Face

Product Information

Overall Face is a very good book I would recommend to anyone who wants to read a moving story that’s stand up against social norms. Like Refugee Boy that I also listened to recently, Face was brilliantly read by Ben Bailey Smith, who moves seamlessly in and out of a London accent.

You have to be careful what you say and who you say it to on the streets of Martin's neighbourhood - not that Martin is particularly racist: 'I ain't got nothing against blacks, they're just different, they dance different and everything. I wanted to know more about Martin because I never felt like I got a good grasp of who he is and his personality. When he finds out that his girlfriend and bestfriends had moved on, he realises that for some people life isn't always easy. He doesn't know the car is stolen though, and it isn't a ride home, it's a ride to self-destruction. He lives in the 'new East End' where there is a difficult brew of white, Caribbean, African and Asian families.I thought that they were interesting and unique characters and I would have loved to learn more about them. Face was okay, but it wasn’t Zephaniah’s best – it was a little too preachy, too much like a moral tale, and it took me a while to get into it. Even in the scene when he looked at his horribly burned and disfigured face for the first time, I was thinking more about how terrible that has to be for anyone rather than feeling especially bad that it happened to the main character, if that makes sense. This book will not only be enjoyed by teen readers for its entertaining story, but also for its statement about prejudice.

Critical reception for Face has been mixed to positive, with Booklist saying "Martin's personal growth may lack literary finesse, but his struggle to overcome adversity will still involve some readers". Through this trial he discovers who his true friends are, the difference between love and lust, and what it really means to be beautiful. It perfectly executes a change in character for Martin, who you go from having a distaste to, to supporting every step of his lifechanging journey. This book is amazing and i would recommend it to 12-15 year olds, it has comedy, romance and lots more.

This would be an excellent prompt for discussion about prejudices regarding appearance and our reaction to those less fortunate than ourselves. I read this book as an adult and compulsorily, even though I would say it would be a great piece of reading for a teenager. It was a good base but there wasn't a lot of depth in the characters, there was a lot of telling and not showing (which was the biggest problem in my opinion. Zephaniah shows the different ways in which the society/world reacts to huge physical changes and how difficult it can be to cope with it.