I am still digesting this chewy, gruesomely compelling, ambitious and ambiguous book.

Framed as a chaotic memoir, discovered after a fathers suicide. It is a tale of "Gang", 4 young boys growing up in 70s England. Think long summers, madcap adventures and bike rides, secret camps and crushes on the opposite sex. Think of dead kids, because as we are told very quickly by the end of the year two of them will be dead.

If that doesn't add a frisson of drama nothing will. The world slowly unfurls and as it deepens becomes utterly gripping.. pivotal moments hit to ensure you are going to get a bit of surprise, at least I didn't see it coming.

The writing is fantastic as usual, vivid and packing a punch, the characters are deep and fit their allotted roles. The dads may represent different ends of the spectrum but they are real dads, horrifying though that might be.

Still it's more than a dark tale, an anti-coming of age novel, it's ambitious too, Litt is doing interesting things. Not only is he is playing with childhood, with fatherhood, with summer idyll and cold war terror, looking through the dark glass at old age and the young. He is playing with narration, as 3rd person "We" slips into 1st person accounts and morphs into official Gang "reports". We get shifting tones of adults and of kids and they are unreliable narrators because it’s all dotted with contradictory facts.. except isn't this written by one person?

I can see how this could end in frustration not delight, the shifting sands are jarring and you might feel the book isn't hanging together. For me it gave a nice(?) edginess and is needed to prepare for end.

Highly recommended. This is a gripping, utterly compelling, humorous, disturbing and intriguing tale. This is not for the squeamish nor for those who need neat plots.

PS Now I hear it’s been adapted for a play. I have no idea how they are going achieve the same effect, but I cannot wait to find out.

PPS. You know dead kid songs is an actual collection of 428 poems put to music? go google Kindertotenlieder.. ( )

England in the 1970's, a small village in the countryside. Four young boys in a gang, spending their summer holidays climbing trees, building fires and making base camps. So far, so idyllic. But lurking inside this seemingly innocent, utopian existence is something very,very dark indeed.
For a start, the spectre of the Cold War is hanging over their lives, and the boys are constantly on the look-out for places from which they can pick off advancing "Russkis". They wear a khaki uniform and have a fascination for all things military. They are obssessed with War which they regard as the best kind of human endeavour, and secretly have disdain for most of the adults that surround them for being weak.The exception to this is their leader - the father of one of the boys - the "Major General", also known as "the Best Father", who is in fact anything but. He is the evil at the heart of this novel, and all the terrible deeds done, hinted at, or considered in it can be traced back to him.
This book works quite well as a study of the psychological ripple effect of domestic trauma and of innocence corrupted. It is well written and has an interesting narrative structure, with multiple narrators speaking in both first and third person. It also works as a very dark black comedy for large stretches of the book. I guess my only problem is that when the unpleasantness starts, it gets very unpleasant indeed. Often the truly awful things are only hinted at, or only the aftermath is described, which somehow makes it all the worse in the imagination of the reader. I found myself racing through this book just to see if my worst fears about what would happen would be realised. I won't spoil the ending, but let's just say that by then there has been a great deal of nastiness that leaves a rather sour aftertaste that lingers long after the book has been put down. If that sounds like your cup of tea, then this book has much to recommend it. Just don't say you weren't warned... ( )

Een recensent schreef: "je vereenzelvigen met de personages is niet moeilijk". Dat vind ik echter wel. Of zijn de gruweldaden die ze begaan, enkel gebeurt in hun fantasie? ( )

Please don't read Deadkidsongs, Litt's third novel about four little boys who form a gang, unless you have a very strong stomach. It certainly makes you want to ask what kind of warped imagination comes up with a story as violent as this? I actually read much of it in the back of taxis and nearly caused an accident a couple of times when I screamed out loud.

I feel the book must owe something to Lord of the Flies. ( )