"Slogger, man," I said. "Your dad's dead."
"I know that, Davie. But it's him. He's come back again, like he said he would."
I didn't think it was worth beating around the bush with this one. It deals with death. And for such a pint sized book, it sure packs a punch. What do I mean by that? Let me explain by describing myself a little. I'm not really one to cry in books or movies. Sure, I get choked up all the time, but cry, not so much. Even in books where people say 'if you're not crying by the end there must be something wrong with you', I usually end up getting emotional, or that lump in your throat kind of thing. Even in my favourite books, where everyone else says they cry when certain characters die, I'm yet to shed a tear, no matter how many times I re-read them.
This book, however, was a different matter. I was weeping, blubbering, steadily, unabashedly, its a wonder I managed to finish reading the book.
That quote I used gives you enough about the story as I want to give away. Sure you could go look for longer blurbs on other websites, or you could go and find the book and read it. It's really interestingly constructed. David Almond's prose is amazing in scene setting as well as convening emotion and plot in such an economic way, but then it is divided by sequences of wordless graphic novel by Dave McKean, who, we all know is brilliant. The way he makes things seem so other-worldly but recognisably from our own world also. These graphic novel parts are so perfectly placed in this story, it really was a mixture of them and the prose unfolding together that created such beautiful poignancy and opened the flood gates in my eyes.
Go get it, and go with it. Let yourself have a little (or a major) cry. It's beautiful.
Find it on Goodreads
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