As Jess is alienated from her friends, teachers and parents, so I found my understanding of them tended to be limited and two dimensional. Whilst having a single person point of view can strengthen a book and the reader's empathy with the main character, it can also cause problems.
I think that as a white Brit I probably needed more clarity about the Nigerian folk beliefs that lie behind the story.The book is written very much from the point of view of Jess, although on a few occasions the viewpoint slips, for example becoming that of Jess' friend Shivs, before flicking back to Jess once more. I have no problem with ambiguity, I wouldn't like magic realism if I had, but this ending did not work. But the book's ending comes in a rush and doesn't resolve matters. A highly sensitive and imaginative child divided between cultures (the Nigerian of her mother and white British of her father) goes visit her grandfather in Nigeria where she meets TillyTilly who may or may not be a figment of her imagination, who may or may not be a ghost or spirit of her dead twin. But somehow the book just misses the mark.The premise is interesting, if familiar, and suited to magic realism. And there is some very good writing in this novel. I have to admire the fact that it was written when the author was in her last year at secondary school. I am not sure what it was about this book that didn't engage me. But as she shows Jess just how easy it is to hurt those around her, Jess begins to realise that she doesn't know who TillyTilly is at all. TillyTilly knows secrets both big and small. It seems that at last Jess has found someone who will understand her. When she is taken to her mother's family compound in Nigeria, she encounters Titiola, a ragged little girl her own age. As the half-and-half child of an English father and a Nigerian mother, Jess just can't shake off the feeling of being alone wherever she goes, and other kids are wary of her terrified fits of screaming.
Sensitive, whimsical, possessed of a powerful imagination, she spends hours writing, reading or simply hiding in the dark warmth of the airing cupboard. 'An astonishing achievement' Sunday Telegraph This compelling tale of folklore and cultural differences is sure to top the bestseller lists' Daily Mail 'This is a beautiful, haunting story of precocious eight-year-old Jessamy.
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