A review by hayleybeale
Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner

5.0

What an amazing read! I re-read this as soon as I'd finished it - first time I've ever done that. This is like reading '1984' narrated by Christopher from 'The Curious Incident...' It is set in a 1956 in which the Nazis won the war (this is not explicitly stated, but the clues are there, I think) and Standish and his grandfather live in Zone Seven - where the 'impure' are sent. Standish is dyslexic (maybe, again never stated explicitly) and it is his use of language that makes this such an incredible read - he is not a 'train track thinker' and twists everyday adages which creates startling new images ("a hare's breath" for example). The story is rooted in Standish's friendship with Hector, which is so beautifully evoked that the ending is unbearably sad. The illustrations of rats, flies and maggots baffled me at first, but on the second reading I could see how they run as a harmony to the prose, as well as personifying (if that's what it is with an animal) the corruption, decay and rot at the heart of the Motherland. This is a really short book (100 chapters, some of which are only a paragraph long) and deceptively simple, but as the author does not spell everything out for the reader it is a densely rich,intense and rewarding read. (Just as a caution, there is some brutal violence which is made worse by the apparent everyday casualness of its occurrence - it is not Hollywood movie violence but is imaginably real)