From reading the blurb on the back, there was a suspicion that ‘Lucas’ might be a bit too similar to ‘The Last Taboo’. Both books start with a young girl glimpsing a boy – the sort that their parents wouldn’t necessarily approve of – and not knowing how their lives will be turned upside down as they get to know more about him.
‘Lucas’ moves off in a very different direction from our last book though, as it tells the story of Lucas, the weird, mystical (half animal?) boy who moves on to the island where Cait lives. The other islanders don’t take well to his strange innocence – especially the trashy, drink swilling teenagers, who begin a violent and cruel pursuit of him.
Although in many ways a love story, we thought the book would appeal to boys as well as girls, and it deals with the idea of stranger as scapegoat, in an intense, hard-hitting way. Some of the themes and scenes are quite disturbing, but we felt this worked well, the gritty realism balancing the mysterious elements in the story.
Sometimes the dialogue was a little hard to follow, but most of the characters we thought were well drawn. It was an extreme sort of a story, but told in a very believable way. Overall we thought it was a good, compelling read, and gave it a creditable score of 8.25
