Being by Kevin Brooks

Kevin Brooks is the mailman of young adult literature, he always delivers, well nearly always.

Being is a book written at breakneck speed about a teenager who is admitted to hospital for an endoscopy. He awakes in the middle of the surgeons cutting into him to overhear a conversation relating to his condition which suggests that he is not human but some sort of human robot. He escapes after a bloody and vicious fight with those conducting the operation and links up with a tough and streetwise 18 year old girl who is in the know with the criminal element.

After being chased all around England they escape to the Continent and that should have been that. But it is not. The ending will have many perplexed and some will say the mailman has not delivered this time. Superbly written with high tension and action. Reminds me of the film Bladerunner. Aimed at Secondary level.

Pub. Penguin London

Reviewed by Bob