Sixteen Shades of Crazy

by Rachel Trezise

Aberalaw, a tiny South Wales village where nobody ever arrives & nobody ever leaves. The new police chief has declared war on recreational drugs, resulting in an 18-month drought. The wives & girlfriends of local punk band, The Boobs, are getting desperate for drugs & thrills. That is, until the mysterious Johnny enters their lives.

Genres: Fiction

307 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 29, 2010

Reviews

[Rhys Thomas]

If you've ever wondered what happens in the Welsh valleys then you should read this book. Full of wit and beautifully written, this is your chance of finding a great new writer.

The story is about three women who are all going out with the members of wannabe rock stars, The Boobs. The story is told from the viewpoint of these three women: a megolomaniac haridresser, a girl who wants to be a writer if she can only escape her circumstances, and a once beautiful woman imprisoned by her own fragility.

When an exotic (he's from the west country) drugdealer turns up they each of them fall for his coolness and this book examines their progress with him, whilst at the same time their deep-seated anxieties are brought to the surface.

Fantastic.

[Jeni]

Really enjoyed this accurate portrayal of life in South Wales, I think I read it at the right time of life as I often wonder what my life would be like if I'd grown up 15 miles west of Newport and beyond. It was intriguing from beginning to end. I loved the different pace of each girl's chapter and point of view.

[Tom Thornton]

I don't know what went wrong here... This started well. It started VERY well, I was preparing to declare what an excellent book this is. Then I got to chapter 8 (or thereabouts) only to find that it just falls off a cliff. That quality of the opening pages just disappears, never to be seen again. Literally in an instant it becomes less interesting, less funny and less necessary.

For me, the early pages reminded me somewhat of an old Victoria Wood monologue in the way it showed up the ridiculousness of British life in a very humorous way. It is however incredibly 'of a certain place'. I don't know how this will be received to any readers beyond Britain. I don't think international readers will understand a single thing; probably won't get the jokes or the references. And I cannot stand any writing where the accent is phonetically spelt out. If I read that a certain character is from a certain place, I will (try to) recite their dialogue in my head in that particular accent. I do NOT need the spelling of the words changed to force me in to it. For example, the word "you" is persistently spelt "ewe". It's to try and force readers to nail the Welsh accent but it actually really harms the flow and rhythm, and became very irritating, very fast. The second most annoying thing is Johnny (the character) - I always felt like the other characters were keeping a secret from me regarding what makes Johnny so interesting. It's a case of the author saying "This is the way, because I say so," rather than actually explaining the reasons why. His arrival in the plot changes the lives of the other characters but I never felt it was adequately explained what's so special about him. Given the influence he has on the story, that's a real let down. Plus the fact he comes from Cornwall is random to the point of being quite irksome - there's no logic to that decision within the framework of the wider plot, as if zero thought had gone in to it.

I have a lot of faith in Rachel Trezise as an author. Shortly before the instant decline after chapter 8 I thought "This author would be really good at short stories." I stand by that. This novel feels like a short story which got out of hand. Reading this is like being confronted by a lake which invites you to swim, only to find out the water is only knee-height in depth. It's vast and open but ultimately very shallow. This is an author who is (and can continue to be) excellent, when they find their groove within better subject matter. This sadly filtered out in to mediocrity with potential.

[Tôpher Mills]

This is a hard boiled, vivid slice of life novel. Set in the South Wales ‘Valleys’ it follows three disparate women whose lives unravel when a handsome rogue turns up in their dead end town. None of the characters are likeable or remotely sympathetic, there’s no real narrative drive and you find yourself wondering why you’re reading it, why you don’t just stop? But you can’t stop, you have to keep on till what you know will be the bitter end. Mostly that’s because of the shear power of the writing but there’s also some other unknowable quality that grabs the attention and won’t let go. It’s a dirty realist, anti-rom-com that’s hilariously tragic and utterly authentic.

[David]

Mostly fun because it was set in rural England, so the manner of speaking, and pass-times were both alien and familiar.

The story itself is meh.

[Polly James]

Dark, funny, superbly well-written: classic Trezise, in other words. I dithered about giving it five stars, but went with four in the end, due to the fact that I struggled to like the main character enough to care about what happened to her. I preferred the portrayals of some of the other characters, which were moving, but unflinchingly well-observed. Rachel Trezise is a great writer and, while I was reading the book, I'd be stopped in my tracks every now and then by the sheer brilliance of a single sentence.

[Tanja Šterman]

Lepo berljiva, a nič prav posebnega. V ospredju so tri ženske, Ellie, Siân in Rhiannon, ki jih druži predvsem to, da so partnerke članov lokalne pankerske skupine. Siân je mama treh otrok, ki ima dve službi, Ellie se pripravlja na poroko in je polna dvomov, Rhiannon je malo starejša in ima svoj frizerski salon. Ko v zakotni Aberalaw pride privlačni Johnny, prekupčevalec z drogami, se karte premešajo. Vse tri protagonistke so očarane nad njim - ... da ne povem preveč. Johnny je nekakšen katalizator, ki spodbudi dogajanje v mestu in prevetri odnose med ljudmi.

[Daniel Morgan]

I had to give this book 5 stars because I simply couldn't put it down. A great story about the stir-craziness of living in a small community whilst aspiring to something greater and what happens when something or someone disrupts the status quo; all the mistakes along the way that lead you to wherever you're going and the way different people deal with the hands they are dealt. Tremendous writing... gritty, graphic, great; anti-heroism at its best.

[Alan]

I wanted to read her stories (Fresh Apples?) because I'm paired with her at the Lancaster Literary festival Great Short Story Day. http://www.litfest.org/litfest-events/ but the library only had this novel, so I'll start with this...

[Alex]

Fast and very Welsh, I thought this was gorgeously written and equal parts fun/funny and a bit devastating. Recommend to twentysomething year old women.

[Charu Puri]

Yeah good one! Rock n roll lifestyle!

[Olwen]

The story started with some rather dark scenes, but as I read on I became more engaged with the characters. In the end it was an uplifting (kind-of) tale about people and the choices they can make.