Black Rabbit Summer
Black Rabbit Summer is a thriller by British writer Kevin Brooks and is aimed primarily at young people. It was published in the UK in 2008 and appeared on dtv in Germany in 2009 .
content
The main character is sixteen-year-old Pete, who lives at home in a small English town for the summer holidays. After the summer vacation he wants to switch to a secondary school. One evening Nicole calls, a former friend he went to school with and with whom he used to do a lot. She wants to go to Paris with her parents after the holidays and asks Pete if he wants to meet up with her and a few other friends from before. They arrange to meet for the coming weekend in their old hut in the forest, which they built in their youth, where they want to have a drink together and then go to the fair .
On that day, Pete, Nicole, their brother Eric, his acquaintance Pauly and Raymond, Pete's best friend whom he brings with him, meet. Pete and Nicole initially stay two in the hut, while the other three go to the fair earlier. After an argument, Pete and Nicole go to the fair individually. Pete sets out to find Raymond, who has always seemed a bit awkward and who has been bullied by most of the others for his simplicity . He worries about him and blames himself for letting him go alone. Pete wanders around alone drunk and finds Raymond in the arms of Stella Ross, a local celebrity who pokes fun at Raymond by flirting with him during a documentary being made about her. Pete intervenes angrily and is able to free him from Stella's arms. Together they run through the amusement park until Raymond wants to see a fortune teller . When Pete comes back from going to the toilet, his friend has disappeared. He looks for him in vain until late at night, then falls asleep drunk on the stairs in front of Nicole's house, where they actually wanted to meet again after the fair. On the way home, he passes Raymond's house, where he finds his black rabbit dead - Raymond is still missing.
The next morning he learns from his father, a police officer, that in addition to Raymond, Stella is also missing that night. Pete is supposed to stay at home to be available for questions. Nevertheless, he sneaks out to look for Raymond, fearing that the celebrity Stella could get more attention and that the search for the outsider Raymond will not be taken so seriously. He walks through last night's locations and tries to meet up with friends from the previous day. On his tour he is followed, caught and beaten by a local group of thugs. He later sneaks into Nicole and Eric's house through an open back door to talk to them about the incident, but finds no one. In the house he is caught by the leader of the thugs group. Surprised to see him here of all people, after Eric later also enters the room, he is coaxed into the fact that both of them have a homosexual relationship. Through tips from Pauly and information from his father, who was withdrawn from the case due to bias, Pete finds out that the two homosexual boys with Pauly and Stella had entered an abandoned factory building that night - at Stella's request because they were behind the secret of the both came and she blackmailed them. Pauly was only taken away because he could not be dismissed. In an argument with Stella, Pauly finally pushes Stella away, she falls unhappy and dies when her head hit a metal part. When confronted on the phone, Pauly admits everything to Pete and announces his suicide. Pete tries to ride his bike to him, but only finds him hanged. The book ends with Nicole and Pete getting closer at the end of the vacation and being in a relationship. Her family had to stay in England because her brother was being investigated. The fate of Raymond, however, is not clarified and remains open.
Reviews
- Franz Birkenhauer from sf-magazin wrote in October 2009 among other things: " For Kevin Brooks, the crime thriller is a vehicle for painting inner worlds and social constraints. Then he doesn't need to gloss over what is sometimes not beautiful ..... The only annoying thing is the unspeakable Format "flap brochure", a kind of inflated paperback that lies like a brick in the hand. "
- The Guardian from Great Britain says: " This is a fast-paced, breathtaking story, which gets you hooked about 10 pages in. I recommend it to anyone who likes crime fiction and is over the age of 12/13 ...." (This is a fast-paced, breathtaking story that captivates the reader after 10 pages. I recommend it to anyone over 12/13 years old who likes crime fiction.)
- Heike Rau from the reading magnifying glass draws the conclusion: " ... even as a reader you have to nibble on the course of the story. You long for a positive outcome but you suspect that it can't be. The book is very, very good thoughtful. "
literature
- Kevin Brooks: Black Rabbit Summer . 2008, ISBN 978-3-423-24775-7 .