Lots of complicated feelings about this book.

On the surface, it's the story of a boy who grows a second head. The scientists want to cure him, but he readjusts to life with his disability and decides that maybe a cure isn't the answer after all.

It's a (quite heavy handed) allegory for dealing with grief and trauma. Richard's grandfather, who he loved deeply, passed away in front of him a year before the start of the book. At the start of the book, he suddenly grows a second head. The second head says outrageous things, is cruel and angry and sarcastic and clever and always seems to be trying to hurt people, most of all itself.

Eventually Richard escapes the scientists, returns to nature, and in a glorious catharsis literally flies away from his pursuers, has a vision of his dead grandfather reminding him he is loved, and becomes one whole again.

So, it's very page turning. I couldn't put it down.

The book has... some uneasy messages. To pick off the easiest one, I didn't like the characature Evil Scientists, who really did just want to do Bad Things in the name of science. It makes the plot have more pace and punch, but it's a bit less nuanced to have the bad guys so clearly just Bad. And given the entire book is a heavy handed allegory, it's very hard to read as anything other than 'treatment for mental illness is done by people with their own agendas not yours, who just want to make you easy and conforming and cut away important things from your mind.' When I was younger, that was definitely a strong fear I have, now I am older and have seen the problems caused by people being afraid to get help for their mental health needs it is an uncomfortable message for a children's book.

Also, one of the overaching messages pretty much is 'you have to be less nice'. Richard learns to accept Ricci as a part of him, the quiet clever girl learns to break the rules and smash things up and swear, all of Richard's friends decide 'this trip sucks, we're going to sneak off at night into the mountains'. It was definitely shown as a Mostly Good Thing that the evil scientist got his house set on fire by the children, deliberately for revenge rather than as a consequence of just doing what they needed to do.

The ending is a bit ridiculous, necessarily so for dramatic effect, but I found my suspension of disbelief far more challenged by the idea that these children managed to catch, skin and cook rabbits in next to no time based solely on book learning, than by the idea that a boy grew a second head. After that, their ability to build a seven man raft from scratch and rustle up a hangglider in a cave while being shot at by soldiers was just fine.

And the children all felt...older than they were supposed to be, for me? I don't know, maybe I am out of touch, but the behaviours and language and issues seemed to make more sense in mid-secondary school children, and these children are definitely supposed to be last year of primary.

[There definitely seems to be a subtheme that things 'the Man' TM packages up for you as Fun are disappointing let downs. You see this when the TV crews come to the school, and the programme is edited and frustrating, and you see this when they are excited about their adventure holiday, and the white water canoeing turns out to be bobbing in a swimming pool.]

Anyway, I'm rambling about this because it gave me lots of Thoughts and Feels and Things To Ramble About, which is probably a Good Sign? ( )

As you can see from the cover that I chose, I thought this was like the DOAWK series - cartoonish looking cover - boy grows extra head - lets have some laughs as they argue. This is SO not that book. As a person with personal experience of mental illness and psychosis, I couldn't quite get a handle on what Mulligan was trying to achieve here - it seems he is talking about split personalities but he set the book in a primary school and throws in a stuttering teacher ( from a stroke no less) for comedic value? Not sure about that one. The story is basically that 11 year old Richard grows an additional head ( called Rikki) after bottling up the grief he feels after his grandfather's death. Rikki is everything that Richard is not - outspoken, obnoxious, rude but also assertive. You can clearly see a split in their personalities, and Rikki gets Richard into all sorts of trouble at school and alienates all of Richard's friends. On top of this, there is the evil Dr Warren who acts like a caring psychiatrist but has ulterior motives (i.e he wants to chop Rikki off to look into his brain.) The book ends wih Rikki/Richard running away from Dr Warren's institute with another boy who has other mental health issues. They meet up with friends at a supposed survival camp that is run-down and poorly run. They are then chased to the top of the mountain by the police (urged on by Dr Warren) where Rikki sees the ghost of his grandfather when he escapes. Mulligan seems to not know what he is writing - a book for young kids- a comedy - a ghost/horror story or a take on schizophrenia? The parents are very shallow too - I don't think he fleshed them out enough and they were not believable. The only "message" I can take from this book is, don't bottle up your grief, don't pretend people who have died never existed because it will cause you to develop schizophrenia. I'm going to see whaty one of my better reads in Year 9 thinks. ( )