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Book review
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Meg Rosoff - What I Was
- Publisher: Puffin £10.99
- Reviewed by Simone Baird
- Posted: Mon Sep 3 2007
Meg Rosoff’s coastal East Anglia of 1962 is a grey, grim and ghastly place to be, and the boys’ boarding school in which her third novel is set even more so. The protagonist is a 100-year-old man – ‘an impossible age’ – who reminisces about the year he was 16, ‘the year I found love’.
Every bit as compelling and all-encompassing as Rosoff’s first two books – the multi-award-winning ‘How I Live Now’ and her most recent ‘Just In Time’ (for which she picked up this year’s Carnegie Medal), this is another coming-of-age novel which sucks the reader whole into its universe. The awkward, sensitive narrator, whose name we don’t discover until the end, is sent to yet another school in a bid to transform him into ‘a useful member of society’ by his stern, disappointed father. The antithesis of Enid Blyton’s happy, tuck-box- sharing boarding schools, St Oswold’s is a dark and ugly place to send children. The Machiavellian boys spot the narrator for a weak link and the inevitable bullying is something he is already familiar with – ‘Rule one, trust no one.’ Out on a cross-country run, the narrator discovers Finn, a teenage boy whose birth wasn’t recorded and so lives alone in a beach shack, supporting himself through crabbing and working in the local market. The narrator becomes obsessed with the boy on the beach in a way that only those lost in first love can be.- More reviews
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12 comments
this book was ok but the end was much too abrupt and i wasn't sure what happened at the end. i liked the main character and could relate to him so i gave it 6/10
Can i add oen thing before i write my comment, i review is a sort insight into the story and your views, how you felt, howit made you feel. not how the story goes, it ruins it for people who are reading the review beofre te book to see if its any good.
Okay on with the comment :))
This book was utterly thought-provoking and rendered me speechless after i had finished it this afternoon. this plot follows a steady pattern except for the last but where you have to be really concentrating, you cannot skim read this book. the blurb copies the first paragraph and gives you a nibble of whats the book has to offer.
its a classic and i can smell the sea and feel the salt of my skin and see the fort if i close my eyes.
An excellent piece of unique and rather modern literature
Well done Rosoff.
10/10
xx
l
I really enjoyed this book
To me, the ending was perfect, all though shocking.
The last line was the best part in the book.
And the ending wasn't too sudden, I think if it carried on any more if would of lost effect.
One of the best writers I've ever come across
this book is fab ,
i love all your books
i am reading 'how i live now' and i have the book called'just in case'aswell
i think you are a great writer.
i give 8/10
hollie
A little confusing, like the narrator's real name; was it mentioned? I read it on many reviews but I never saw it myself. Things like that.
But an okay read if not a little tedious and repetitive in parts with a very rushed ending although it had quite a good base plot that could have been expanded a little. 5/10
I think the book was good, not soomething so good that you really look forward to reading on though. The ending was strange, not bad, but not that good either. I think there was very good description but it sweared too much.
It was 'Just in Case' not 'Just in time'. Also, Julie- way to ruin the ending. But no I agree there isn't anything which makes you sympathise with the characters, but it is a still a good book. The ending is very ambiguous, but the way gentle descriptive prose makes the book very much like the sea by which it is set. It is a slow, languid potentially heartbreaking book where very little happens but when something does happen- it is written extremely well.
I thought this book was alright, but Finn and the narrator had nothing that made me adore them, I couldn't really sympathize with them. Also, the ending was so sudden. I give it 7/10
I liked this book quite alright but the end was quite confusing! Is Finn a girl or a boy???
Can someone please explain, what was Finn;s real relationship with her mother and why was she living alon? I did not understand the end; it was oo sudden. Anyone want to clarify?
I loved this book. 9/10. The ending was a bit too sudden, though it was a great story. Brilliant.
This book is OK, but only until the end there is no excitement and there is nothing loveable about the main charachter and Finn at all.
Plus it swears too much for a young person to read, as it encourages teenagers to swear.
I would give it a 4/10