Blue Eyed Boy - Joanne Harris - Book Review

Blue Eyed Boy

I was leafing through a recent edition of Good Reading Magazine [Australia] when I came across a side advertisement promoting Blue Eyed Boy. The colours captured my attention, but not before I read the review on the following page and knew from the moment I finished, that Blue Eyed Boy was a must have in my book collection and I had to get my hands on it as soon as possible.

I put it on lay-by and got it for my 20^th birthday. The feeling of the book in my hands made my heart soar and I couldn't wait to finish my most recent book [2 Shanes] so that I could start reading this masterpiece, that would become one of my favourite books of all time, right next to Frankie Says Relapse and The Black Dagger Brotherhood series.

It took me through the course of this novel to decide whether or not I had really got what I longed for, as it was definitely not what I had pictured it to be and was very far from what I expected of the storyline.

The main character B.B took on many forms in my mind and throughout the book I found myself questioning my connection with him in nearly every entry of his online Web Journal Badguysrock. B.B's perverse, twisted and provoking personality offered more to the mind than your run of the mill pervert. While I am sure he is not made out to be one and for majority of the novel he is anything but a pervert, I found his character deeply close to that of my own alter-ego and at times I did feel a strong connection with his fictional world.

I had to feel for him, despite not connecting with any of the other characters on a personal level. His mother is a completely disturbing and abusing and his brother are not much better, despite their troubles in life. I could understand where their mindsets were, but trying to justify their minds in my own was troubling and at times my emotions were charged. Though I never felt the need to defend B.B, I always though he could stand on his own two feet through every ordeal he went through and because of this, I was intensely engrossed with his character.

Although this book has a high rating in my collection there were times where the story lagged, but I put this down to the author slowing the pace of intensity into a intricately plotted back story to fill in the gaps before you take another look inside the personal and fictional Journal of both Blue Eyed Boy and Albertine.

It's not just the brilliant way that Blue Eyed Boy is structured that makes this book so gripping, but the hauntingly rich prose and poetic nature of Harris descriptions throughout the novel that are both frightening and thrilling at times.

Joanne Harris has mastered the beauty, intensity and profanity of the deranged, deluded and intellectual minds of two affected children suffering from their gift of Synaesthesia and the surrounding people and events that carry right through to their morbidly fascinating adult lives.

The thrilling Twist sent ripples of coldness throughout my body. I cannot remember a book that has provoked such a reaction in me. I was tied between reading more and closing the book to take it all in and I am in awe of Joanne Harris talent.

This book deserved more than Five stars. This is a must read.

Joanne Harris is now one of my favourite authors and I cannot wait to pick up some more of her novels to devour passionately.

*****