GUEST REVIEW: Never Ending - Martyn Bedford

PAGES: 320
PUBLISHER: Walker Books
FORMAT: Paperback
BUY IT: Waterstones
RATING: 5 Stars

SUMMARY

How can she live with what she did? Shiv's best mate, her younger brother, Declan, died while their family were on holiday in Greece. Shiv doesn't know how to live any more - she can only feel self-hatred; she is tormented by guilt. Now she finds herself at the Korsakoff Clinic, with five other teens and young adults who are undergoing a most unorthodox therapy, which is often painful. But this is Shiv's last chance - the clinic must help her find a way to live again. But first, their methods will make her face what really happened to her brother.

REVIEW

Recently, I was lucky enough to read Never Ending by Martyn Bedford and I’ve already finished it even though I only started it on Saturday. This book follows our main character called Shiv who is tormented by her brother’s death on their family holiday to Greece. She believes that she was the cause of his death so she is checked into the Korsakoff Clinic which has unconventional therapy techniques. This book was absolutely amazing and I just loved it. Let’s get into the review.

Shiv was a good main character. She is tormented by guilt and she does a lot of crazy things throughout the whole book. I felt a lot of sympathy towards her because she had experienced such a traumatic events. The things she had to deal with at the clinic were very tough. I honestly wouldn’t be able to deal with that if I was in her circumstances.

We were learning about her brother’s death and the events that were leading up to along the novel as some chapters were set during the trip. I loved these chapters but I got slightly frustrated. When something slightly cliffhangery happened at these chapters then we would jump back to her time at the clinic and I would want to know what happened next in the other chapters. Also, we had to wait until about three quarters into the book to find out how the brother actually died and it was very annoying but it made me keep reading.

All the characters in this novel were very well developed even the ones we weren’t meant to like. I loved Declan, Caron, Nikos, Mikey and even Dr Pollard. I really loved all of them and the development that each of these go through throughout the whole book was fabulous.

The settings of this book were fabulous. Kryritos and the Korsakoff were both so interesting to read about and I found myself wanting to read both. Sometimes in the book, I wanted to go back to the other setting but for most of it I loved the setttings we were in. The way that Bedford writes it keeps you intrigued even though not much really happens for quite a lot of the start, since she is just starting at the clinic.

The readers get to know Shiv before and after her brother’s death and we all get to know Declan as a character as well which was amazing. I really learned to love him as a character and when we actually read his death I felt very sad about it even though I knew it was coming. It was great to see a teenager who had a very close relationship with her brother because in YA you don’t see that much. Their relationship was great and at times it actually reminded me of my relationship with my brother.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone especially teenagers because you don’t find a book about this topic in YA much. I think most teenagers need to know how to live with grief and guilt and this book can help you to understand them. I gave this book 4.75 stars and I really do recommend it to you all. You all need to read this book, seriously.

- Sofia.

(https://fifisofa.wordpress.com/2014/0)