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Billy Sein (2011)

by Phil Earle(Favorite Author)

3.9 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

3551582556 (ISBN13: 9783551582553)

languge

English

genre

Young Adult Fiction

publisher

Carlsen

review 1: To be honest, I really thought I would enjoy this book a lot more than this. (As usual, I ramble a lot about characterization, pacing and story execution, so there’ll be sort-of spoilers. I just enjoy discussing character and plot development a lot.) The story of Being Billy should be something right up my alley, with the angry kid in the care home and his issues and fumbling his way through life and all. It’s generally my type of story and everything. However, very early in the book, only a few pages in, I ran into my first issue. I didn’t like Billy. I really didn’t like him. I’m not sure if it’s his characterization as an arrogant and angry teenager, but I could not sympathise with him for most, if not all, of the book. While I understand that children of hi... mores background have every right to be angry and attention-seeking in their own ways, but even with this understanding, I didn’t find enough redeeming features for me to sympathise with him. Not caring about the protagonist was a big disaster signal for me only a few chapters in. I believe part of the reason is the way his first-person perspective is written. I reckon the biggest weakness of the first-person view is that the description of everything the narrator does becomes magnified, focusing all on his choices and how he made them, and how cocky and sure he is of what he does, over-explanation, over-defensiveness of his actions etc. So the safer option would’ve been to go for the third-person, where distance seems to make it easier to relate to the characters. I understand the need for first person- to understand Billy and his anger, particularly later on the book- but I regret to say I never did like Billy and that really affected my enjoyment of the book. The thing is, in order to make an unlikeable character likeable, you simply need to show the reader something or someone they love passionately. With Being Billy, we have the twins as a way to show Billy’s good side. But the twins are so obviously there for that purpose- Lizzie and Louie are basic cardboard cut-outs of the typical needy siblings, seen commonly in other books where children band together against abusive parents- their interactions with Billy and their clinginess to him are so typical and obvious. There are moments where their characterization is done fairly well, such as the description of their drawings, but overall, the twins are very bland and flat characters used only to play their required roles. I wish I could say something positive about Daisy, as she is a pivotal character in Billy’s growth. However, she was not as interesting as Billy made her out to be. At times, she had odd quirks and traits, but her personality and back story seem unsatisfying at most. I did like the way she was introduced in the story, her kick ass nature and her coldness and fierceness to Billy. I wish that spark had lasted longer and that it was evident in their later interactions, which were boring and didn’t portray the closeness they supposedly had. It would have been nice to see casual or deeper conversations play out between the both of them, to see scenes of their friendship. Instead, we are just told by Billy that throughout the months they sit on the bench together, they text each other, etc etc. We are given like one scene where they go out drinking together, but that too lacks any substantial development between the two. Thus, Billy’s anger and hurt at her apparent betrayal later on doesn’t make much sense to me, as the two didn’t seem anywhere near as close as they were supposed to be. It would’ve been nicer to have seen a raw friendship, to see a relationship develop throughout the book, rather than simply being told it happened. I did like that there was no romance. It was important that Billy and Daisy could understand each other without anything extra, and it’s always nice to see genuine, strong boy-girl friendships. (It’s just a shame it wasn’t really portrayed as that genuine or strong.)Ronnie was one of the more interesting and better fleshed-out characters of the book. He really stood out, with the way his speech and actions were described. I’m happy to say that I genuinely liked him, although it was incredibly predictable from the beginning that he would turn out to be a good guy. I did really like the tragic backstory of Billy with Jan and Grant. It was just believable and tragic enough to see how the incident could’ve heavily isolated and impacted Billy. I liked that he would sneak back into his old room to sleep peacefully, I thought that was cute and a good way to display Billy’s longing for a home. Most of the book didn’t seem to be about anything. I presumed Billy was supposed to be growing or making some changes, but it wasn’t really evident, he just seemed to meander along and nothing happened really. I believe his relationships were supposedly improving with Ronnie and Daisy, and thus he was improving, although there was the constant foreboding of losing the twins to his mother. It would’ve been nice if the upward ride was more upward, like it was more evident that Billy was really making an effort to change and improve in order to keep the twins (because he really didn’t seem to try that hard at all, especially with school and it really contradicts what his aims are actually supposed to be). I believe if there was more evident improvement then the downward crash at the end would have a lot more impact- more sudden, more unexpected and much more devastating- as it would be in real life. The last few chapters and as I said, the downward crash was written very well. It was exciting to read Billy exploding and crashing the room, as well as the sudden return of Shaun. As I mentioned before, it would have had been a much bigger impact if there had been more of an upward ride before the sudden downward crash. However, although these last scenes were written really well, the pages afterwards seemed to be really really rushed. In a few sentences, we’re told that it’s already been five days (Did Billy really just mope around all that time? Why not have some character reflection or something?) and it literally reads like everything’s quickly being cleaned up and swept aside. (The charges were dropped by like the next day?? ) The immediate denouement from the climax honestly feels a bit half-assed and very rushed. However, I did like the final conversation between Billy and Ronnie. It was a very suitable way to end, as I feel like they are the two main characters and everything was built around their relationship. Overall, Being Billy is just too predictable and the characters and story progression were undercooked. But it has a lot of heart in what it’s trying to say and Phil Earle’s honest efforts should be commended.
review 2: Being Billy by Phil Earle. This is another good book. Phil really gets inside the head of Billy who has been in care since he was six years old. His younger twin siblings come into care at the same time and he has been both father and mother to them. Billy is constantly in trouble, but he doesn't mean to be. He is just so full of anger that his mother abandoned him, she allowed her new husband to beat him and now as she has access to his younger siblings, she doesn't want him. He's sick of being ordered around by the staff in the children's home and an attempt at adoption failed as he didn't want to be separated from the only family he has left. I really felt Billy's frustration and anger at the injustice of his life and the never ending stream of social workers. I'll not say much more as I don't want to spoil the plot but if you want to understand troubled teens then this is the book for you. less

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