12 Nov 2015

THE TRUE TALE OF THE MONSTER BILLY DEAN TELT BY HISSELF.


The True Tale of the Monster Billy Dean Telt by HisselfTHE TRUE TALE OF THE MONSTER BILLY DEAN TELT BY HISSELF by DAVID ALMOND.

BACK COVER BLURB: I WOS A SECRIT SHY AND TUNGTIED EMPTYHEDED THING.

I WAS TORT TO READ and rite and spell by my TENDA littl muther & by MR Mc Caufrey the butcha & by MISSUS MALONE AND HER Gosts. SO I AM NOT CLEVA, SO PLEASE FORGIV MY FOLTS AND MY MISTAYKS.

I AM THE WON that GLARES INTO YOUR HARTS & THAT PROWLS INSYDE YOR DEEPIST DREMES.

WONCE I WAS The ANJEL CHILDE.

NOW I AM THE MONSTER.

JUST READ AND LISSEn AND TAKE NOTE.

LET the words enter yor BLUD & BOANS.

I AM BILLY DEAN.

THIS IS THE TRUTH.

THIS IS MY TALE.

FIRST SENTENCE {1- The Hart Of Everything: The Start Of It}: I am told I wil lern how to rite the tale by riting it.

MEMORABLE MOMENT {Page 213}: Soon enuf thers crutches hangin from Blinkbonnys wals. Thers spectacls on piles of stoans. Thers bottls of pills and choobs of oyntment & bandajes & hearin ayds.


FREE BOOKS LOOKING FOR A HOME WHEREVER YOU SEE THIS SIGN.
MY THOUGHTS: The tale of Billy Dean, a young boy (a miracle/miracl worker, a 'favoured child' - or is he?) trapped in a room with his mother by a father who fills his son's head with mysterious tales until one day when ....

Oh dear! Too weird for my taste ... If indeed weird is a legitimate summing up of a book. I've tried original and different but somehow these don't seem to fully epitomise my feelings in quite the same way.

Written in a way that I can only describe as a sort of mish-mash comprising phonetically spelt words and 'text speech' that, along with the use of the ampersand instead of 'and', I found gimmicky at best, totally infuriating at worst. The book took longer to read than it would otherwise and that was after I had been given the advice that rather than try to decipher it I read it quickly to the point of almost skim reading it - sounds odd but it did actually work.

Not sure just who the book is aimed at either. Certainly not for children. Without giving too much away (I hope) I think Billy dissecting mice (or should I say 'mise'?) and a bird with scissors and a knife (sorry, 'sissors' and a 'nife') might well have put pay to that in the eyes of many a parent. And yet almost not 'grown-up' enough to appeal to, well, grown-ups, I suspect that with its 'text speak' style of writing it may well appear more to a Young Adult market. And then again, with its penchant for religious subversion perhaps not.

A bit like the peasant unable to see the Emperor's New Clothes I was left feeling a bit stupid .... was I missing something, was I supposed to glean some deeper meaning/understanding of the events and, if so, of what? 

13 comments:

Natasha said...

I've heard lots about this book and it's definitely intrigued me, I'm gonna have to find a copy and read it for myself. - Tasha

Barbara said...

Hi Tracy, just reading the blurb from the back cover was enough to set my teeth on edge. I can’t see the point in trying to read it. Well done on tackling it and seeing it through you have more stamina than me.

Kelly said...

Books written like this absolutely wear me out. I think this is even worse than when written in a specific dialect (which I will sometime struggle through if the story interests me enough). I can safely say it won't go on my wish list.

Nikki - Notes of Life said...

I don't think I could read a book written like that. Years ago I picked up a paperback copy of Trainspotting and I gave up after the first page because it's written in a Glaswegian accent!

Yanting Gueh said...

The cover is attractive and the synopsis, as difficult to read through as it was, sounded promising. But I was hoping the entire story wasn't written that way. Too difficult to get through!

Suko said...

Tracy, thank you for being candid. I hadn't heard of this book before.

Brian Joseph said...

This does seem odd.

I find writing in dialogue as you quoted above to be very difficult.almost impossible for me.

At least the text speak is easy to listen to.

Karen said...

It sounds like a lot of work trying to read this one lol

Karen @For What It's Worth

Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer said...

The writing kind of threw me, it definitely sounds different.

Gina said...

Oh my. I admit to be curious about the cover and title as I've seen it in passing but I'd not taken the time to look at it properly. ..til now. Read a book or two like this before (writing/grammar wise) and alas, found it rather unpleasant as well. I get they were being authentic to the character but it made it heck for the reader. Thanks for the share nonetheless.

The Bookworm said...

I don't think I would be able to get past this style of writing. It is too distracting for me.

Literary Feline said...

Hmm. Not sure about this one. The writing is a bit hard to settle into, even with the short bits you shared here, and the story doesn't particularly appeal to me. Hopefully it will find its audience.

carol said...

I don't think I could get beyond the spelling to even give the story a legitimate try.