Customer Reviews

The Penalty

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Mal Peet garnered a number of awards in the field of Young Adult Fiction with Keeper ,his debut novel .On the surface this would appear to be much the mixture as before-a key figure in the previous novel - South American sports journalist Paul Faustino -reappears ;the book features a soccer player in a pivotal role and there is a dose of religion and mysticism thrown into the mix as well.All pretty similar to Keeper but this time out the role of soccer is relatively muted and soccer mad boys who relished the vivid evocation of matches in the earlier book will perhaps be disappointed by the absence of any such passages in this book .The Penalty is a darker ,scarier book with more focus on religion and the troubled history of South America than on "then beautiful game"

Faustino becomes involved in the disappearance of a soccer prodigy -the gifted teenageer El Brujito (the little magician)who simply disappears after being substituted in a big game .Faustino's search takes him upriver ,to a remote and virtually inaccessible part of the jungle where he finds a world still largely in thrall to the Old Gods ,those of Africa and with their roots in slavery
Much of the book takes place in flashback with the narrative being provided by a captive African slave and he tells of transportation to Lation America ,the survival of the old ways and also features some quite violent scenes of murder and sexual violation .It is abook over which an air of violence and coruption ,both moral and legal, hangs and I am unsure of its susitability for juvenile audiences on these grounds
It is strongly written and powerful but too dark and distiurbing to be an auatomatic recommendation for soccer loving kids and adults who enjoyed the previous book .I would instead urge it upon those who like South American fiction as it gives an interesting British take on the themes commmon to Latin American novels