What I Was by Meg Rosoff

I finished reading What I Was last night. If it were scratch and sniff, it would smell of sea air, seaweed, and bangers and mash (a delish British meal for my friends across the pond).

I absolutely loved Rosoff’s crunchily fabulous How I Live Now (as you can see from this review) and finally got around to reading this little gem about a boy who’s carted off to a boarding school on the south coast and comes across the mysterious Finn, a boy with no past and a stroppy cat. It’s about friendship, love, a real coming of age treat with a fab ending.

What I adore about this book is the voice. We writers always hear agents and publishers talk about an author needing to have a standout voice. Rosoff is the author that comes instantly to mind when I think about this. Her writing style is a dream – I wanna wrap myself up in it and sail away! She’s funny, ironic – the main character throbs off the page, dry wit and all. To give you an example of voice (not the best example – I’m a very naughty reviewer and haven’t bought a copy in with me today but found some extracts online) here’s a passage to whet your appetite.

‘Did I mention that St. Oswald’s was my third school? The first two asked me (not entirely politely) to leave, owing to the deplorable nature of my behaviour and grades. In my defence, I’d like to point out that my behaviour was not deplorable if by deplorable you mean rude, belligerent, violent and antisocial—setting fire to the library, stabbing or raping a teacher. By deplorable they meant “less than dedicated to study,” “less that competent at writing essays,” “less than interesting to the head and the board of governors.” Given my gentle failings, their assessment strikes me now as unnecessarily cruel, and makes me wonder how they labelled the student who opened fire with an AK-47 in the middle of chapel.’

This is by no means the best example, there’s many more. Anyway, as is the case with my reviews, I end now, very quickly, offering you just a teensy morsel of this utterly wonderful book. Go buy it! Now!!!