GoodRead - Undone

As you guys are probably aware, I am a a bit of a Cat Clarke fan. So, if you are expecting a non-bias review... er... you might want to go somewhere else.

Actually, I nearly didn't review Undone. Alice from Quercus tried to send me Undone several times before I got it (third times the charm!). I think either the previous parcel got lost in the post, the postman's a Cat Clarke fan too or my family and other half bribed the postman to "lose" my mail if it looks booky.

Anyway, Undone. Jem has been in love with her best friend, Kai, since she first met him. The fact he's gay makes things kinda difficult, but she's getting over that. And then something unspeakable happens: Kai's outed on the internet. And Kai kills himself.

Jem is beside herself. Her best friend died. She can't see a way forward. Until she decides to find out who posted that video, and make them pay in the cruelest way possible...

I feel like I've been saying this a lot about this book: this is Cat's most powerful book to date. She doesn't flinch away from the subject matter - grief, homophobia, bullying, discrimination, suicide, the damages of lies just to name a few - so if you don't like reading about these, stay away from this book. But Cat seems to get under Jem's skin while writing and, though she does things in her act of revenge I can't forgive for (not gonna spoil), you kinda understood what drove Jem to do the things she did in the extreme ways she did.

Jem's grief speaks volumes and when you get to read Kai's letters to Jem... I know book bloggers who have read this book and have sobbed while reading Kai's letters. I got kinda choked up over Kai's March and July. So, yeah... unless you have a heart made of stone or sold your emotions on eBay, you will probably cry or feel on the verge of crying. You have been warned.

There is something that might bother some of you guys (apart from the possible crying) is the language. While swear words don't bother me (and I think Cat gets wayward teens better than anyone - maybe Hollyoaks should hire her as head scriptwriter...), I sense it might bother some of you. So, if you have issues on swearing and underage sex (amongs other things), you might want to avoid.

While I guessed one twist early on, Cat nails it with the twists that follow at a stupid pace.

Unflinching, uncomfortable at times yet unputdownable. This is Cat Clarke's best novel to date.




PS - I don't normally do this, but as this book deals with issues that I think need addressing, I feel have to write this. So, if any of the issues in this book affect you, please contact one of the following as I think these are very helpful:

The Samaritians (UK) - http://www.samaritans.org/
Childline (UK) - http://www.childline.org.uk/
Stonewall (UK) - http://www.stonewall.org.uk/
The Trevor Project (US) - http://www.thetrevorproject.org/