Hite

Well-written and tense, this novel explores the bleak world of under-sized Lee, a teenager with special learning needs at school and a drunk, abusive father at home. His only pleasure comes from escaping to the roof of his block of flats where he can draw, write and look at the stars. Things momentarily look up when he is joined by Ruby, a girl five years older than he is with the same need to get away. But a criminal gang who need Lee for his ability to slip through windows to burgle property raises the tension once again. Lee only finally gets free after a succession of fires, fights and near arrests. This is good rather than great storytelling, with characters talking in unbelievably refined dialogue and idealised saviours coming onto the scene just in time. Some may wonder too at the unquestioning approval in these pages to the idea that deprived teenagers can and perhaps should express themselves through personal graffiti or, as the book calls them, 'tags'. Not in my back yard, please.