Review: Pig Iron

Publisher: BlueMoose
Paperback: £ 7.99


WOW!

First off the cover of this book was the hell of a shock after what I read about the book. Now that I've read the book, the cover makes sense! Wooooo!

So, on with the rest of it.

The whole novel is written from two perspectives. That of John-John and Vancy. John-John's is written as first person where as Vancy's seem to be written as letters to John-John or even a diary addressed to him. This is really enjoyable as two very different lives are described and two very different perspectives on life are. Both use language/spelling/phrases/words to denote dialect and place etc. I am really enjoying this writing technique at the moment and actually miss it when I think about it not appearing in books I'm reading.

I loved John-John. He endeared himself to me extremely quickly. I felt sorry for him, happy for him and about a million other things for him all at the same time. He is so old fashioned, it is so lovely! All the poor lad wants is a life where he can be happy. He seems to want the traveller life but without the stigma of being a Wisdom attached to it. Vancy has the traveller life but seems to hate it and want to be free of it. All I wanted was to be able to give them both what they wanted! Mac is evil and I really hate him. He is a horrid, disgusting and despicable human being. I feel indifferent about Maria. I don't really know how I'm meant to feel about her.

There are some heavy issues looked at and examined in the book. Racism, domestic violence, abuse etc. They are dealt with very candidly yet they do not seem gratuitous. Things are not dealt with in a vulgar or brash way but that doesn't make the events any less upsetting or hard hitting. However, some aspects of the racism don't give us Welshies a good rep!! Boooooo!!!! :-p

I warn you that there is a large portion of violence thrown in along with the racism and abuse etc, however, don't let this put you off the book. It is fantastic!

Short review I'm sorry to say but I don't want to give too much away!

Happy Reading

Book Geek
:-)