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Rated The Dead Fathers Club 6/10

The story of an 11 year old boy after his father dies. The story uses a unique story telling device where it's told from the boys mind (or imagined diary), but the result is a stream of consciousness, littered with rule-breaking authoring techniques. <br/><br/>I can imagine this method coming off as forced or trite. But Haig's book manages to execute really well.<br/><br/>There's some vivid scenes of loss that touch my own personal childhood, remembering my own mother in the early chapters. <br/><br/>The boy himself believes he's being visited by his deceased father who asks him to enact revenge for his recent death. <br/><br/>The boy, Philip, struggles with his own confused feelings of being a boy, being 11 and starting to see more of the world, and being thrown into a new family structure. It's all too much for him.<br/><br/>Being inside his head you can understand his actions, and it makes me wonder about how we judge someone from the outside who behaves so oddly or "badly".<br/><br/>Ultimately we're left to decide for ourselves whether the boy is really seeing ghosts, though one thing is clear by the end: he'll need counselling to get through the next 15 years.<br/><br/>A good, fast, little read, perfect for holiday reading.

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Published 2026-08-01 11:12 UTC · bridged from Atmosphere