The Innocent's Story

by Nicky Singer

When Cassina is blown up by a railway station bomb, life as she knowns it is over. Except that she doesn't die. She becomes a para-spirit - a presence that can live in other people's minds. She can see their thoughts, feel their emotions. But they have no idea that she's there.

Genres: Young Adult

218 pages, Paperback

First published October 6, 2005

About the author

Nicky has written four novels for adults, two books of non-fiction but most of her recent work is for young people. Her first children’s novel Feather Boy won the Blue Peter ‘Book of the Year’ Award, was adapted for TV (winning a BAFTA for Best Children’s Drama) and then commissioned by the National Theatre as a musical with lyrics by Don Black and music by Debbie Wiseman. In 2010 Nicky was asked by Glyndebourne to adapt her novel Knight Crew (a re-telling of the King Arthur legend set in contemporary gangland) for an opera with music by Julian Philips. In 2012 her play Island (about ice-bears and the nature of reality) premiered at the National Theatre and toured 40 London schools. She also published The Flask that year. A story about songs and souls and things which live in bottles, The Guardian called The Flask ‘a nourishing and uplifting story, with big themes and a big heart’. Nicky has recently re-written Island as a novel with illustrations by Children’s Laureate, Chris Riddell.

Reviews

[Trumpet]

The Innocent's Story is an excellent novel by Nicky Singer. Singer creatively portrayed the minds and hearts of two terrorist, one who truly wanted to kill and one who didn't, and who was haunted by his daughter's death. Singer also described the view of a mother's and father's unconditional love for their children, despite what their children do.
The Innocent's Story addresses life after death. Some people become para-spirits which live in people's minds while others go to a place that depends on love and forgiveness, even if it means forgiving the person that murdered you and your sister.
Singer led a teenage girl through dying, a new life as a para-spirit, living in a terrorist's mind, and attempting to save a young girl. With a sudden turn of events, Singer wraps up The Innocent's Story with a grand finale of family reunion and learning to live after death has struck.

[Chey]

DNF. Too much religious talk for my taste.

[Zoe]

I loved the idea of this. Thirteen year old Cassina is at the train station with her younger sister one day when they are both killed by a suicide bomber. Cassina seems to 'hover' in between life and death and has the ability to dive into other people's brains and read their thoughts - and she finds herself in the brain of her killer. This sounds like a truly unique, gripping read and I went in with high expectations.

First of all, this took a lot of concentration. There were many, MANY religious references and you really needed to focus on the story 110% to grasp any kind of understanding. I'm not usually a fan of books you have to really 'try' for but I continued with it. Around half-way through, an interesting concept turned into nothing more than a confusing and not-so-well written Sci-Fi story. It totally lost me. Totally. Another example of a fantastic idea but with a poor execution.

[Chiara Defrancesco]

Una lettura sicuramente profonda e forte. Le figure che si creano nella mente sono talvolta in grado di suscitare nel lettore dei brividi (di sorpresa, di paura, di disgusto...). Ho deciso di dare tre stelle perché alcuni aspetti del libro erano difficili da digerire, i fatti accaduti erano infatti molto forti e a tratti mi turbavano. Inoltre la storia nel suo insieme dà dei bei insegnamenti (godersi la vita finché si può, apprezzare le piccole cose ecc), ma il tutto è un po' troppo fantasioso per i miei gusti. Non nascondo che in molte parti del racconto è difficile smettere di leggere perché si vuole sapere che cosa succede: è molto coinvolgente, vorresti quasi essere lì per avvertire i personaggi. Nel complesso è stata una lettura che mi ha arricchito sotto vari aspetti, solo un po' troppo fantasioso

[Shannon]

Took long to read

[Nightinkgale]

Okay so it starts with a gripping chapter and it lures you in.

Then it gets freaky.


I enjoyed the book. It was the first one i have read of para spirits so I don't know if it was a good book in the aspect of para spirit facts.

I would like to say it was original but i have a feeling the author was writing of myths and legends which is very scary.

The themes of all the different religions started to annoy me in the middle and the which God is real theme. So that's why I only gave it 3 stars.

The ending was very vague mysterious and confusing. Saying that when you die everyone ends up at the same place and its your choice then how to feel and what you want to let go off so the ending just confused me. Also she was risen from the death and her parents didn't believe her that just sucked but that is realistic.

You have Cassina the para spirit who dies in a bombing explosion and sees her sister dies right in front of her!

You have Alkim the terrorist who can't die unless he transfers his powers

but that's enough spoilers

If you enjoy tales of the after life , religions that are mixed up , tense novels and confusing endings you can give this book a try.

=)

[Laura]

A girl gets murdered and ends up, well, not sure exactly. Yes, just like in Lovely Bones and Elsewhere, we're exploring the afterlife (or, more accurately, what happens after life) with a teenage girl as our guide (this one is set in the post-September 11th world of England with fictional terrorists). While the concepts of para-spirits and the next universe may be interesting, the book was a bit too preachy and tried to do too much.

[Sophia]

Interesting point of view as I have never heard about the idea of dying and becoming a blob of mist. This idea had a lot of potential, in either plotline or philosophy, but neither is very well developed to me. There could have been something thought provoking about being inside a suiside bomber's head but it was kinda predictable and didn't make me feel for the bomber at all. He should have just lived his life the way he wanted. His people wouldn't be able to stop him anyway.

[Tiana]

This was an alright book. Kind of a very odd concept. It is about a girl who dies and she becomes a 'para-spirit' and she can go into people's brains and hear all their thoughts and she ends up going in her murderer's head!

[Sam]

I really like this book! It instantly drew me in and I could picture myself as the main character quite easily.

[Kaye]

kinda boring. but the storyline is interesting..

[Larissa Salazar]

Good.

[Ashleycake]

love it very captavating