Review
Justin (née David) takes life terribly serious -
already teetering on the edge of acute anxiety, he is pushed
over the edge when he saves his baby brother from "flying" out
the window and becomes determined to escape the hand of fate and
change his destiny. One might be tempted to write off his fears
as simple paranoia if it wasn't for the fact that the world
Justin inhabits is clearly just a little off kilter - adults in
general, in particular his parents, are clearly out of touch,
only the youngest children seem to be able to understand what
Justin is going through; added to which, Fate interjects his own
omnisciently sinister commentary from time to time, in a style
not dissimilar to
The Book Thief.
Like Rosoff's first book (
How I Live Now)
Just In...
Beyond the Book
Meg Rosoff was born in Boston, in
1956, the second of four sisters, grew
up in the Boston suburbs, went to
"ordinary suburban schools" and then to
Harvard. After three years of thinking
‘I've got to get out of here', she
packed a bag and got on a plane for
London where she applied and was
accepted to art college to study
sculpture. She says that art school was
a disaster, "I was obviously a writer
not a sculptor, but I didn't know
that then .... but the rest of the
year was a revelation. There was an
unbelievable amount of fun to be had in
London in 1977-78. I'm still...
