Viaduct Child

by Patrick Wood

Dushma is unregistered, something she's lived with for as long as she can remember. It means she isn't real, she counts for nothing. She can't go to school, or a hospital, or travel on public transport. She spends her days exploring London: backstreets, alleys, churches - and particularly the cathedral. It fascinates her, filled with shadowed corners and intriguing stories. Dushma has a story of her own, but it's one she doesn't know. For now she has the security of her home in the viaduct, and the dangerous charity of Auntie Megan, her only guardian. Wandering among the grim concrete pillars of a multi-storey car park, Dushma finds another misfit. Alison seems to be her opposite, a knowing rebel, full of dazzling stories of the life that Dushma is excluded from. Safe up in the viaduct, Alison's tales of adventure seem unreal. But circumstances can change with frightening speed.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[V H · Rating 4 out of 5]

A kind of believable future world. Some of the things in the book seem a bit barbaric, but some things actually seem like a good idea. The book is set in Britain and unless you're "registered" there are things you can't do. You're automatically registered if you're born to parent who are allowed to have you. If you do something wrong it's 3 strikes and you don't have your registration any more. You can't travel or get a normal job unless you're registered. If you're not registered you end up in the workhouse and you're not allowed to have kids.

The story was quite exciting. To read about how Dushma was trying to stay away from the police and how she got on with the band of outcast boys who saved her. I would have liked to learn more about the workhouse and what goes on there and also what happens to Dushma. I'm kind of hoping for a book number 2.

Dushma has a kind of issue with electricity, I don't want to go into too much detail, but I didn't really think it had too much influence over the story and I could have done without it. Part of it was okay but Wood took it a bit too far and it just made it unbelievable, I think in a way the story would have been better without it. But other than that it was a good and exciting book.

[Josie · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite books! It's so incredible - it creates an alternate world that's just enough like this one for you to get shivers as you read it. Dushma is a wonderful heroine - very likeable and seemingly normal enough, but bit by bit her past is revealed and it's intriguing. The book ends a little abruptly, and I've always wondered what happened to her afterwards, but apparently there's a sequel...

[scintillapink · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot comprehend how so very few people have read this book. I think it's very clever, entertaining and well-achieved.
Definitely one of my favourite from a collection in my country. What I hated the most, though, was that, if there was a follow-up, it is yet to be translated and released in Portugal.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Odd. Has potential to be a kind of Raw Shark Texts tale and just when it gets interesting...it ends! So..bit disappointing!

[Aparajitabasu]

DNF