The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean

I am a huge fan of David Almond's Skellig so I was excited for the release of this one; his first crossover novel. The whole book is written in the poor spelling of a sheltered child who has taught himself to read and write; this makes for challenging reading which I struggled with for the first couple of chapters. Once I had got used to the strange language I began to really get into the story. There is some beautiful imagery and emotion in here (two of the things I loved most about Skellig). Young Billy Dean spends his childhood trapped in a room, isolated by his parents from the post apocalyptic outside world only to find that life on the other side of his bedroom door is nothing like what he expected. Some very interesting ideas about religion and the importance of hope are explored here with a memorable main character. A great read...if you are not put off by the experimental use of language.
Libby Harris (Tue 15th Nov 2011)