The Shiny Guys
by Doug MacLeod
Publication: 22nd February 2012
Publisher: Penguin Books Australia
Pages: 261
Genre: Surreal
Age Appropriate: Middle Grade
'Wouldn't it be funny if they were real?'
'Shiny red men?'
'What if I were the sane one and everyone else was mad?'
One night, the shiny guys visit fifteen-year-old Colin Lapsley. They don't speak, but Colin can read their thoughts. They want him to pay for the terrible thing that he has done. When the shiny guys won't go away, Colin is admitted to ward 44. Ther he discovers an alien world, a powerful weapon, a gentle giant, and a girl who may be able to see what he can see.
The Shiny Guys is a dark, sometimes funny novel about how fantasy and reality can merge, especially when electricity is involved.
'Shiny red men?'
'What if I were the sane one and everyone else was mad?'
One night, the shiny guys visit fifteen-year-old Colin Lapsley. They don't speak, but Colin can read their thoughts. They want him to pay for the terrible thing that he has done. When the shiny guys won't go away, Colin is admitted to ward 44. Ther he discovers an alien world, a powerful weapon, a gentle giant, and a girl who may be able to see what he can see.
The Shiny Guys is a dark, sometimes funny novel about how fantasy and reality can merge, especially when electricity is involved.
My Thoughts.
While this book was a quick read, I couldn't get into it and found myself reading quickly just to get it over and done with and to go onto something else.
The storyline was very different but I was too distracted by the cockroach parts to really enjoy it although I know why he saw these things I just got bored.
Colin is in a psychistric hospital Ward 44 after a tragedy in his family it's there we meet some interesting characters: Mango (Colin's best friend) who hugs people from behind and then has a hard time letting go, Anthea the new girl who Mango falls in love with, Val the alcoholic who's very religious and Colin's roommate the not very nice Len who keeps Colin up every night with his snoring.
One day Colin is taken to a office where he meets Dr Vendra who takes him to meet a colleague Dr Maximew who lives in a different dimension called Nestoria where it's inhabited by cockroaches which Colin finds both doctor's are after shedding their human skin, he also finds out that a group of rebel cockroaches are kidnapping humans and taking them into their dimension so they give Colin special contact lens' so that he can see the cockroaches in his own world.
Colin convinces Mango and Anthea to escape with him before the Nestorians attack and throughout the book steals and hides stuff (one of his talents) for when they breakout.
Another thing I did like was the sessions he had with his psychiatrist Dr Parkinson they were quite funny.
When it came to the end of the book I really didn't understand it at all and it left me scratching my head all confused, it's not a bad book just not a book that I really enjoyed at all.
I give this 3/5.
Thanks to Penguin Books Australia.
the cover creeps me out..i do not like bugs..lol great review!
ReplyDeleteI am shattered! I guess this is a book you have to understand in order to fully comprehend what's happening. I think I understood it a lot since I'm doing Psychology and know the effects of these mental illnesses.
ReplyDelete