I’ve always had a bit of a love for Michael Marshall Smith’s work. His SF books are fantastic, and I hugely enjoyed The Straw Men, under his Crime Fiction persona of Michael Marshall. I adore his character work, though he seems to shine best when he has licence for things to get a little strange. So, I was really excited when I realised he’d donned another hat as ‘M. M. Smith’ and written a YA novel. Well, ‘Novella’ technically, but that really is just a technicality with this one.

The Strangers is a little misleading on the outside. Its short length and 11-year old protagonist could easily trick you into thinking it’s going to be superficial or simplistic, when it turns out it’s anything but. The one thing I’ve always said about MMS’s work is he writes about being drained, tired and emotionally shattered better than anyone else I can think of, and that skill is out in full force here. For all the touches of the fantastic, it’s a deeply personal and emotional book, made all the more poignant by the youth of its narrator.

The Servants tells the story of a boy named Mark, who has been forced to move from London to Brighton with his sickly mother and his new stepfather, David. Angry and frustrated, Mark finds a new perspective when he meets the old lady that lives in the flat under their house, who introduces him to the hidden world the servants had once occupied. A world that may be less confined to the past than it seems. The ghost story of the servants is intertwined with the complex relationship between Mark, David, his mother, and their own pasts, and beautifully captures the helplessness, confusion and frustration of a child who’s whole life has been upturned by things he doesn’t quite understand.

MMS captures Mark’s rage perfectly, putting the reader in an interesting position of sympathising with him while knowing things are not quite the way they might seem. As the book progresses, hints of the greater complications in his situation are carefully woven in in ways that we can pick up on even if Mark doesn’t. Childish stubbornness mixes with denial and his genuine incomprehension, and before the end I found myself feeling for Mark’s loathed stepfather as much as I did for Mark. There are points where it becomes simply heartbreaking. Like the later books of A Series of Unfortunate Events, it’s one of those rare children’s books with an overarching message of “There’s always more to what is happening than you understand.”

Alongside the real-world story, of tiny battles over diet coke and take away food, and musings over falling off skateboards, MMS also introduces us to the mysterious world of the servants. If I had one criticism on this book, it’s that I wish there’d been more time spent there. When I first finished the story I was a little dissatisfied with the glimpses of the ghostly world but on reflection, it’s used in an incredibly clever way, leading to an intensely personal and emotional little novel. What we do get is vivid and intriguing, snapshots of the inner working of a historical house and glimpses of the drama inside and above that grows into something more fantastic again.

Metaphors and clever narrative techniques aside, the prose is rich, vivid and engaging. While it’s told in 3rd person, it’s heavily influenced by Mark’s thoughts as it paints the faded glory of Brighton and the claustrophobic strangeness of the world under the stairs—evocatively tapping into the way a person’s inner thoughts can soak through all their experiences. MMS is on top form emotionally, and also keeps a spark of wit and humour going throughout that stops it ever getting too cloying. The whole thing adds up to a sad, strange but beautiful little novel that I’d recommend to anyone, not just YA readers.

You can read a sample chapter of The Servants on its Amazon page, here.

I just got featured over at the NICALiS Cave Story blog. Go check it out, and the rest of the featured artists. There’s some killer work there and I’m honoured to be a part of it.

Interview Go!

Things have been a little mental lately, but back to say hi again and give you some rambling updates.

MG&GL has been going pretty well so far, although the slow speed I’m able to work on it is being a little excruciating. Jack and I actually have quite a lot of story planned out for the thing that I can’t wait to get to. And in the mean time it’s been fun to draw, and an interesting challenge adapting his prose into single-page suitable scripts (when I’m much more used to working long-form.) (more…)