A review by serendipity_viv
Being Billy by Phil Earle
5.0
Being Billy is one of the reasons I love Twitter. If I hadn't been on there, this book would have definitely passed under my radar. Thankfully, I heard the whispers about how good the book was and the more I heard about it the more I wanted to read it. This book did not disappoint!
This book is a gritty, hard hitting contemporary novel that makes Tracy Beaker look quite innocent. If you ever wanted to read about what living in a children's home is really like, then this is the book for you. The main character Billy, has issues and lots of them, but you can't blame him as his life before the children's home was just terrible. He wasn't a bad kid, he was just angry and rightly so. He has spent the last ten years in care and that is a long time to feel unloved and alone. He is very protective of his younger siblings who are twins and you can easily relate to this. He is a mother and father figure to them and wants them to experience the love that he never felt. He feels totally responsible for them. So even though others seem to have a poor view of Billy, he really is rather mature in the way he deals with his brother and sister. Billy is definitely one of my favourite characters for 2011, his complexities draw me to him.
I wasn't expecting this book to affect my emotions but it did. I found myself feeling quite protective over Billy and wanting to stand up for him and shout in his corner. He needed love, real family love and the only one who seemed to be able to see it was Ronnie, his carer. Ronnie had known the family since they first came into care and you could see he felt strongly for them, just in the way he did for his own kids. At the beginning of the book you really dislike him, but as you move through the story you realise his true intentions and see that he is only trying to do what is right for the family.
Daisy is a rather complex character, who has suffered in life too. Instantly she brightens Billy's life, because he can see a kindred spirit in her. She has suffered just like he has, so she understands, even if she doesn't reveal a lot about her own life. He has found a friend to make each day a little easier.
The twist at the end of the book was surprising. I really didn't see that coming at all and yet I felt that I should have.
This book is just fantastic. For a debut, I thought it was extremely well written with strong characters that tug at your heart strings. It is an emotional read, that stays with you long after you turn the last page.
This book is a gritty, hard hitting contemporary novel that makes Tracy Beaker look quite innocent. If you ever wanted to read about what living in a children's home is really like, then this is the book for you. The main character Billy, has issues and lots of them, but you can't blame him as his life before the children's home was just terrible. He wasn't a bad kid, he was just angry and rightly so. He has spent the last ten years in care and that is a long time to feel unloved and alone. He is very protective of his younger siblings who are twins and you can easily relate to this. He is a mother and father figure to them and wants them to experience the love that he never felt. He feels totally responsible for them. So even though others seem to have a poor view of Billy, he really is rather mature in the way he deals with his brother and sister. Billy is definitely one of my favourite characters for 2011, his complexities draw me to him.
I wasn't expecting this book to affect my emotions but it did. I found myself feeling quite protective over Billy and wanting to stand up for him and shout in his corner. He needed love, real family love and the only one who seemed to be able to see it was Ronnie, his carer. Ronnie had known the family since they first came into care and you could see he felt strongly for them, just in the way he did for his own kids. At the beginning of the book you really dislike him, but as you move through the story you realise his true intentions and see that he is only trying to do what is right for the family.
Daisy is a rather complex character, who has suffered in life too. Instantly she brightens Billy's life, because he can see a kindred spirit in her. She has suffered just like he has, so she understands, even if she doesn't reveal a lot about her own life. He has found a friend to make each day a little easier.
The twist at the end of the book was surprising. I really didn't see that coming at all and yet I felt that I should have.
This book is just fantastic. For a debut, I thought it was extremely well written with strong characters that tug at your heart strings. It is an emotional read, that stays with you long after you turn the last page.