Customer Reviews

Staying Up

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Brian Gower is a 15-year old supporter of Barfax Town. He would love to become a member of "The Ointment," a gang of violent teenage football fans. Debbie hates football, but really likes being with Brian. When Brian is asked to choose between his girlfriend and a game out of town, he chooses for his football friends. Debbie decides to split up with Brian, something her parents are really in favor of: Brian is a no good boy who will only get their daughter in a lot of trouble. But maybe Brian is not that bad after all, and maybe Debbie has taken a decision that could mean the end to both their lives. Barfax, indeed is a town with more than one sinister secret, and it becomes time that evil shows its real face.

With the youth novel Staying Up the highly acclaimed Robert Swindells has created a coming of age novel that embraces a strong adult morality. It all starts with a very direct analysis of a relationship going bad between two teenagers. Both really depend on each other, but are sadly enough unaware of how to share these feelings. Throughout the first chapters Swindells draws a dark and often depressing picture of the lives and surroundings of two lead characters surviving in times of predominant economic depression. But then the story changes pace and becomes a nerve-wracking thriller in which life and death become central topics of suspense. Revealing what happens next would ruin the experience of this superbly plotted novel. Certainly the second half of the book is a real treat, even for those people who have already passed the milestone of adolescence with a few or more years.