6

As often seems to happen, as soon as I see something ‘new’, I end up seeing it everywhere! This recently happened to me with Anne of Green Gables and I sensed it happening again with ‘6’ by Karen Tayleur, after seeing one of my son’s friend’s reading it and then seeing a display of the author’s books a week later during a high school tour I went on recently.  ‘6’ is a YA book (and I think, too ‘mature’ for an 11 year old to be reading but I guess I was reading Stephen King and other adult books at the same age.)  The synopsis is as follows:

One car.

One after-party.

Six people, six points of view.

One outcome.

So it’s fairly easy to decipher what the book is about but you don’t actually get to ‘the accident’ until the end of the book and then in a slightly chilling way.  I read this book with visions of my too-soon-to-be teenage sons and the prospect just fills me with dread. Some teenagers make stupid decisions as this book highlights.  There are certain characters in the book who you just want to scream at and shake to make them see how thoughtless and cruel they are being.  Others get your sympathy (and tissues!)

This was an ‘easy-read’ book, despite the horror of the content.  What added to the creepiness of ‘6’ was that each chapter, instead of having a title, had a quote from a Nursery Rhyme.  This was very clever, I felt, as not only did it fit with what was happening in that particular chapter but also reminded the reader that the characters in the story were listening to and enjoying those infantile poems not that long ago and are still children.  Pretty clever on the author’s part.  I have Karen Tayleur’s other YA book, ‘Hostage’ borrowed from my local Library to read too, which I’m looking forward to.