Scholastic Lucas
87 ratings
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Price: £7.99
Brand: Scholastic
Description: Caitlin's life changes from the moment she sees Lucas walking across the causeway one hot summer's day. He is the strangest, most beautiful boy she has ever seen - and when she meets him, her world comes alive. But to others, Lucas quickly becomes an object of prejudice and hatred. How can one voice be heard over so many?.
Category: Books
Merchant: Scholastic
Product ID: 95415
ISBN: 9781910002018
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Author: Farida
Rating: 5
Review: This book is so meaningful and full of beauty, I’ve just finished reading it and the last few pages did make me cry. It’s the kind of book that you want to constantly read to find out what happens but you also want to save it for a beautiful moment. Thanks to Kevin brooks for this masterpiece??
Author: littlebookworm78
Rating: 1
Review: ‘Lucas’ is told from the viewpoint of sixteen-year-old Caitlin, as she recalls the traumatic events of the previous summer when the title character comes to the small and sparsely populated island she lives on with her father and brother. I first read this way back in 2005 and gave it a 9/10 (5/5 rating) at the time, but on re-reading it (or at least attempting to) I’m struggling to understand exactly why I gave it such a high score… At just over 300 pages long, not much really happens for a good two-thirds of the book. For the first 100+ pages we get a lot of descriptive narrative from Cait, mainly focusing on her surroundings and the scenery of the island, how people look and/or behave and the minutiae of hers (or someone else’s) everyday activities. Ninety-eight percent of it feels surplus to requirements where plot development is concerned, whilst the remaining 2% is blatant foreshadowing for what comes later, once she gets involved with Lucas. Some of this may have been easier to overlook if Cait – as narrator – wasn’t so… well, boring. She waffles on and on about nothing in particular, spends the majority of her time wandering along the beach with her dog whilst giving us a blow by blow account of what she can see (usually lengthy descriptions of what the beach, sky or sea look like) or doing her best to avoid seeing people (usually someone she’s actually made plans to meet up with). Perhaps this is all designed to show that she, like Lucas, is ‘different’ and ‘special’ and ‘not like everyone else’, but it just doesn’t work. All it does is paint her as a whiney, self-obsessed girl, with the attention span of a gnat who looks down her nose at everyone, including her own family. Once Lucas shows up, it’s much of the same. He’s meant to be this enigmatic, good-looking, charming character, shrouded in mystery and allure, but honestly… I just found him a bit creepy. He comes out with some really random things that I doubt any adult would say, let alone a fifteen-year-old boy, and yet Cait seems hopelessly smitten with him almost from the minute she lays eyes on him. In stark contrast, the other island residents are seemingly so repulsed by his presence, they go to greater and greater lengths to belittle him in order to get him to leave. Ultimately ‘Lucas’ is about tolerance and/or the lack of it, especially when it comes to the unknown. It’s clear the vast majority of the island residents are xenophobic to a greater or lesser degree and thus fear anyone – and anything – that doesn’t fit neatly into their idea of what is acceptable. However, because we only experience proceedings from Cait’s point of view, it’s difficult to judge how much is fact and how much is misinterpreted by Cait because her intense feelings for Lucas are clouding her recollection of things. That’s not to excuse the way the islanders behave – especially in the last few chapters which are particularly harrowing (if a little far-fetched) – but I feel it would have made for a better story if we’d seen things from other people’s points of view occasionally, instead of just Cait’s. I’ve read a few of Brooks’ other books in the intervening years since first reading ‘Lucas’ and it’s safe to say his style of writing and chosen subject matters can be polarising. He certainly tackles some difficult and contemporary topics including child neglect, bullying and runaway children, but not always with the greatest of ease. Unfortunately, after this second read of ‘Lucas’ I have to say it goes down as one of the ones in which Brooks hasn’t quite captured the mood for me. There’s a few too many clichés, overly-used motifs and unoriginal character flaws to make ‘Lucas’ a truly captivating novel. Had I read this as a teenager, I think I would have found myself getting impatient with Cait as the narrator and angry at the single-minded islanders, to the point where I would (most likely) have given up reading. That being said, my Grandma always used to say I had ‘too much common sense’ for one so young, so perhaps it was inevitable that everyone in ‘Lucas’ would irritate me now and when I was younger.
