Maggot Moon

Sally Gardner's Maggot Moon was another acquisition from the Allen & Unwin shelves. It was much awarded when it came out in the UK in 2012, picking up the Carnegie Medal and the Costa Book Award. It's set in an alternate reality, where it seems the Nazis (the 'Motherland') won the Second World War and took over Britain, and now are staging a fake moon landing which fifteen year old Standish discovers.

Gardner, who is herself dyslexic, writes from Standish's viewpoint with mixed metaphors, malapropisms and other confusions of language -- I suspect this feat is what garnered so much admiration from critics. The story is packed with action and danger, and the climax is harrowing. Having said all that, this book was not for me. It's incredibly violent, with one of Standish's classmates being beaten to death by a teacher early in the book. Standish is fifteen, but his comprehension of events seems to come from a much younger child. In fact, that might be my main problem -- the plot and the story are definitely in dystopian YA territory, but the style and the voice seem to me to be pitched at middle grade level. Standish and Hector are close friends, but they build a cardboard rocket together and pretend to fly to the moon, which seems like something a pair of ten year olds might do rather than a couple of adolescent boys.

The chapters are extremely short and punchy, there are striking illustrations throughout, and the whole book seems designed to catch the attention of reluctant boy readers (maybe another reason why it was so highly awarded). But as a whole package, Maggot Moon just doesn't work for me.