Year 7 Book Review - Goodnight, Boy by Nikki Sheehan - Reviewer Manahil Year 7

“Goodnight, Boy” by Nikki Sheehan

“Goodnight, Boy” is a story of a young boy named JC and a dog named Boy. It’s a story of two different worlds and emphasises hope, loss, love, and forgiveness. 

JC is a boy who has lost his family while living in a rough country, and when an earthquake turns his country to dust, JC thinks all hope is lost. But when he meets a doctor named Melanie who has come to his country to help people, he doesn’t know his life’s about to change. He gets to go home with Melanie and live with her and her husband, who is really bad-tempered, and everything is fine until Melanie has to leave for some time, and JC does something bad - the worst thing he’s ever done in his life. He is banished to live in the dog kennel with his best friend, Boy, and spends his hours and days telling his story to him, hoping he’ll soon be let out.

My favorite character in the story is probably JC because he is a tough boy who, despite losing everything, still tries to help himself and people around him. He is caring and makes the best of situations, even if they are the darkest problems. The story and the characters felt so real, the story kept me guessing and as the puzzle of the book fit together, my fingers couldn’t stop turning the pages, I was that eager to find out what would happen. It’s sad to know that a boy has to act grown-up in his childhood, and that he grew up in an environment which was dangerous and hard to cope with. A part of the story I particularly liked was near the ending of JC’s story, when he explained the reason for his banishment because it was tense and I felt dragged into the drama and the atmosphere of the scene.

I think the most unique fact about “Goodnight, Boy” is that it isn’t written line after line. It’s written creatively in a poetic sort of way and it brings the feeling that you can actually hear the conversation between JC and Boy, and I like this because it stretches my mind more and allows me to think of the story and guess what could happen next. However, the thing I didn’t like as much would be the fact that the story didn’t really explain what happened to some characters, so it was sort-of a cliffhanger, which can make the reader start wondering what would have happened to a specific character. It can confuse a reader sometimes.

Overall, “Goodnight, Boy” is a highly recommended book for young adult readers and it is simply stunning. It’s so unique and gives the lesson that hope is really important at rough times, and that’s sometimes all you need.

Publisher: Oneworld Publications 
ISBN: 9781786072108 
Number of pages: 352