#BookReview :: Stones by Polly Johnson

Coo is trying to cope with the hand that life has dealt her. At sixteen, she feels she’s too young to have lost her older brother, Sam, to alcoholism. She’s skipping school to avoid the sympathy and questions of her friends and teachers, and shunning her parents, angry that they failed to protect her, and desperate to avoid having to face the fact that, towards the end, she began to wish Sam would leave forever – even die. Then, one day, truanting by the Brighton seafront, Coo meets Banks, a homeless alcoholic and she’s surprised to discover that it is possible for her life to get more complicated.Despite warnings from her friends and family, Coo and Banks develop an unlikely friendship. Brought together through a series of unexpected events, strange midnight feasts, a near drowning and the unravelling of secrets, together they seek their chance for redemption. That is, until Coo’s feelings start getting dangerously out of hand. 




Coo is a sixteen year old girl, who spends more time at the beach than in a class. Her emotions are in turmoil as her elder brother, a drunk, is dead. She feels guilty for wanting him to be dead most of the times and for not missing him enough. She finds an unlikely friend in Banks, a homeless man, who is a drunkard too. An unlikely relationship of formed and even though Banks is not an ideal person to talk to, he is the only one Coo can talk to.

Nothing about this book is traditional. I mean the protagonist is called “Coo”!! The story doesn’t involve a teenager throwing typical temper tantrums or is it a happily ever after sort of a love story. Instead it is about the journey of one girl who has taken her brother’s death in a bad way. Coo has some of that typical teenager angst about her but mostly I found her to be different from typical YA Heroines. She is strong in her own way and impressionable in her own way too. I loved her for that.  The subject matter and the content matter is not light either and may not be made for everyone. The author’s narrates the story in a brisk manner that lets us get close to Coo and Banks Just enough instead of getting too familiar with them.

This book struck a chord with me. I felt and wished throughout the book. This is an odd book with a depressing ending, yet I liked it!