My friend Katie recommended this book to me, saying that it has ties to the Yorkshire Ripper case and that I would like it. Both of our mums grew up in West Yorkshire when the Ripper was active; they were in their teens and twenties when he was active and it must have been terrifying. Don't forget also that these women had also been young children when the Moors Murderers were discovered, also very close to where they were living. I honestly think that these events had a lot of influence on our mothers and plenty more from the area, which influenced how they parented us. I would love someone to do some research on this actually!
Anyway, the book. At the beginning is a paragraph from Jennie Godfrey explaining that her dad knew Peter Sutcliffe and that this had a big impact on her as a young child. I think that the fact Jennie lived through it did show itself in the book in a negative way, which I'll explain.
The book is set in 1979 and the main character is Miv. She is twelve. She lives with her parents. Her dad works for a haulage company. Her mum is unwell and hasn't spoken in months. Sometimes she is well enough to come downstairs and sit watching the telly, but often she's in bed. Miv's aunt, whose name I forget, but who is a very buttoned up human with a lot of opinions on life, has come to look after the family while Miv's mother can't. These days we would understand that she is suffering from some kind of mental health collapse or PTSD but obviously it's the late 70s so it's not as understood.
Miv's best friend is called Sharon. She lives with her parents and is quite spoilt by her mum. Miv absolutely loves Sharon's mum and likes going round there, and the mum is very kind towards her too. The two girls are interested in the Ripper case and when they hear one of the police involved say that he is 'somebody's husband, somebody's son' they decide to do their own investigations.
They start off by looking at the new owner of their corner shop, Mr Bashir. In Miv's corner of West Yorkshire, Pakistani immigrants were thin on the ground. Omar has been widowed and has moved out of Bradford with his son Ishtiaq, who is subjected to racist bullying at school and otherwise. Mr Bashir does have a couple of things that the police posit the Ripper has, so he goes on the list. He and Ishtiaq get friendly with the girls, though, and I loved this part of the book.
They also suspect a teacher of theirs, and some other men. They do end up uncovering some genuine villainy, including some perpetrated by a local vicar. But otherwise they're kind of meddling in everything and annoying people. Sharon begins to get tired of the 'game' and she's growing closer to Ishtiaq; she's further along in puberty than Miv and is beginning to get tired of childish things like Holly Hobby. Things that Miv still really likes!
In general, I liked Miv and I liked her family set up, but I thought the book fell a lot flat. I felt there were a lot of bits where Jennie was telling the reader the story of the Ripper, to get you caught up in case you didn't know it. I'm guessing she used a lot of her own story and memories in these parts, but it's too cold and not 'showing' enough of the story to the reader. Ultimately this put me off the book and I can only give it three stars. I messaged Katie saying I hadn't really liked it and she said her mum felt the same. Mine quite liked it, though, so it's a mixed bag of reviews!
No comments:
Post a Comment