The YA debut by Kit de Waal is every bit as kinetic and audacious as her adult fiction. A recasting of Moby Dick with a feminist twist, Becoming Dinah boasts standout characters, lashings of sass and a warm and generous heart.
Longlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2020
In her first YA novel, Costa-shortlisted Kit de Waal responds to classic Moby Dick by tearing the power away from obsessive Captain Ahab and giving it to a teenage girl.
Dinah's whole world is upside down, dead things and angry men and cuts all over her head that are beginning to sting....
Seventeen-year-old Dinah needs to leave her home, the weird commune where she grew up. She needs a whole new identity, starting with how she looks, starting with shaving off her hair, her 'crowning glory'. She has to do it quickly, because she has to go now.
Dinah was going to go alone and hitch a ride down south. Except, she ends up being persuaded to illegally drive a VW campervan for hundreds of miles, accompanied by a grumpy man with one leg. This wasn't the plan.
But while she's driving, Dinah will be forced to confront everything that led her here, everything that will finally show her which direction to turn...
In her first YA novel, Costa-shortlisted author Kit de Waal responds to the classic Moby Dick with entirely new characters, a VW campervan, and by tearing the power away from obsessive Captain Ahab and giving it to a teenage girl who's determined to find a new life, far away from her unconventional upbringing.
Publisher: Hachette Children's Group
ISBN: 9781510105706
Number of pages: 240
Weight: 224 g
Dimensions: 196 x 128 x 22 mm
Becoming Dinah is a story with ancient resonance that's also fresh and defiantly original. I fell utterly in love with Dinah. I felt her pain and wanted the best for her from the start. A proper adventure wrapped around a tender, beautifully told story of loss, resilience and discovery. What a beautiful book. - Sarah Moore Fitzgerald
'This first in a new series of reinterpretations of classic stories through a feminist perspective might sound daunting, as it draws on Moby Dick for inspiration, but, under Kit de Waal's captaincy, it breezes along in full sail....Familiarity with the original adds to the fun, but this emotionally charged book also works beautifully as a standalone.' - Daily Mail
A gripping, heart-wrenching coming-of-age story - Guardian
Issues of class, race and gender are woven in effortlessly, and it's a superb example of how to do a feminist reimagining of a classic - Irish Times
An emotional coming of age tale of escape, mission, and ultimately, self-knowledge - The Big Issue
Dinah decides to run away to escape her muddled family and feelings - only she doesn't run. She gets roped into driving (without a license) an old camper van to help an angry guy with one leg get his prosthetic... More
There were some points in 'Becoming Dinah' that I found a little slow to read because the central plot line is not particularly strong. However, the suspense to find out what happened to Dinah at school and... More
Thank you to the publishers for this review copy.
I love all of Kit's books so I had very high expectations for this and let me tell you she definitely does not disappoint you!
Very happy to recommend this on to...
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