The Icarus Show
The Icarus Show deals with a mystery, and a friendship that creeps up slowly from one boy’s determination to solve another student’s cryptic messages. Feathers and notes are being left in people’s bags and other places. No-one knows who has put them there, but Alex is determined to find out. Alex keeps his head down and tries to avoid being bullied. He has seen what happens to free spirits at his school. It is not a safe place to be yourself.
There’s a heavy dullness to the first part of The Icarus Show that reflects Alex’s internal life, but it is as the plot unfolds that the novel unfurls its wings and begins to take flight as he delves deeper into the identity of the flying boy.
This is a children’s book, and dark themes are dealt with, but in a subtle way. More empathic readers will grasp what is happening very early on, and long before the narrator does. Alex’s friendship with an older woman, Maisie, was also very welcome, and I enjoyed her interactions with Bogsy and the bond that developed there between two people who have known loss of different kinds and recognise each other’s pain. This novel feels timeless, there is no reference to social media or technology, really. And it works. It’s the real world, but it isn’t, things are a little cloudier within these pages. But when the clouds clear, and Icarus takes flight, what will have happened? Will anything have changed? It isn’t clear. But these things never are.
An artful, compassionate book on friendship, bullying and mental health issues.
