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A review by andintothetrees
Feral Youth by Polly Courtney
5.0
(The following review first appeared on my book blog text).
★★★★★ (5 stars)
A couple of weeks ago author Polly Courtney contacted me to ask whether I would be interested in receiving a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair review. I was excited, and flattered (I've been writing this little blog for almost two years now and this was my first freebie!) so of course said yes, not least because the story appealed to me (I'm not sure I'd jump at the chance to review a football-based tale). As I picked up the novel and prepared to read however I was slightly wary - what if I didn't like it, and had to write a negative review I knew the author would read? What if I loved it and everyone thought I had sold out? Well, I happened to love it, but I can assure you I haven't sold out - it just happens to be a great book!
Set in London two years ago, Feral Youth looks at Alesha, a fictional young person involved in the riots, and tries to explain what might have motivated her to take part. Much of the novel does not depict the riots themselves, and this I thought was a clever way to represent that although decisions made by people on the day of the riots ultimately drove them to participate, those decisions were undoubtedly influenced by events that preceded them (and not just in the immediate days and weeks and even months before, but years back - an entire culture of deprivation, alienation, frustration, anger and a feeling of not being listened to). I'm not saying that these factors excuse people's choice to vandalise, steal, hurt others and/or generally, well, riot, but it is important to consider the reasons why our fellow citizens acted this way. Even if you take a right-wing, hard-line approach to crime - which, admittedly, I don't - surely we can all agree that we don't want riots to happen again, and thus it would be wise to find out why they happened, for prevention if nothing else?
Back to Alesha. She is fifteen, and has spent her childhood on the move between foster homes and her neglectful, emotionally abusive mother (and her mother's emotionally and physically abusive partner, who appears to be the last straw in prompting Alesha to leave home). When the novel opens she is living a quiet(ish) life with her good friend JJ (I've seen other reviews describing him as her boyfriend, but to me their relationship felt much more like one of brother and sister, having grown up together and being very loyal to each other, but with an absence of romance) and his Nan, who has dementia. Social services decide that Nan is no longer able to live in the community and JJ and Alesha (who aren't officially residing at Nan's anyway) find themselves homeless. School drop-outs, they bounce from house to house, using illegal means to gather their day-to-day funds as, being under sixteen, they are unable to claim benefits (and can make a lot more cash through other means even when they do become legal adults).
A young teacher, Helen Merfield, who instructed Alesha on the piano at her penultimate school, is mugged on the estate Alesha lives on and puts out word that she will pay a reward to anyone who returns the ring that was stolen from her. Alesha, spying a money-making opportunity but also genuinely wanting to assist, gets in touch with Miss Merfield and they strike up a relationship. Throughout the novel Alesha is torn between the world of the streets (or "endz" as she refers to them) and "going legit" with the assistance of Miss Merfield, who tries to utilise all the available official channels to support Alesha and to motivate her into getting a job. She is shocked, however, at how limited the support on offer is, and this is perhaps why she is understanding of Alesha's frequent returns to less legal ways of living and raising funds.
Feral Youth takes the reader deep into the hidden world of inner city gangs, explaining only too well why young people can feel like they have little choice but to affiliate themselves with one (like carrying a knife, it just feels too unsafe not to.) and to use illegal and/or dangerous means to secure their incomes (when benefits are so megare, and jobs so scarce, it's unsurprising that many would rather sell drugs - or themselves. I'm not saying this excuses it, but until you've been in that situation - with that set of past experiences - yourself it's very easy to sit back and judge without knowing if you'd be able to resist the same temptations). Alesha talks a lot about survival, and as you follow her life its easy to see that she has to live hour-to-hour. When Miss Merfield tries to support her to go legit it becomes evident that all these safe, legal, ways to get money and/or places to live require much more time investment than their underworld counterparts, and being able to stick to a plan for more than a day or so is very difficult for someone in Alesha's situation. The fact Alesha's entire life has been defined by constant change (and change that is often outwith her control, e.g. being transferred from school to school, and foster home to foster home) also explains why she might feel more at home with life on the streets than by going to college and applying for jobs, saving for a flat and all that sensible stuff.
As you can guess, I liked Alesha a lot. She had a soft side too, despite the crimes she perpetrates - she doesn't want to hurt those she loves, or those she sees as unable to stand up for themselves (she holds back from stealing from disabled people, and mums - yeah, yeah, I know, she shouldn't be stealing at all). And her "voice" is believable - I truly felt like I was living her life alongside her as I read Feral Youth (Polly Courtney includes a glossary at the beginning of the book to "translate" some of Alesha's slang for the less streetwise reader, although there were still a few words I had to look up online because I am old and uncool). She is a teenager - impulsive, prone to black-and-white, all-or-nothing, thinking; and didn't always make the decisions I'd have liked her to make - but I still cared about her and had empathy for the difficult choices she faced.
Feral Youth's other characters were largely peripheral and often glimpsed only fleetingly, here and there, but Miss Merfield was believable and provided someone for adult, non-gang-member readers to relate to, as well as having largely-unexplored depths and difficulties of her own (which highlighted that life is not as easy for those who live outside "the endz" as Alesha thinks it is). The whole teacher-forms-a-special-bond-with-pupil story has been done before (for example in Kate Long's The Daughter Game, as well as in numerous movies) but this particular execution of the trope did not feel cliched, perhaps because it took place outside a school setting, or because it did not end with Miss Merfield single-handedly saving Alesha from gang life and poverty.
I only have two slight reservations/questions about Feral Youth. One is that some of the practical/bureaucratic aspects of the plot were not entirely convincing: e.g. fifteen-year-old Alesha is given a room in a hostel by her local authority's housing department (being under the legal age of adulthood she would surely have to be accommodated in a children's home or foster placement?) and no-one seems to care too much at all that although she is supposed to be living with her mum she actually hadn't done for several months (maybe this is how things happen and I'm just too sheltered to realise. But I have friends who work in children/young people's services, albeit in more rural areas than this, and they keep much better track of "their" young people). The other, bigger issue, was with me throughout my reading and that was the unspoken knowledge that Polly Courtney, accomplished writer though she is*, is not a mixed-race teenage girl living in inner city London. Of course writers don't have to only "write what they know", but I do wonder what an actual inner city teenager, a real-life Alesha, would think of Feral Youth? Would they say it was realistic? How would they feel about a person with many more privileges than them writing about their lifestyles, however respectfully it was done? Would they be glad to be given a voice, or angry that, yet again, someone is speaking for them? This is something I still feel ambivalent about, days after finishing the novel.
*Allow me to take this opportunity to mention, perhaps randomly, that I loved the way the passage of time was handled in this novel. Sometimes we followed Alesha closely for days, other times a few weeks would elapse between chapters, but it always felt seamless.
Polly Courtney evidently put time into researching Feral Youth by talking to teenagers and has a lot of respect for them and the dilemmas they face. It certainly raises awareness of gang culture, poverty and a whole host of related issues, and (I hope) will prompt people to think of compassionate solutions to these challenges. I highly recommend Feral Youth to fans of realistic fiction and/or novels featuring teenagers, and anyone who wants to learn more about the real divides in privilege within the UK today.
A copy of this book was sent by the publisher in exchange for a fair review.
★★★★★ (5 stars)
A couple of weeks ago author Polly Courtney contacted me to ask whether I would be interested in receiving a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair review. I was excited, and flattered (I've been writing this little blog for almost two years now and this was my first freebie!) so of course said yes, not least because the story appealed to me (I'm not sure I'd jump at the chance to review a football-based tale). As I picked up the novel and prepared to read however I was slightly wary - what if I didn't like it, and had to write a negative review I knew the author would read? What if I loved it and everyone thought I had sold out? Well, I happened to love it, but I can assure you I haven't sold out - it just happens to be a great book!
Set in London two years ago, Feral Youth looks at Alesha, a fictional young person involved in the riots, and tries to explain what might have motivated her to take part. Much of the novel does not depict the riots themselves, and this I thought was a clever way to represent that although decisions made by people on the day of the riots ultimately drove them to participate, those decisions were undoubtedly influenced by events that preceded them (and not just in the immediate days and weeks and even months before, but years back - an entire culture of deprivation, alienation, frustration, anger and a feeling of not being listened to). I'm not saying that these factors excuse people's choice to vandalise, steal, hurt others and/or generally, well, riot, but it is important to consider the reasons why our fellow citizens acted this way. Even if you take a right-wing, hard-line approach to crime - which, admittedly, I don't - surely we can all agree that we don't want riots to happen again, and thus it would be wise to find out why they happened, for prevention if nothing else?
Back to Alesha. She is fifteen, and has spent her childhood on the move between foster homes and her neglectful, emotionally abusive mother (and her mother's emotionally and physically abusive partner, who appears to be the last straw in prompting Alesha to leave home). When the novel opens she is living a quiet(ish) life with her good friend JJ (I've seen other reviews describing him as her boyfriend, but to me their relationship felt much more like one of brother and sister, having grown up together and being very loyal to each other, but with an absence of romance) and his Nan, who has dementia. Social services decide that Nan is no longer able to live in the community and JJ and Alesha (who aren't officially residing at Nan's anyway) find themselves homeless. School drop-outs, they bounce from house to house, using illegal means to gather their day-to-day funds as, being under sixteen, they are unable to claim benefits (and can make a lot more cash through other means even when they do become legal adults).
A young teacher, Helen Merfield, who instructed Alesha on the piano at her penultimate school, is mugged on the estate Alesha lives on and puts out word that she will pay a reward to anyone who returns the ring that was stolen from her. Alesha, spying a money-making opportunity but also genuinely wanting to assist, gets in touch with Miss Merfield and they strike up a relationship. Throughout the novel Alesha is torn between the world of the streets (or "endz" as she refers to them) and "going legit" with the assistance of Miss Merfield, who tries to utilise all the available official channels to support Alesha and to motivate her into getting a job. She is shocked, however, at how limited the support on offer is, and this is perhaps why she is understanding of Alesha's frequent returns to less legal ways of living and raising funds.
Feral Youth takes the reader deep into the hidden world of inner city gangs, explaining only too well why young people can feel like they have little choice but to affiliate themselves with one (like carrying a knife, it just feels too unsafe not to.) and to use illegal and/or dangerous means to secure their incomes (when benefits are so megare, and jobs so scarce, it's unsurprising that many would rather sell drugs - or themselves. I'm not saying this excuses it, but until you've been in that situation - with that set of past experiences - yourself it's very easy to sit back and judge without knowing if you'd be able to resist the same temptations). Alesha talks a lot about survival, and as you follow her life its easy to see that she has to live hour-to-hour. When Miss Merfield tries to support her to go legit it becomes evident that all these safe, legal, ways to get money and/or places to live require much more time investment than their underworld counterparts, and being able to stick to a plan for more than a day or so is very difficult for someone in Alesha's situation. The fact Alesha's entire life has been defined by constant change (and change that is often outwith her control, e.g. being transferred from school to school, and foster home to foster home) also explains why she might feel more at home with life on the streets than by going to college and applying for jobs, saving for a flat and all that sensible stuff.
As you can guess, I liked Alesha a lot. She had a soft side too, despite the crimes she perpetrates - she doesn't want to hurt those she loves, or those she sees as unable to stand up for themselves (she holds back from stealing from disabled people, and mums - yeah, yeah, I know, she shouldn't be stealing at all). And her "voice" is believable - I truly felt like I was living her life alongside her as I read Feral Youth (Polly Courtney includes a glossary at the beginning of the book to "translate" some of Alesha's slang for the less streetwise reader, although there were still a few words I had to look up online because I am old and uncool). She is a teenager - impulsive, prone to black-and-white, all-or-nothing, thinking; and didn't always make the decisions I'd have liked her to make - but I still cared about her and had empathy for the difficult choices she faced.
Feral Youth's other characters were largely peripheral and often glimpsed only fleetingly, here and there, but Miss Merfield was believable and provided someone for adult, non-gang-member readers to relate to, as well as having largely-unexplored depths and difficulties of her own (which highlighted that life is not as easy for those who live outside "the endz" as Alesha thinks it is). The whole teacher-forms-a-special-bond-with-pupil story has been done before (for example in Kate Long's The Daughter Game, as well as in numerous movies) but this particular execution of the trope did not feel cliched, perhaps because it took place outside a school setting, or because it did not end with Miss Merfield single-handedly saving Alesha from gang life and poverty.
I only have two slight reservations/questions about Feral Youth. One is that some of the practical/bureaucratic aspects of the plot were not entirely convincing: e.g. fifteen-year-old Alesha is given a room in a hostel by her local authority's housing department (being under the legal age of adulthood she would surely have to be accommodated in a children's home or foster placement?) and no-one seems to care too much at all that although she is supposed to be living with her mum she actually hadn't done for several months (maybe this is how things happen and I'm just too sheltered to realise. But I have friends who work in children/young people's services, albeit in more rural areas than this, and they keep much better track of "their" young people). The other, bigger issue, was with me throughout my reading and that was the unspoken knowledge that Polly Courtney, accomplished writer though she is*, is not a mixed-race teenage girl living in inner city London. Of course writers don't have to only "write what they know", but I do wonder what an actual inner city teenager, a real-life Alesha, would think of Feral Youth? Would they say it was realistic? How would they feel about a person with many more privileges than them writing about their lifestyles, however respectfully it was done? Would they be glad to be given a voice, or angry that, yet again, someone is speaking for them? This is something I still feel ambivalent about, days after finishing the novel.
*Allow me to take this opportunity to mention, perhaps randomly, that I loved the way the passage of time was handled in this novel. Sometimes we followed Alesha closely for days, other times a few weeks would elapse between chapters, but it always felt seamless.
Polly Courtney evidently put time into researching Feral Youth by talking to teenagers and has a lot of respect for them and the dilemmas they face. It certainly raises awareness of gang culture, poverty and a whole host of related issues, and (I hope) will prompt people to think of compassionate solutions to these challenges. I highly recommend Feral Youth to fans of realistic fiction and/or novels featuring teenagers, and anyone who wants to learn more about the real divides in privilege within the UK today.
A copy of this book was sent by the publisher in exchange for a fair review.