Thalidomide Kid
Daryl Wainwright is the quirky youngest child of a large family of petty thieves and criminals who calls himself ‘Thalidomide Kid’.
Celia Burkett is the new girl at the local primary school, and the daughter of the deputy head at the local comprehensive where she is bound the following September. With few friends, Celia soon becomes fascinated by ‘the boy with no arms’.
The story of a blossoming romance and sexual awakening between a lonely girl and a disabled boy, and their struggle against adversity and prejudice as they pass from primary to secondary school in 1970s Cirencester. The story deals with themes and issues that are timeless.
My review
My initial outlook for this book was that the writer would focus heavily on the fate of Daryl and his disability making me believe that this was set to be an extremely difficult and heartbreaking read. In reality, this wasn't the focus and Kate Rigby portrayed Daryl in such a positive light with a can-do attitude that as a reader you instantly took a liking to his character and backed him throughout the entire story.
The storyline doesn't pick you up and take you on any sweeping adventures but focuses primarily on the day to day lives of the two main antagonists, Daryl and Celia, who is the new girl at school and takes an instant liking to Daryl. The pace of the book does dawdle along but what Kate Rigby can do extremely well is create characters that are so vivid and full of life that you're instantly pulled into their world, seeing their thoughts, whether good or bad and routing for them to make it in life. I especially loved the times that Daryl was pulled out of the story and into his own thoughts where he became Thalidomide Kid the comic superhero who can take on the world and conquer anything. This created such an endearing aspect to his character and coupled with his ability to be positive and make light of his disability meant that he is without a doubt the standout character in the book.
The Thalidomide Kid touches on coming of age topics that are still relevant in today's society making it transgress its 1970's timeframe and question our current ideals making this book a must-read. In the concluding chapters, the story, in my opinion, is left at a pause, as opposed to a final end. Whether this was deliberate to spark thought in the reader in order to make up their own mind as to what happens next I'm unsure. But I do feel that there is more left in this story, a sequel perhaps?
The Thalidomide Kid touches on coming of age topics that are still relevant in today's society making it transgress its 1970's timeframe and question our current ideals making this book a must-read. In the concluding chapters, the story, in my opinion, is left at a pause, as opposed to a final end. Whether this was deliberate to spark thought in the reader in order to make up their own mind as to what happens next I'm unsure. But I do feel that there is more left in this story, a sequel perhaps?
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Author Bio
Kate Rigby was born near Liverpool and now lives in the south west of England. She’s been writing for nearly forty years. She has been traditionally published, small press published and indie published.
She realized her unhip credentials were mounting so she decided to write about it. Little Guide to Unhip was first published in 2010 and has since been updated.
However she’s not completely unhip. Her punk novel, Fall Of The Flamingo Circus was published by Allison & Busby (1990) and by Villard (American hardback 1990). Skrev Press published her novels Seaview Terrace (2003) Sucka!(2004) and Break Point (2006) and other shorter work has appeared in Skrev’s magazines.
Thalidomide Kid was published by Bewrite Books (2007).
Her novel Savage To Savvy was an Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award (ABNA) Quarter-Finalist in 2012.
She has had other short stories published and shortlisted including Hard Workers and Headboards, first published in The Diva Book of Short Stories, in an erotic anthology published by Pfoxmoor Publishing and more recently in an anthology of Awkward Sexcapades by Beating Windward Press.
She also received a Southern Arts bursary for her novel Where A Shadow Played (now re-Kindled as Did You Whisper Back?).
She has re-Kindled her backlist and is gradually getting her titles (back) into paperback.
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