Trigger by C G Moore - Review

Trigger warning for this book! It's about rape! Specificially male rape. It is a little graphic. 

I bought this book in a children's and YA bookshop in Retford at Easter. I was visiting the area with friends and read about this bookshop, so a few of us went along. I bought three books because I had a voucher, and this was one of them. I picked it up in mid May when I was feeling a bit down, and it turned out to be just what I needed. Sometimes books happen like that and I always love it when they do.

So, this is a book told in verse, like Sarah Crossan's books, which I didn't know when I picked it up actually, but it really didn't matter in the grand scheme of things. I think some of the poems worked better than others, and I would have liked a little bit more depth on some. But they did generally work really well. 

The story is about Jay. He wakes up in a park one morning, beaten, bruised, and bloodied. His phone is smashed. He realises he has been sexually assaulted. He goes to his friend Lau, and Lau takes him to the hospital where they take samples and all of that. Jay later realises he was raped, but what exactly happened is a mystery. He remembers being in a club with his boyfriend Jackson, but nothing else. 

Jackson won't speak to him, doesn't come over or any of that. He messages to say he needs some space. Jay has supportive parents, and Lau, and he later goes to a support group where he meets someone called Rain. He goes back to school, but there, everyone knows about the rape, which is awful. 

There's a lot in this about how survivors of rape and sexual assault rarely get justice through the legal system - rapists are rarely prosecuted and even when they are, they are rarely found guilty. That is all true and it adds to Jay's trauma and feelings of shame and worthlessness. 

Jay realises that Jackson may have been involved in what happened to him, which is another massive betrayal. 

It's a sad book but I loved Jay and his character, his spirit. I am giving this four out of five. 

Gut Feelings by C G Moore - Review

 

I saw C G Moore talk about this book as part of NYALitfest back in January, and I liked the sound of it, so I bought this and three more from that weekend from the bookshop that was part of the conference. I think there was like 10% off RRP - I know I got all four books for around £30. 

Okay, so this book is told in verse, in poetry, like The Black Flamingo and Sarah Crossan's book. I think it'll be compared to both, and I think it's a fair comparison in both cases. It has really, really gorgeous illustrations that I think added a lot to the story, and I think they deserve praise.

I think this book is all a true story. At the conferece, Chris was talking about living with a chronic illness, which is what piqued my interest in the book. The book details his disease - a condition called Familial Adenomatous Polyposis - where polyps form on the large intestine. Chris was diagnosed aged 11. His mum and grandma also had the condition. Chris had surgery to remove the large intestine and had a stoma, and an ileostomy bag. He had this reversed later, but had a bag for five years. At the end of the book he is a student in Dublin. He is gay and has come out to his family by that point - which were some of my favourite although heartbreaking poems within the whole thing. A lot of the poems talk about being disabled, and how that feels, and about having an invisible illness and how Chris sometimes gets abuse for using disabled toilets because he doesn't 'look' disabled. This is obviously something that often happens - it has happened to me! - and I liked that the book highlighted it.

The early poems talked a lot about surgery, and about what being in hospital was like. I thought that the pain and misery really came across here; the poems were really well written.

In all, I liked this book and would read something else by the author. I'm giving this four out of five.