Set in Antrim, Northern Ireland,
All the Little Guns Went Bang, Bang, Bang tells the story of Pearse Furlong and
May-Belle Mulholland, two eleven year olds who became friends even though they
have very little in common except for the fact that they both have a shared experience
of violent abusive parents.
If you are of a nervous
disposition this book may not be for you - it is described as a blackly comic
tale but I am not sure if there is any comedy in it, to me it reads like a
tragedy. The book disturbed me in the things that these two kids get up to, as
what started out as harmless fantasies turns into something much darker with
theft, arson, brutality and eventually much worse.
However dark the book is, it is a
sad story an shows how the society one grows up in can dictate how you turn out
– especially if there is no guidance from parents – and it does make you feel
some empathy towards Pearse and May-Belle, especially having grown up in
Northern Ireland and seeing the damage that was done in the past and how it
affects the future for the people who have been directly or indirectly involved
in ‘The Troubles’
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