‘Kidulthood’ is based on the screenplay of the film of the same name, and it shows. At 117 large-printed pages this is the shortest so-called novel I’ve read in a long time: at my estimate it comes in around 15,000 words which barely qualifies it as a novella. The premise of containing the action almost entirely in one day (barring an opening chapter leading up to Katie’s suicide, and a brief five-years-later epilogue) is obvious dramatic compression. I’m not of an age nor in a position to say how accurate this portrait of a inner-London school is accurate: no doubt events such as these do happen, though whether compressed in such a small space and time is another question. ‘Kidulthood’ certainly doesn’t spare its readers much in the way of sex, drug use and violence. The film on which this is based is restricted to those aged fifteen and over, and I’d imagine most teachers and parents would not welcome anyone much younger than that reading this. It’s a short, quick read but it seems a little skeletal and ultimate seems to make little point.

A brief note. Noel Clarke (better known as an actor: Mickey in ‘Doctor Who’ amongst others) wrote the screenplay of ‘Kidulthood’. His is the only name on the cover and title page, but the copyright notice and the “about the author” section at the end reveal that this novelisation is in fact the work of Jim Eldridge.

Gary Couzens was born in 1964 and lives and works in Aldershot. He has had twenty short stories accepted by F&SF, Interzone, The Third Alternative, Peeping Tom and other magazines, plus a large number of articles and reviews in The British Fantasy Society Newsletter, Zene and elsewhere. He has three novels in varying stages of completeness and has just started his fourth.

© 2006 Laura Hird All rights reserved.