Naked by Kevin Brooks

Verdict: 3/5 stars

London, 1976: a summer of chaos, punk, love . . . and the boy they called Billy the Kid.

It was the summer of so many things. Heat and violence, love and hate, heaven and hell. It was the time I met William Bonney - the boy from Belfast known as Billy the Kid.

I've kept William's secrets for a long time, but now things have changed and I have to tell the truth. But I can't begin until I've told you about Curtis Ray. Hip, cool, rebellious Curtis Ray. Without Curtis, there wouldn't be a story to tell.

It's the story of our band, of life and death . . . and everything in between.

This characteristically gripping novel from award-winning author Kevin Brooks will rock you to the core.

*This review contains spoilers*

So I’ve just finished the book Naked by Kevin Brooks. 

I’ll say this though, first off, I thought the MC was a boy. Brooks didn’t drop enough hints and then I was all ‘who the hell calls a boy ‘Lilibet’?’ then I realised she was a chick. I then hoped it’d be some kind of gay romance, but stiffed again. She was wearing a dress. I was screwed. It took me a couple of pages to get over it, but once I did I suppose she was an alright girl although I don’t think it would’ve been the same had it been written by a woman.  

I loved when it was set. It’s about the punk movement from the 1970s and here we are with Lili as she’s smack bang in the middle of it. I even started listening to the Sex Pistols whilst reading even though they suck. It was cool to see real characters pop up in there -- Johnny Rotten, Vivienne Westwood -- although none of them ever said anything (you need permission for that stuff don’t cha?) they were just kind of there. I felt disappointed a couple of times that there wasn’t more about them, but I suppose they were real and we can’t just tarnish their characters or whatever. I felt like I wanted more than them, and they were just furniture dotted about. Undescribed and unreal. Meh. However, the different parts of London were interesting and it was pretty good to read about 1970s England. Books with English anything as a setting are becoming more and more in decline these days, so it was nice to be able to relate. 

Curtis. He’s the front of the band. He’s a bit of a douche bag but he’s kind to the MC -- Lili -- so we learn to love him. He just wants to play, and I felt as though he was very real. Very relatable. Very 70s. Very punk. Very everything. He’s always there even when Lili starts to loose interest in him as a boyfriend, and I like that he doesn’t change, just gets more crazy. It’s good. It’s real. 

William. I think, actually, I would’ve been more interested if it was his story. He came in too late. I found myself not actually caring when he dies. Partly because Lili wasn’t very good at emotionally explaining it to me, and I saw it coming a mile off because of the narration, but I just felt there could’ve been so much more to William. Unlike Curtis, he wasn’t that real. 

Lili. She’s our main character. She’s telling the story to us from 2011, looking back on the Summer of 1976. I think, as a narrator, she’s tolerable. But when you’ve got someone as awesome and interesting as William to contend with, it’s kind of hard to listen to (or read) her moping. Also, she never, ever, ever gets over William’s death. Like it’s told from 35 years later and she doesn’t nothing with her life. We don’t know what she did. We know she had a son, and that her son calls her every day, but her life is nothing without William. This was a boy she knew for the total of about a month. 35 years. Just doesn’t make sense does it? 

My main gripe with this book however was the ellipses. Yeah, you heard me. Ellipses. Everywhere. I get it, teenagers don’t finish their sentences. Does that mean you have to ellipse all the dialogue and enough of the narration to bang my head against the ground? No. To any kids out there reading and wanting to be a writer. ELLIPSES ARE BAD AND YOU SHOULD FEEL BAD. Okay? Okay. 

I found a lot of problems with this book but there was something, as with the other Brooks book I have read ‘Black Rabbit Summer’ which meant I was just unable to put it down. I wanted to keep reading. The story WAS interesting. I wanted to know if they’d make it. I was slightly disappointed when they didn’t. I recommend it if you can get over the grammar thing…