REVIEW for Bog Child

Another shout out to Jenny for sending this book to me!! Thank you!!!

TITLE: Bog Child

AUTHOR: Siobhan Dowd

GENRE: YA

RATING: 3 Stars

I have to start off by saying that when I first read the back of this book, I was not sure how the author was going to pull off such an ambitious story.

The storyline of our main character Fergus, who is 18 years old and faced with the very harsh reality of his life makes an amazing discovery - the extremely well preserved body of a female who appears to have died in the year AD 80.

However, as I started reading the book, I got to discover who Fergus was and what he was living as an Irish boy living in Ireland at the height of the IRA. While Fergus may only be 18, he found himself having to balance his morales and principles against the every day events that surrounded him. He was also extremely worried about his older brother who was jailed as a political prisoner because of his ties to the Provisional Irish Republican Army. While his brother, who seemed to live an unrealistic life of martyrdom in jail - going on a hunger strike and making the decision to die "for his cause", Fergus had to take care of his worried parents as well as balance his desire to go to school and become a doctor.

In the midst of all this, Fergus makes the discovery of a body that has been well preserved through time and becomes obsessively involved in discovering who this person was and what her life was before her death.

This book is interesting because it uses many different styles of contrast - we see the different lives and choices that are made by the two brothers, we get to see some of the huge contasts that exist between Fergus and "Mel" the discovered girl. This novel is also about doing the right thing, standing up for your principles and being true to yourself.

Although I found the book interesting (great tidbits on many subjects I was not aware of), I also found that there was too much going on, that the storyline jumped a little too much for my taste.

Having said that however, I do believe that for most readers who enjoy this type of story, this one is worth reading.