Review: Thirteen by Tom Hoyle

Title: Thirteen
Author: Tom Hoyle

Release Date: February 13th January 2014 (I see what you did there!)

My Rating: 3/5 stars


*This book was kindly given to me by Macmillian Children's Books*


Blurb on Goodreads: "Born at midnight in London, on the stroke of the new millennium, Adam is the target of a cult that believes boys born on this date must die before the end of their thirteenth year. Twelve boys have been killed so far. Coron, the crazy cult leader, will stop at nothing to bring in his new kingdom. And now he is planning a bombing spectacular across London to celebrate the sacrifice of his final victim: Adam."

This book first caught my eye as I was perusing the YA section of my local Waterstones. The paperback is an attractively done bright yellow with yellow edges depicting a countdown to thirteen. There is no blurb on the outside, just one single line, creating an air of mystery and piquing my interest. I added it to my Goodreads To-Read List then and there! Naturally I was beyond pleased when I had the opportunity to read this on my Kindle and write a review for it.

This book had plenty of positives and just a couple of negatives for me. The very first thing that hit me as I started reading this book was that it was not at all ‘YA’ material, or if it is then the very young YA readers. The main character Adam and all his friends are thirteen years old or there about. A lot of the issues he deals with (asides from a crazy cult hunting him down of course) are therefore very innocent. I found it almost cute with the way he looked at life and how he felt about bullying as well as his best friend (kind of sort of turned girlfriend) Megan aka Meg. In that sense it was very much a younger children’s book. However, on the flip side, about half way through this book becomes really rather dark and sinister, a lot more so than would be expected in a younger child’s book which is why its YA I guess. This dark, twisted side was actually my favourite half of the book, as the story really picked up and started to live up to it's scary potential that was portrayed in the blurb.

The writing was really great in this book. Hoyle manages to put us into a thirteen year old’s mind set really well, paying attention to the smaller details that allowed us to see Adams horror and fear at the situations he was placed in and the strength he had in getting past that and being extremely brave for a kid. It was a little bit basic in some parts and I felt the descriptions could have been a little more detailed at times but on the whole it kept you reading and even depicted a little of the good old British slang!

The story is set in England, London and I felt that the writer was true to his location and didn’t just skim over the details of the setting. He describes London and weaves iconic buildings and tube stations into the story well, really giving it an authentic feel. The characters were great, both the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’. Coron was a brilliant crazy cult leader. I loved how Hoyle showed us just how whacky he was, and how he believed everything he said to be true, but at the same time put just enough emphasis on the fact that Coron was in fact crazy and hallucinating. Adam was a really likeable character, and the way he fantasised about being a hero before talking sense into himself was really cute. He was very well rounded and definitely made me feel for him. Also, the recurrence of the number 13 and it's link to just about everything in this book was a great concept and added a feel of superstition to it.

Overall, this book was definitely not what I was expecting, however it was still an enjoyable read with a great plot and characters to match. It is definitely something I would recommend for a younger, male reader who enjoys books such as The Recruit by Robert Muchamore. I’ll probably have to pick this up in it's beautiful paperback form for my little brother!

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