| Publisher | Orion Children's Books |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 23 June 2023 |
| ISBN-10 | 151010416X |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1510104167 |
| Format | paperback |
| Pages | 320 |
| Price | £ 8.99 |
The Shark and the Scar
by
When Jay wakes up in hospital, he knows something terrible has happened, but he has no memory of how he got there. All his dad wants is for him to get well. What he doesn’t want is to talk about how Jay got his injuries.
Review
Jay and his dad live in the south of France. Jay enjoys sun and surfing and his dad spends the days painting, getting ready for a big exhibition. Jay’s happy and excited. It’s always been just the two of them, but now he’s going to get the chance to meet his mother. She left when he was only a baby, but now she’s coming back to see him. Then Jay’s hopes are ripped apart, along with his body, when he’s the victim of a horrific shark attack in his favourite surfing spot.
Waking up in hospital with no memory of how he got there is bad enough, but then he has to endure a long period of excruciating physical therapy, facing the possible loss of his beloved surfing for ever. He’s also lost the chance of meeting his mother again, and he doesn’t understand why she hasn’t come to visit him in hospital.
With his dad refusing to talk about the incident, Jay has little choice but to put everything behind him and concentrate on getting better. Then his dad takes things too far, uprooting Jay from his beloved beach, away from the flat he’s come to think of as home and the friends he’s made, and dumping him in a remote cottage on the coast of grey, rainy Ireland. Only the prospect of surfing again keeps Jay from total despair.
Unlike Jay, Jess has lived in the small town of Cloncannor all her life, but like him, she lives for surfing. Her parents run a surf school and she’s desperate to ride the waves during the summer holidays. Jess’s problem, though, is that she finds it impossible to keep a secret, and soon her hopes for an idyllic summer and a new friendship seem set to founder in the turbulent water of the cold Atlantic.
Sarah Moore Fitzgerald effortlessly conjures up the rugged, beautiful west coast of Ireland, and I couldn’t help overlaying the fictional Cloncannor onto its almost namesake Liscannor in Co Clare, with its wide sands and sweeping bay. Fitzgerald’s characters live and breathe her native Ireland, with its distinctive speech patterns and welcoming attitude to incomers and I hugely enjoyed a walk through familiar territory, watching with interest as two lonely teenagers forge a bond based on a shared love of surfing and an uncomfortable detachment from those around them.
As the truth behind Jay’s accident gradually started to emerge, I veered from one theory to another before bracing myself, along with Jay, to learn what really happened the day he was meant to meet his mother.
The Shark and the Scar has relatable characters, a gorgeous setting and bags of Irish charm.
Waking up in hospital with no memory of how he got there is bad enough, but then he has to endure a long period of excruciating physical therapy, facing the possible loss of his beloved surfing for ever. He’s also lost the chance of meeting his mother again, and he doesn’t understand why she hasn’t come to visit him in hospital.
With his dad refusing to talk about the incident, Jay has little choice but to put everything behind him and concentrate on getting better. Then his dad takes things too far, uprooting Jay from his beloved beach, away from the flat he’s come to think of as home and the friends he’s made, and dumping him in a remote cottage on the coast of grey, rainy Ireland. Only the prospect of surfing again keeps Jay from total despair.
Unlike Jay, Jess has lived in the small town of Cloncannor all her life, but like him, she lives for surfing. Her parents run a surf school and she’s desperate to ride the waves during the summer holidays. Jess’s problem, though, is that she finds it impossible to keep a secret, and soon her hopes for an idyllic summer and a new friendship seem set to founder in the turbulent water of the cold Atlantic.
Sarah Moore Fitzgerald effortlessly conjures up the rugged, beautiful west coast of Ireland, and I couldn’t help overlaying the fictional Cloncannor onto its almost namesake Liscannor in Co Clare, with its wide sands and sweeping bay. Fitzgerald’s characters live and breathe her native Ireland, with its distinctive speech patterns and welcoming attitude to incomers and I hugely enjoyed a walk through familiar territory, watching with interest as two lonely teenagers forge a bond based on a shared love of surfing and an uncomfortable detachment from those around them.
As the truth behind Jay’s accident gradually started to emerge, I veered from one theory to another before bracing myself, along with Jay, to learn what really happened the day he was meant to meet his mother.
The Shark and the Scar has relatable characters, a gorgeous setting and bags of Irish charm.
Reviewed 21 January 2024 by Linda Wilson
