Stand Up Ferran Burke

by Steven Camden

Genres: Contemporary

432 pages, Paperback

Published May 11, 2023

About the author

Steven Camden is one of the most acclaimed spoken-word artists in the country. As Polarbear, he has performed extensively around the UK and internationally. He also writes plays, teaches storytelling in schools, and was a lead artist for Ministry of Stories and The Roundhouse poetry collective.

Reviews

[Lio · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a lovely and well written story following a boy through his entire time at secondary school. I loved how we really got to see Ferran grow and learn in the kind if long-term coming of age story that seems pretty rare these days, and step into himself and develop his sense of self.

The other characters were interesting too - I especially liked Emile, Michelle, Cello and Patrick. Others lacked depth, like the boys Ferran hangs out with and doesn’t actually like. Other than them being popular and always with the girls Ferran liked, I never really understood why he hung out with them for so many years. I’d have liked to have seen him maybe reunite with the two boys he first made friends with in Year 7, but they were never mentioned again after he ditched them.

The ending also felt rushed and abrupt — Ferran’s mum’s cancer came out of nowhere and was over in a few pages, and the cafe was conveiniently saved by his Dad’s record break. I’d have liked to have seen more community effort in saving it maybe, and also Michelle and Cage actually coming to the party, and Ferran also inviting Cello too and opening up more to others about his background and cultural identity.

The main thing that let this book down though was the punctuation and speech formatting - it was a terrible mess throughout. This author just doesn’t know how to use punctuate dialogue at all and it was frustrating to read until I trained my brain to try and ignore it. There were also a lotttt of spelling errors and typos throughout - this book needs another run through with a better copy editor.

[Carole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this YA verse novel. It follows Ferran from Year 7 through to finishing high school. Things are not easy for him: he is expected to live up to his talented older brother, is struggling through puberty, is bullied by some of the 'in crowd', and his parents are separating. I thought the author nailed the teenage voice, and I liked the references to music of the time. The only thing I didn't like was the use of Mom instead of Mum throughout the book. It is set in the UK, so I thought this was a really odd editorial decision and found it annoying. Other than that, this is a book that I will be recommending to lots of my students.

[Andrea Barlien · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really interesting verse novel about growing up and going to school in the 90s West Midlands. Ferran, his brother Emile and dad Theo are ‘in the house’ - mum is living with Michael, the girl Ferran likes is with someone else and his ‘misfit’ friends. The book charts Ferran’s school years from Y7-Y11. It’s about family, food and ‘finding your tribe’. Music is at the heart of each section and it captures a strong sense of the zeitgeist.
For KS4 readers and upper KS3

[Amey Alejo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this, it was so damn good I loved every second of it
Steven Camden did well with this, it was written really well and just was very moving and emotional

[♡ India ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stand Up Ferran Burke has a similar energy to The Perks of being a Wallflower, and I love that book, meaning I expected to really like this one as well. I definitely did to an extent; it was an authentic presentation on growing-up in a unique format (verse) that carried quite a lot of meaning that it wouldn't of otherwise had. I found myself bookmarking a few pages (or otherwise 'passages' that resembles poems) to read back on later because of how touching and beautifully-written they were. The main character Ferran was someone I could easily root for too, and his growth was lovely to read. Coming-of-age stories are right up my alley so no surprise I enjoyed this one a lot on that aspect.

But oh my god the ending... it was rushed and there were too many loose ends; it did a disservice to Ferran's storyline which deserved a more satisfying and purposeful conclusion. This was especially upsetting since we followed him for five years, yet we gained barely any closure on him and many of the supporting characters, most of which I came to care about. And quickly speaking of supporting characters, some of them were just plainly weird and the book treated their behaviour as if it were fine... cough Kayla cough. But worst of all, the whole plotline this book founded itself on — Ferran feeling unable to leave the shadow of his brother — also gets this same treatment. This was personally so frustrating and severed my growing love for this book.
The pacing was unbalanced as well; Ferran's first three years in highschool fly by, whereas his 4th and final years get a lot more attention. This may have been done intentionally for symbolic purposes, but personally it threw my reading experience off.
And also I found quite the handful of spelling and grammatical errors. Please, let's invest more in proofreaders.

It sucks since the worst part about Stand Up Ferran Burke was the end, meaning it's difficult to think about this book without being reminded of its not so good parts that were the last things I read. However, there were some undeniably very good parts, and I still appreciate this for them, enough so that I would still recommend this to people who enjoy these type of books with a heads-up on the ending.