Shy

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be inside the head of a teenage boy with its chaos, its confusion, an array of voices that clang and clash reverberating around the skull cavity, then this is a book you will want to read.

Porter’s syntax and style reflect the content in a manner that is rather astonishing. But it is not, by any means, an easy read. You struggle right along with Shy to make sense of a nonsensical world where things go wrong rather than right, and where expectations lead to guilt, disappointment and resentment.

It is 1995 and we meet Shy as he is waiting to escape from ‘Last Chance’, a creepy building; home to young men considered ‘disturbed’. We are told he has “sprayed, snorted, smoked, sworn, stolen, cut, punched, run, jumped, crashed an Escort, smashed up a shop, trashed a house, broken a nose, stabbed his stepdad’s finger.” The home Shy is living in is to be sold and the filming of a documentary of both boys and those who care for them is taking place.

The narrative unfolds in a manner that is pure chaos. It is a story of sadness, of madness, of turmoil. The ending is worth working towards with its small but hopeful touch of sentimentality.

NB: Book contains sexual references, implied drug use.