Trouble: A memoir

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Trouble is so amazing. I seriously can't praise it enough. I find it difficult accepting that this in Non Pratt's debut novel. It reads like she has been doing this for years. Her incredible writing completely captures you and pulls you in at the start and won't let you go until you have demolished the book. Trouble is told from split perspectives from our two lead protagonists, Hannah and Aaron. Non completely nailed split perspectives. Both characters voices were superb and there was no 'hang on who is speaking here' confusion that sometimes happens in split perspective novels. She completely nailed them both and made the characters voices so authentic. The writing really is phenomenal. Despite my quibbles, I thought this was a very good book, and would recommend it to older readers who enjoy reading twists on more controversial topics. I appreciate the ambiguity, especially towards the end. Pratt leaves Hannah and Aaron’s relationship status up in the air. They are friends, yes. More than that? Hard to say. Maybe. Trouble’s ending really only marks the beginning of the next chapter in Hannah’s life (and the life of her new baby). Rather than providing a trite epilogue, Pratt firmly reminds us that life gives no assurances: Hannah is only fifteen; there is so much more that will happen to her, good and bad.

There were people besides just Aaron who stood by Hannah when she got outed. She had other friends. One of my fascinations with Northern Ireland in the 1970s and 80s is how it became a place where different rules applied, where reality itself seemed up for grabs. Nowhere was this more the case than the “Provisional Republic” of South Armagh, AKA Bandit Country, with its handmade “sniper at work” signs and its community militias all surveyed by the watchtowers and helicopters of the British army. Toby Harnden’s book is a compulsively fascinating tour of this alternative universe. I've said before that I find British young adult contemporary novels to be much gritter than their American counterparts. Although I love the 'really cute' or 'really sad' contemporary novels that I tend to go for, Trouble is neither. It's a brilliantly written and wonderfully authentic and realistic novel to add to the top of the pile of this increasingly popular genre. It's also interesting to see just how different the two covers are. If cigarette smoke was removed from the cover for John Green's Looking for Alaska, I'd love to know what they'd make of sperm on the cover of Trouble! (I think it's a fantastic cover, by the way.). Trouble stands out because it does not shy away from the awkward, uncomfortable and often harsh reality of teenage life, but it's still funny and touching, with two endearing characters that you'll enjoy spending time with. There's Aaron. Silent and loner Aaron who thinks that by getting close to Hannah and her friends, he can forget the things that happened in his old school. Now, when Aaron found out that Hannah is pregnant, he decided to tell everyone that it's his. And why is that? Because he's stupid! Lol just kidding. But anyway, this is where my conflicting feelings starts.

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Trouble, the debut novel from Non Pratt is totally breathtaking. This is definitely one of those incredibly rare books that you find every once in a while that totally blows you away and you know that it will stay with you for a long time afterwards. I’m not one of those pearl-clutching adult readers of YA. I love to see real life situations portrayed in books for teens and I don’t care about thinking of the children or whatever. I expect young people to act like young people and that includes make less than perfect choices and mistakes and everything else. Nor do I think books have to teach lessons or guide kids in any particular direction. Well, after the whole school finds out about Hannah's pregnantcy and starts guessing who the father is. Aaron goes to her home to talk to her and ends up being the fake father. It's believeble to them because the were alone once and every guessed they had sex but they really didn't. And -- if we hadn't previously gotten the drift -- it becomes abundantly clear that Chay and Louisa (Henry and Franklin's sister) have been spending time together and are in love. One might well conclude that knowledge of this relationship has contributed to Franklin's neanderthal behavior. I adored all the characters! Trouble is told with 2 POVs, and I cared about each of the characters completely equally. I was really rooting for them all the way, and I found their story so captivating. I was hooked throughout the whole book, and found it really hard to put down, because of how much I just wanted everything to be okay! They had so much depth, and were so complex. Everything became too real, so I just didn't want the book to end!

And while it may seem that a romance might be imminent for our two main characters, that isn’t what this story is about. Instead both have much more important things to think about. And you’re going to be surprised by this… but I loved that about the story. Instead these two focus on building a true friendship. It’s feminist. If you’ve read this, you might be thinking: “What on Earth is she talking about?!”, but hear me out. It doesn't explicitly deal with gender politics. But I found that the way this dealt with issues like slut-shaming, and misogyny in sex, really opened my eyes (and will do to so many other people). Let me explain further: I found it problematic. Maybe I’m too old. But I just don’t want to read books that reinforce negative ideas. Readers deserve better. As characters, Hannah and Aaron deserved better.

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Hannah. I found myself not liking her like 70% of the time. Her promiscuousness took some getting used to, but that didn't bother me so much. It mostly had to do with the fact that she had no problem with cheating, was incredibly impulsive (not in a good way) and could be quite judgmental. Thankfully she does go through some serious character development, but boy was she hard to relate to.

A place where different rules applied … Sheep graze next to an unofficial sign in rural South Armagh in 1999. Photograph: Christine Nesbitt/AP Think that pulling out is an acceptable form of contraception (especially when their mum is a family planning worker!) There was no character development. None. While both characters issues are eventually brought to the surface, we never see them learn from them or behave differently than they did before. Plus, once all their baggage is out in the open the reader never sees the consequence of that. I wanted to see Aaron come to terms with his friends’ death and maybe make amends with Penny. I wanted to see the shit hit the fan at Hannah’s house when her family found out who the father really was. But nada. The revelation is all we get. SO. MUCH. FRIENDSHIP. This might have been one of the biggest ideas, and I loved it! It showed how much a true best friend can mean to us, and this was the aspect that really helped me. The platonic relationship between Hannah and Aaron made me realise so much about my own life, which was one fo the reasons I found this book so touching. It hit really close to home, and although this won't make it everyone's favourite book, I think it was really moving, and important for everyone.

However, I think it does everyone a dis-service when authors are straight up unthinking and irresponsible with how they write teens. The kids can be blindly ignorant but if you’re portraying parental figures as caring and involved and responsible, then you know, they should actually act that way. It was the stories they told, and the way they told them, that first got me interested in writing about those times. My father and his brothers were semi-literate, but they had such faith in language. Tellings of their times in Ireland were entirely questionable, and inevitably self-mythologising, yet there was something true in the way they owned their stories, relayed them in their own language – a polyglot of jokes, songs, random diversions, verbal sleight of hand, straight-up misinformation and pure folk poetry – that made me think of the art of storytelling as performative.

It is during the pretrial hearing, when all of this is revealed, that Dr. Sheringham's testimony also makes it crystal clear that the administration has fully sanctioned the abuse meted out upon Chay by Franklin and his cronies.Like I said before, Trouble is an amazing read. It’s beautiful, raw and very real. I loved how Non Pratt really captured the real life issues that teens go through daily. I knew quite a few people in school who were like Hannah’s friends and it’s easy how you forget things over the years. Reading Hannah’s story about her drinking, sex and smoking, honestly it made me cringe, but these are the things that happen in ever day life for some teenagers. It felt realistic, honest and it’s a brave story. I have been waiting to read trouble for a long time and I am delighted to say it didn't disappoint. Trouble is the story of Hannah and Aaron. Hannah is 15 and pregnant and Aaron is the new boy at school who pretends to be the father of her child. It was the perfect read for me for several reasons. Trouble is an extremely fun, wonderfully British and compassionate novel with a serious side. I started to read Trouble shortly before attending the Walker Blogger Night, just to see what it was like, and before I knew it, I was dropping my current book and taking it to work with me. If you enjoy young adult contemporary, you will want to have Trouble on your shelves. Everyone will be talking about this year and you won't want to miss out.