The Drowning Of Arthur Braxton ~ Caroline Smailes
The Drowning of Arthur Braxton by Caroline Smailes is on my required reading list for this year. I read this book for the first time four years ago when I was in my first year of A-Levels. This book honestly took my breath away the first time around and I went into my second read wondering whether it would have the same effect. I was not disappointed, to say the least. Smailes has written this book so beautifully that you feel transported into the action. Her descriptions and her character development are so detailed that you feel like you’ve been to the places she is describing and that you’ve met all of the characters in real life. This woman has a pure gift meaning that this book still is on my top 10 of all time.
This book follows a young lad called Arthur Braxton. Arthur is having trouble at home after his mum left and trouble at school also. He’s being bullied. Everyone thinks his Dad is gay hence why his mum left. Now there’s an embarrassing photo being spread around school and Arthur has had enough. He starts skipping school and running away to an abandoned building. The building used to be an old Edwardian bathhouse now closed being left to rot. In this derelict building known as The Oracle, he stumbles upon a naked girl swimming in one of the pools. After this moment his life is never the same. The Drowning of Arthur Braxton is such an accurate account of the troubles that adolescences go through and how your first love can have such a grave effect on your life. It is such a dark and agonising modern-day fairy tale layered with elements of magical realism.
Despite the title of this novel. This is not just Arthur’s story. Throughout the book, we get glimpses of the other characters lives aswell. From Laurel, Delphina, Silver, Maddie, Kester, Pollock and even the school bully Tommy. We get a glorious insight into all their lives which helps weave the past and present together finally drawing a much larger picture as everything comes to fit at the end. I loved the way that Smailes used different writing styles with some of the characters. Mostly their points of view were written in standard prose, however, some were written in verse, news headlines and my favourite in a script layout. Delphina’s chapters really brought the action to life because you were able to follow the stage directions also, which helped me visualise everything so much more vividly in my mind.
I love the parallel Smailes creates from the gritty realism to the retelling of classic Greek myths. Her portrayal of teenage life is spellbinding and really resonated with me. I felt I connected with each individual story in one way or another. Even with the characters, I didn’t quite like. Everything was justified, you could see the heartache some had gone through which explained the decisions they had made. I think Arthur’s character is such a brutal depiction of teenagehood that anyone reading could relate to it somewhat.
This book definitely blew me away not just the first but the second time around as well. I would honestly recommend this read to anyone. Also, I am more than excited to see the movie adaptation that has been in the pipelines for years now being directed by Youtuber Luke Cutforth. I just hope they do the book justice.
This book 100% deserves a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating!
M 🌸
