Play Book Tag discussion

Carry Me Down by M.J. Hyland - 1* - My Review

Eleven-year-old John has the mind of a young child and the body of an adult. He is almost six feet in height and his voice is changing. He is bullied at school. He and his parents live with his paternal grandmother, but she is tired of supporting them. The father is not working and hasn’t had a job in three years. The storyline follows this troubled child. His parents keep sending him to the doctor or to “talk with someone,” which he resents. He is obsessed with the Guinness Book of World Records and plans to be famous one day. He thinks he is a human lie detector and gets upset when he catches people lying.

This is a disturbing story. There is something “off” about the main character, and I am not sure exactly what the author intended. My take is that he is slowly unraveling mentally but the reasons for this are unclear. This is what I call a misery book. There is nothing even remotely positive in the entire narrative. John encounters one horrible experience after another. As a warning, there is an appalling scene of animal cruelty near the beginning. Parts of this made me feel physically ill. It made for some very unpleasant reading.

I found this very disturbing when I read it. I must have read it about 15 years ago now, but I still remember strongly disliking it.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one. It is somehow on the Boxall List and was nominated for a Booker. I have no idea why.