Bearmouth: WINNER OF WATERSTONES CHILDREN'S BOOK PRIZE 2020 OLDER READERS CATEGORY

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This was definitely a very different sort of book! The first thing you'll notice in Bearmouth is the writing style- it's written as Newt assumes words are spelled, in a phonetic way, which does take some getting used to. We're told the story of the mine through Newt's perspective, one that has seen quite a few atrocities. So let's dive into what worked for me and what didn't! This is a novel based on a slightly bizarre concept - in the mid-nineteenth century, a number of women grow wings. In an age of scientific discovery also still heavily influenced by religious beliefs, this piques the interest of doctors and captures the public imagination.

As the story progressed we learn more about Newt and their unease surrounding the appearance of new boy Devlin. With the arrival of the new face comes a sense of growing awareness of the injustice of their existence, and a slow-burning plan to change things.

And the thing is, if most of the book was normal-speak with occasional direct depictions of his poorly written diary, I think I could've handled it. There’s nothing like a dose of darkness and claustrophobia to give a story intensity, and Liz Hyder’s excellent fantasy debut has plenty of both. We learn early on that its young protagonist Newt Coombes last saw daylight at the tender age of four. In the years since then, Newt has worked in the labyrinthine coalmine of the title, ruthlessly exploited in appalling conditions and a virtual prisoner for life. There’s a chemistry between two of the characters that was done so perfectly. I’m not one for ‘love’ in stories, but I was absolutely buzzing for these two, and their banter was hilarious at times. I was crying with laughter during numerous scenes. I think every writer dreams of publication! I’ve always written and still have some of my creative writing books from when I was at infants’ school (they make for very entertaining reading!). I’ve been writing seriously on and off for a long time, I developed a pilot for Channel 4 Scotland, written award-winning short films and tried out lots of different formats – tv, stage, poems – before settling on novels.

Life in Bearmouth is one of hard labour, the sunlit world above the mine a distant memory. Reward will come in the next life with the benevolence of the Mayker. New accepts everything - that is, until the mysterious Devlin arrives. Suddenly, Newt starts to look at Bearmouth with a fresh perspective, questioning the system, and setting in motion a chain of events that could destroy their entire world. Armistice Day: A Collection of Remembrance - Spark Interest and Educate Children about Historical Moments October 1840. A young woman staggers alone through a forest in Shropshire as a huge pair of impossible wings rip themselves from her shoulders’. What I will say is that ‘The Gifts’ touches on the beauty of the natural world, superstition and science, the lure of ambition and pride; it is also the story of four women determining their own right to be, their talents and gifts undimmed by society’s constraints. I don't know if it was because of the writing style, or if it just happened this way, but I had a bit of a hard time connecting to the characters. I absolutely felt sympathetic toward them, but beyond being in really a really horrible situation, I didn't know much else about them.

Bearmouth is home to a grim mining business, where men and children labour under inhumane conditions to make their Master wealthy. They work under the earth, under the omniscient Mayker who - so workers are told - “sen us down into the dark Earf/To atone for the sins o our forefarvers an muvvers”. Naïve Newt hasn’t seen daylight in years, but takes pride in being taught to read and write by fatherly Thomas, blithely accepting this lot until the arrival of new boy Devlin. Devlin’s talk of “revolushun” makes Newt feel that things are “unravellin slowly slowly lyke a bootlayce comin all undun.” Because of the way that it was written and the fact that there is a unreliable narrator, I felt that it wasn’t very deep of a novel. I couldn’t really see the each of the characters for who there were properly or follow the events of the plot as well as I would have liked. The language used in this book is all pretty simply as well and if not for the occasional event that can be considered somewhat dark, like death, it almost felt like a middle-grade novel, solely from the way that it was written.