I bought this for two reasons, the length, and that intriguing cover. And the plot sounded offbeat enough to be interesting. Alright, that's three reasons.
I'd never heard of Devlin before, but I will be checking out to see if he has anything else I can get my grubby paws on.
This is how you do a story that's mysterious, and doesn't explain everything without making it feel like you have no idea what's happening (looking at you Murakami and Armfeld).
Rob is a boy living in The Crescent, a suburb of an unnamed city. The Crescent is where the people who work at the City Works live. They're not liked much outside of the Crescent for reasons that aren't stated, but we can guess at by the end of this short book.
The engines thrumming beneath the houses have been the soundtrack to Rob's entire life. When a new boy, Lee, moves onto the Crescent, an outsider in this strange close knit community, Rob starts to discover how odd his life has always been whether he knew it or not.
One of he things this succeeds amazingly well in is that it reverses the usual role of the outsider coming in to a strange subculture/society. normally the outsider becomes the stand in for the audience and has everything explained to them. In this, Lee basically shows Rob how the world normally is and provides the catalyst for the story rather than the usual almost passive observer.
Devlin's prose is polished, spare and evocative. At no point in this book did it ever feel like Devlin couldn't answer the questions that abound in the story. He is in complete control of his narrative and revealing subtle glimpses into his world. I loved this unreservedly and read it in just two hours or so.
well worth seeking out a copy.
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