Branded

by Robert Swindells

Dale's older brother has been convicted of killing five women. The family are branded forever as relatives of a murderer - they're forced to change their names, move away and start new lives. That's bad enough, but Dale is also afraid that he might take after his brother and turn into a monster too. Then the family's new-found peace is threatened when a tabloid journalist gets on the trail - and all Dale's fears are put to the test.

Genres: British Literature, Young Adult, Read For School

160 pages, Paperback

First published March 31, 2005

About the author

Robert Swindells was born in Bradford in 1939, the eldest of five children. He left the local Secondary Modern School at fifteen to work as a copy holder on the local newspaper. At seventeen he enlisted in the RAF and served for three years, two in Germany. On being discharged he worked as a clerk, engineer and printer until 1969 when he entered college to train as a teacher having obtained five 'O' levels at night-school. His first book 'When Darkness Comes' was written as a college thesis and published by Hodder and Stoughton in 1972. In 1980 he gave up teaching to write full time. He likes travelling and visits many schools each year, talking and reading stories to children. He is the secutatry of his local Peace Movement group. Brother in the Land is his first book for Oxford University Press. He is married with two grown-up daughters and lives in Bradford.

Author description taken from Brother in the Land.

Reviews

[Chella · Rating 1 out of 5]

Han har pratade värre om Sally än han gör om sin bror som mördat och våldtagit 5 kvinnor

[Saga · Rating 1 out of 5]

Minns inte mycket av den här boken, nästan inget alls. Gissar därför att den inte var särskilt bra.

[Jeedge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing special. Short and sweet, but not overly sweet.

[Milli Friberg · Rating 1 out of 5]

intressant konsept men väldigt tråkig

[zack · Rating 3 out of 5]

See, I picked this one for class as our current theme was crime and I was sick when we picked books, so this was one of the only two options left, and the other one was bright pink with a pair of high heels and red lipstick on the cover and I instantly grabbed this. I can be a bit silly like that, I suppose. Either way, I wasn't expecting to enjoy this at all and I groaned loudly as I sat down next to my friend, who'd picked the same book as me as it was the only left at all by then. I wouldn't say it's anywhere near the best book I've read or so, because it's not. But it still managed to catch my attention a lot because the subject was one of the most interesting I've read, I really believe it is.

Perhaps not as brutal or intense as Dale, I think a lot of people can relate to him. Not everyone has an older brother who has raped and murdered young women like they're nothing but objects, but I could relate to the fear of being like someone in my family simply because we're family, y'know? I'm hoping I don't have any rapists or murdered in my immediate family, but I'm from a working class family after all, a working class family with barely no money at all, and none of the adults that have been parental role models for me have had proper jobs in years. I fear becoming like that because my family is like. I might be stupid for relating to Dale, the brother of a rapist/murderer, for this reason as it might seem like two completely different things, on completely different levels, but that's how I was able to connect with the main character.

I thought it was very interesting to see Gavin's /brother/ struggle with guilt and fear. Not Gavin himself like in so many books about rapists or murderers feeling guilty about what they've done. Dale hasn't done anything else than being related to Gavin. He has to move away from his town because everyone knows him as the brother of that guy who raped and murdered three innocent girls and nobody's letting their kids close to him - nor his younger sister, who's about seven or so. Her best friend is told not to play with her anymore. That's how shoved out of the community this family get because of Gavin's crimes. It's nice to read it from that point of view because I feel like it rarely happens. The criminal's family is usually just background characters. Here Gavin is the background character because it isn't about his crimes or that he's showing remorse for what he's done, because he's not - but it's about how his brother, and the rest of his family, struggle to keep going knowing what he did, trying to remind themselves that /he/ did it, not them.

To sum it up, it was really fascinating to read from Dale's point of view and I really enjoyed it, so it was definitely a book that took me by surprise as I though it'd be quite rubbish. So, I'm glad that I picked this one because it also reminds me that it's about the criminal - not his family. Unless it's a family thing, of course, but you get what I'm trying to say here. Dale and his sisters aren't going to do the same things as Gavin did. Because /Gavin/ did those. but how do you tell yourself that when everyone seems to think you're a monster too, whilst you're struggling with wondering if you're capable of being a monster because your brother turned out to be one?

[Grigor Martirosyan · Rating 3 out of 5]

i didn't read the book and i do not know how to read ! hmmmm

[Frida Tivedal]

Läst igen pga skola.