posted on 02 Apr 2017

Bloodchild by Tim Bowler

This thriller for the young adult market puts its foot on the accelerator right at the very beginning and then never reduces the gas. It’s a physically and emotionally brutal ride that unfolds like a flower bud with the full bloom of the story never becoming entirely clear until the very end. I closed the book feeling that I’d been given a white-knuckle ride on the literary equivalent of an Alton Towers roller-coaster.

At the beginning we meet Will in the most unusual of circumstances – he’s just been run-over by a mysterious car and he’s close to death. As he slips from consciousness to unconsciousness he finds himself attended by the visions and voices of two mystery girls – one who is trying to attend to his physical needs, using his mobile to call for help and one who is entirely ethereal and who he sees as his guardian angel.

Will survives but without any functioning memory. Something strange has happened to cause this ‘accident’ and, it seems, something was strange before it happened. Will, we discover, isn’t your average normal teenager – he has an enhanced sensitivity to psychic energy. In simple terms he sees and feels things from beyond our physical reality – and this makes people, including his long-suffering mother and father, uneasy and dismayed by his gnomic pronouncements.

It’s not long before it becomes clear that Will’s ‘accident’ was almost certainly not an accident at all – ever since his public pronouncement prior to his injuries that his town was harbouring something rotten and unwelcome he has become the target of hatred and suspicion. Now, with no memory, all Will can do is to try and reconstruct what is going on – visions of death, ghostly faces and fountains of blood haunt his mind and give him no rest.

He’s also being hunted – presumably by those who failed to kill him the first time around and who disturbingly appear wearing balaclavas and evil intent to do him harm. But he does at least have his allies – his mom and dad, the new vicar, Will’s girlfriend and his girlfriend’s parents who all dig deep to stick by him and help.

And then there’s the issue of the mysterious silent and traumatised child, known only as Muck ( because he stinks) and Muck’s erstwhile protector, the tramp, Crow who has to fend off concerns that he keeps Muck only to abuse him.

The story plays itself out in largely unexpected ways, always teetering between the real world and the supernatural. Death hovers over the story all of the time and threatens everyone but especially Will who almost meets his untimely end on at least three occasions. It’s not a book for the feint-hearted and I suspect some younger readers might find this quite an emotionally difficult read but I think there will be those who will find this a high adrenalin adventure that will grab their attention and keep them riveted until the solution to the mystery finally reveals itself.

Whilst this is undoubtedly a skilfully constructed and engagingly written book, it’s not without its issues. A book that runs to the best part of 300 pages needs, in my view, a little more light and shade than we get here – constant jeopardy and excitement can be wearing without a little respite and humour and I would have welcomed the occasional oasis of calm every now and then to allow me to draw breath.

 

Terry Potter

April 2017