live with dignity in the real world. I really liked that while this book portrays the bad and abusive side of humanity, it also has characters who are kind and caring. I really hope that my four remedial reading students like this book as much as I did.