One Moment by Linda Green

EXCERPT: My name is Finn, as in Huckleberry, and there is nothing wrong with me. I know this because my dad has tried very hard to find something wrong with me, but I did OK in all the tests. It turns out I am just weird, and they don’t have a test for that yet, or, if they do, my dad hasn’t heard about it.

My surname is Rook-Carter, which also sounds weird because it is double-barreled (which is the proper way to say it’s two names stuck together). Mum said they did it so my name had a bit of her and a bit of Dad in it. Only now they’re getting divorced and they’re fighting over who I’m going to live with, so I don’t know what’s going to happen to my name. Maybe I’ll be Finn Rook on Mondays to Wednesdays, Fin Carter on Thursdays and Fridays, and Finn Rook-Carter at the weekends when I switch between them.

ABOUT THIS BOOK: Finn and Kaz are about to meet for the first time.

Ten-year-old Finn, a quirky, sensitive boy who talks a lot and only eats at cafes with a 5-star hygiene rating, is having a tough time at school and home.

Outspoken Kaz, 59, who has an acerbic sense of humour and a heart of gold, is working at the café when Finn and his mum come in.

They don’t know it yet, but the second time they meet will be a moment which changes both of their lives forever . . .

MY THOUGHTS: This is one of those reads that just rips your heart to pieces … Finn just wants everyone to be happy. He want’s his parents to stop fighting and get their ‘sparkle’ back. He want’s the bullying at school to stop. He wants to garden, and never to have to play Rugby again. He has a friend (only one), Lottie, who says that he’s weird, but ‘nice weird’. Why can’t everyone see him like that?

Kaz works in a cafe. When she meets Finn for the first time, she sees her brother Terry in him. She may have let Terry down, but she is determined not to do the same to Finn, no matter what it costs her.

The story is told from the viewpoints of both Finn and Kaz over two timelines, before and after.

I loved this book. I laughed, I cried. I felt sad, and jubilant, and angry. Why do we feel threatened by anyone who is even slightly different to ourselves? Why can’t we embrace and accept that difference? Why are humans so stubborn and dumb?

This is only my second book by Linda Green, but she is now on my ‘read everything ever published by this author’ list. Although the two books I have read have been very different, I have loved both and embraced the difference.

Author, Linda Green, is making donations from the royalties of this book to the mental health charity Mind, the Anti-Bullying Alliance,and the Trussell Trust who run many of the UK’s foodbanks.

A very enthusiastic 4 stars

‘People get less wise as they get older. I mean, children don’t start wars or kill people or get divorced, do they?’

‘The trouble with being an adult is you end up doing what is expected of you, not what you want to do.’

‘No one at school teaches you what to say when your mum is upset, only how to multiply fractions and label a Viking boat.’

THE AUTHOR: I was born in North London in 1970 and brought up in Hertfordshire. I wrote my first novella, the Time Machine, aged eight, shortly after which I declared that my ambition was to have a novel published (I could have been easy on myself and just said ‘to write a novel’ but no, I had to consign myself to years of torture and rejections). I was frequently asked to copy out my stories for the classroom wall (probably because my handwriting was so awful no one could read my first draft), and received lots of encouragement from my teachers Mr Roberts, Mrs Chandler (who added yet more pressure by writing in my autograph book when I left primary school that she looked forward to reading my first published novel!) and Mr Bird.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Quercus Books via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of One Moment by Linda Green for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads,com profile page or the about page on sandysbooksaday.com

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