I finally have it! And I read it! It was good, but so bleak and sad.
Very bleak and sad. I didn’t expect the ending, not at all- two children dead, and very little punishment dealt to the most awful characters in the book. Which, of course, probably reflects reality- but I wanted to see Simon at least suffer, and he didn’t.
Let’s go character-by-character:
Sukhvinder
I loved Sukhvinder, loved her. She was by far my favourite- I related to her most out of everyone. And she’s easily the most heroic character in the novel, risking her life without a second thought to try and save Krystal’s brother.
(Here’s an awful thought- would she have succeeded, if she hadn’t cut her foot on Simon’s discarded computer? Or was it too late for Robbie anyway?)
Before I read this book I heard there were complaints about the unflattering descriptions of her physical appearance. But I don’t think the people making the complaints had read the book at all, because all these comments come from Fats, an odious little bully making her life a misery. The insults about her size and facial hair come from him, definitely not from Rowling- Sukhvinder’s wonderful, and easily brave enough that she could have fitted right in to Harry Potter’s Gryffindor…
Simon and the Prices (Andrew, Paul and Ruth)
I hated Simon. SO MUCH. Obviously we’re meant to, because he’s a violent abuser, but…oh, it drove me insane that he never got his punishment. He lost his job, true, but he deserved prison. Or worse.
And Andrew decided to make him an ally! Oh, Andrew. And then there was Paul, who seemed to have it even worse…he barely says much through the whole novel, he’s just there to be verbally abused or hit.
And Ruth doesn’t leave her horrible, horrible husband and nothing gets better. What if Andrew or Paul grow up to be Simons? They still might and it’s awful, one of the bleakest things in the book…
Krystal and the Weedons (Terri and Robbie)
…the other one is Krystal’s story, it’s horrible. Especially since, everything she did she did for her brother, and he ended up dead because of it. With him gone she had nothing left to live for, and her last day on Earth was full of pain and panic and she died to the sound of her aunt calling her a bitch…her life was so wasted, it made me want to cry.
But you know what I haven’t seen anyone else mention in reviews, to my surprise? She saved Andrew’s life! When she was just a little girl, her cleverness and confidence saved him- he’s alive because of her. That bit broke my heart, that here was this girl who goes to her grave written off as a ‘soulless creature’, (while it was Fats, of course, who gave Andrew the peanut that nearly killed him) and yet she saved a child’s life and spent all her teenage years trying to save another. Some ‘soulless’…
Colin
My own OCD is very similar to Colin’s. Not as bad, but similar-
-reading the reviews for this book confirmed to me beyond all shadow of a doubt that people don’t get OCD. Because: Colin was not a paedophile, nor did he have paedophilic fantasies. He was just terrified that he might, or that he’d already done something awful, or that he was a rapist or murderer. Because that’s what OCD does to you, it gets inside your head. Colin had a serious illness, well explained by Rowling, and yet the reviews that talked about him being a potential paedophile were numerous. Well done, world, you’ll do me so much good…
Fats
I don’t know what to make of him. I think he may well have been a psychopath- he tried to kill another child in primary school, after all. He subjected Sukhvinder to vile, racist bullying for no reason, he was cruel and thoughtless and played a large part in the death of a child-
-but was that all his fault or did his start in life play a part? I don’t know.
I hated him, but I think he does have the potential to become a better person. Probably. Hopefully.
Everyone else
There were other people in the novel, obviously, but they didn’t really jump out at me as much as the above mentioned did.
I certainly admire JK’s ability to juggle so many characters at once, though- and to make me care so much about a lot of them. And you know what…even though it’s nothing to do with Harry Potter, I’d love to see a fanfic where Krystal Weedon recieves a Hogwarts letter. If no-one else has written it, I might write it myself.