Out of Shadows

By Jason Wallace

One naïve English boy, one proud bully and one mixed school. All leads to disaster. This book is about a boy called Robert Jacklin who is forced to move from his safe home in England to a country he knows nothing about: Zimbabwe 1980's. The war has come to a stop but not for Ivan. Ivan one of the many angry white boy's in the cou

ntry seeking for revenge. Robert Jacklin boards at an all boys school, a school of mixed race - white and black. Wanting to fit in Robert soon makes friends with the school bully, Ivan. Little does he know that this just makes his life a whole lot harder! Throughout the book Robert is convinced by Ivan to do things he never would have never even thought of doing, and they're not very pleasant.

I thought the characters were very well written. Especially Ivan, he was a very clever, cunning, evil and confusing character. He would never do what you think he's about to do. Imagine the most horrific thing and double it and that's was Ivan is like. The part where they berry Nelson in the sand I was just expecting Ivan to leave him there over night but as always he went one step further and put a massive scorpion down his pants! I was shocked as I read that bit, I'd never heard of anyone doing something that terrible.

I liked the way Wallace wrote the book in terms of Robert's years at school e.g: first form, fifth form etc. It also interesting to see Robert changing as he grows older. From first from to fifth form there was a massive change in his attitude to life. He didn't care about getting picked on (probably because he was the one picking on other children!) his attitude towards Ivan changes as well. In the first form he's always trying to impress Ivan, and get him to like him but in the fifth form he doesn't really care at all because he feels like part of the gang quite naturally (like he's been trained hoe to be 'the gang'!)

I thought the plot was very gripping, because Wallace puts in a few hints here and there, that something massive is going to happen at the end. However the ending part where Ivan is trying to shoot the prime minister is a bit of a let down. I'm not quite sure what, I was just expecting something a bit more. It was very effective at the very end when he's an adult returning to Africa after having moved back to England for his new life. I thought it was clever how he met Weekend again and still felt the same emotions as when he did when he was a boy, even though it had been about 10 years since he last saw him.

Overall I thought it was a very clever book, mainly because the way the school boys are portrayed is horrific. The way they fight over anything and everything. It's a very powerful novel.

By Louise Year 8