Review: Candy

Author: Kevin Brooks



Release date: This edition 6th March 2006
Genre: Realism / Contemporary Issues
Target audience: 12+
UK Publisher: Chicken House


Summary from Amazon:
Joe is hooked from the moment he sees Candy. What is it that catches his eye? Is it her hair, her smile, or just the way she's standing? When they chat over coffee there's an instant attraction, but can love ever be this sweet? As the bitter truth about Candy's dangerous world emerges, Joe must decide if love and hope are worth fighting for.


Review:
If ever there was a teenage romance novel for boys, then Candy is surely that book. It is a gritty, honest and compelling story of a boy falling in love and the consequences of it.


Candy is the story of Joe Beck - a fifteen year old boy who lives in a town near Oxford. He is a pretty average teenager at the beginning of the story. He is a fairly studious boy, he feels painfully self-conscious and he wants his dad to treat him like an adult instead of just pretending to. We meet Joe as he is travelling into London to go to visit a doctor about a lump. He is nervous about the hat he is wearing and he is trying to remain inconspicuous on the train. He is somebody and nobody and immediately likable.


When Joe gets off the tube at Kings Cross, he feels embarrassed about using a map to find his way. He thinks he sticks out as not being one of them, not a Londoner and not cool. While he ponders which direction to take, he meets a girl – Candy. This is the true beginning of the story because as soon as Candy is introduced Joe is mesmerised by her presence. Candy is beautiful. He can’t take his eyes off her let alone form coherent speech and yet what unfolds is a connection between them and it leads to no end of trouble.


On the one hand this is a coming of age story – a boy discovering who he is, losing the innocence of childhood and making choices that cannot be undone. On the other hand it is a contemporary Romeo and Juliet. It is a love story and yet I didn’t find it at all romantic. If anything, I found it brutally sad and incredibly tense. Brooks builds suspense at the end of every chapter so much so that you are compelled to know what happens next even though you are afraid of it.


The writing is exquisite. Joe’s narrative voice is word perfect. The plot is dynamic and so utterly believable. Candy is a contemporary story of the compulsive, obsessive nature of love. The way that it can make you lose all rational thought and the hard reality of when those thoughts finally switch back on. For those of you who love your stories raw and are fans of You Against Me, Candy will have you devouring every page.


Thank you to Chicken House for sending me the book to review.