Sunday 29 January 2012

The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean by David Almond


Title: The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean
Author: David Almond
Pages: 255
Genre: Fantasy

My rating:

'The Aynjel Childes no mor.
The Aynjel Childes has dun the deeds of monsters.'

This book is hard to describe. It's so weird and twisted in so many ways I can't actually get my head around it. The only reason that I kept reading this book is because I wanted to find out what happened at the end, if not then I definitely would have given up by now. The problems with this book is that there is no storyline. Nothing happens. And the sections don't fit together. Part one, for instance, is about him and the monsters, then he hardly talks about them for the rest of the book. I agree with that David Almond is a absolutley perfect writer and how he used language in this book is so unique but I just didn't understand where the story was going. 

Billy Dean is a monster but he is also the Aynjel Child. He can bring back the dead and heal the wounded. He is a saviour for Blinkbonny. He is a precious and respected child who was born on the day of destruction and survived. The few that knew about him thought he was a miracle. They are right. He was meant to live. He was meant to be. When he ventures out in the world for the first time he meets many new and strange people like Missus Malone and Mr McCaufrey. When people find out he has the power they come from far and wide to see their perished loved ones again and Billy does it for his Father, his terrible, cruel Father. 

I have to admit that I am very glad that I read the ending because the ending was so sad and powerful it seemed right to end a story like that.