Special

Publisher and industry reviews

Jacket review

'Special is a work of brilliance and insight. At times it's like reading an anthropological text on a strange, distant tribe, while at others it feels uncomfortably familiar - but I have to say I've never come across a book that makes me so glad to be grown-up' Daily Telegraph 'Sinister and menacing' Patricia Duncker, Books of 2002, New Statesman 'A brilliant and disturbing take on underoccupied teenage girls' Maggie O'Farrell, Books of 2002, Observer

UK Kirkus review

In this hard-hitting novel about very young teenage girls, Bella Bathurst interestingly changes direction from her brilliant first book, The Lighthouse Stevensons. Post-exam and pre-holiday, ten 13-year-old girl boarders and their two teachers are on a fortnight's so-called activity break in the Forest of Dean. Needless to say, bike-riding, hiking and sessions in the gym and pool are not the teenagers' idea of fun. Four characters immediately grab the reader's attention: Ali the loner, Hen the anorexic, Jules the second-best, and beautiful Caz, the ruthless leader of the pack. Jules is the only product of a so-called normal family, but has her own hang-ups. The younger teacher, nicknamed Jaws, is a tolerant individual; Miss Naylor is mostly the stereotypical dragon. Bathurst writes like a dream, even when her plot is plunging into nightmare - or especially then. With surgical precision, she shows what it is like to be female, very young, and terribly uncertain. Her understanding of the defence mechanisms (bravado, bitchiness, chemical props) and the nature of cool (scariness, domination, practised deceit, contempt for others) is both extremely powerful and deeply unsettling. So is her grasp of teenage insecurities: sexuality, social competence, general desirability, the problems of envy and jealousy. Structured around the relentless passing of days, this novel, among many things, demonstrates one of the sad facts of human nature: while younger we want to be older, but later become desperate for an unattainable vice versa. For the main characters everything is happening and far too fast; childhood, if they ever experienced it, seems to have lasted about five minutes. Not a novel for those who still believe in the notion of innocent girlhood, Special examines the way in which we all struggle to be unique, even though we are anyway. (Kirkus UK)

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