2008-02-13 Hideous Kinky - interesting read

I found this to be an interesting novel to read. It's the story of two little English girls who have been taken to Marrakesh by their mother, and a series of incidents unfolds around the family until they eventually return to England having run out of money and with no other means to survive.

The book doesn't really read like a four year old child speaking although it is the younger of the two sisters who speaks throughout in it. It reads more like an adult's memories of being a young child in that situation and in that context is quite believable and very well written. I found I kept picking the book up to read some more and when I'd picked it up couldn't put it down!

I had already seen the film by the time I read the book and found the general poverty in which the family were living to be so overwhelming that I couldn't bear to watch it. However reading the book this doesn't come across in the same way and it's a much gentler read. You are aware constantly, however, of the terrible risks the young woman takes the whole time with herself and her children and that does come across particularly towards the end of the book.