Saturday, October 15, 2011

Slights by Kaaron Warren.

Meet Stephanie Searle - also known as Steve or Stevie. Slights is written in the first person and you follow the life of Stephanie from age 18 onwards. Sadly Stephanie is involved in a car accident in which her mother dies. This book was Kaaron's debut novel and was written in 2009 and I bought the Kindle version which is a 574 KB file.


The beauty of this novel is that you really get to know Stephanie as you build up a history and understanding. It is like meeting a stranger who becomes a part of your life. This girl has an attitude, which is great and entertaining, as she explains her life with great humour. For example at location 350...


He started wanting more of me, friendship, confession, emotion, and I didn't want a best friend. I didn't know how to tell him, so I just said he was a dud root. I didn't think I'd ever need him as a cop so I didn't care. He took it well, anyway.   "I thought we had something," he said.   "Maybe we could have," I said, to give him something to dream about, "but I just feel repelled by the shape of your penis. Not even hypnosis could help me get over that."

...How she became called Steve started at school, as you find out at location 1071...

I could be proud of the scar, though. It made me scary for my first day at school. I had very short hair and my first teacher, Mrs Langdon, thought I was a boy and called me Steve. I made the most of it. Acted the bully, went to the boy's toilets, weed standing up. Glenn Guest had a good look once, and said, "You haven't got a willy," so I pissed on his feet.

...Slights is an enjoyable read, it is very witty and you meet loads of characters that Steve befriends along the way. As this novel develops, you learn that there is a darker side to Steve. This book turns into a horror! This story is emotionally very deep and you develop a great empathy for Steve. This is NOT Chick lit and this book should appeal to everyone. Kaaron's writing style is spot on and has a lovely, wonderful structure. The plot is realistic and there are some great social observations seen from Steve's point of view, with frustrations that we can all relate to. I developed a bond with Steve and it feels like a shared history. Slights is well written and raises the bar as a first person novel. The ending brings closure to Steve and the reader.

Slights was the winner of 2 awards, the Ditmar Award for Best Novel, 2010 and the Shadows Award for Best Fiction, 2009. This book was a delight to read and I shall vote it the maximum of 5 stars on Good Reads. This book is one to recommend and was a great holiday read for me in Egypt.
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