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SYNOPSIS:
Alexa is a young police community support officer whose world feels unstable. Her father is estranged and her girlfriend is increasingly distant. Their polyamorous relationship – which for years felt so natural – is starting to seem strained. As she patrols Sheffield she senses the rising tensions in its disparate communities and doubts her ability to keep the peace, to help, to change anything.
Caron is pushing Alexa away and pushing herself ever harder. A climber, she fixates on a brutal route known as Black Car Burning and throws herself into a cycle of repetition and risk. Leigh, who works at a local gear shop, watches Caron climb and feels complicit.
Meanwhile, an ex-police officer compulsively revisits the April day in 1989 that changed his life forever. Trapped in his memories of the disaster, he tracks the Hillsborough inquests, questioning everything.
As the young women negotiate the streets of the city and its violent inheritance, the rock faces of Stanage and their relationships with each other, the urban and natural landscape watches over them, an ever-present witness. Black Car Burning is a brilliant debut novel of trust and trauma, fear and falling, from one of our best young writers.
My Thoughts:
To be honest although I had read the blurb before I started reading this book it was not what I expected. It was surprising, raw and intriguing. Because I thought this book would focus on policing and the segregation between the different communities living there I assumed the title was referring to the violence within the streets. How wrong could I be!
I loved the way the book jumped from one character to the next and the mystery surrounding 'him'. I was desperate to know who he was as his pain and trauma from the 1989 Hillsborough disaster was still so raw and heart wrenching.
The writing was descriptive and poetic which drew me in from the very beginning. At first the characters and their story lines seemed to stand on their own and it was only much later in the novel that connections were made and they came together. This added to my overall enjoyment as I could then link all the pieces together; a very clever writing technique, one which I appreciated.
An extraordinary debut novel focusing on the lives of the characters, on the effects of trauma and learning to trust, all set within the beauty and juxtaposition of the city centre of Sheffield and the Peak District. A thought-provoking novel which I really enjoyed.
Many thanks to Martina Ticic at Midas Public Relations for inviting me to join the Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize longlist blog tour.
