A review by memydogandbooks
The Young Team by Graeme Armstrong

dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book is full of swagger!

SYNOPSIS:
This is a coming-of-age story set in a violent Glasgow gang culture. Azzy Williams joins a gang in his teens (2004) and experiences the brutality, drugs, and yearning for escape that defines his youth. The story follows him until 2012, where he fights for a different future.

MY THOUGHTS:
  • Written in Lanarkshire Scots for those less au-fait with this Scots language it can take a page or two to get into, I couldn't imagine it written any other way. Like Trainspotting it's part of the story-telling.
  • Armstrong's fictional story, based on his real-life experiences, is a gut punch, it's brutal, it's heartwarming, tragic, terrifying, powerful and poetic.
  • It gives a candid insight into Scottish young people's life in gangs, their need for a sense of belonging and to feel included in life when around them is a world of hopelessness and exclusion.
  • This book made me laugh but it also made my jaw drop as you emotionally follow Azzy and his pals through tribulation of gang and drug culture.
  • Armstrong's writing is poetic, some of the scenes where his main character Azzy is getting high on party drugs and going to raves are just so immersive, and similarly, when he writes about Azzy's drug withdrawal you can't help but feel you are going through it with him.
  • Rightly deemded the Trainspotting book for the next generation this is a powerful story that will stay with me for a long time.
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