Lucas by Kevin Brooks
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
“I just read the one book written by Brit Young Adult author Kevin Brooks (no relation) that I hadn’t gotten to earlier. I love his work. It is edgy, raw and completely true. He writes about teens in difficult situations dealing with issues that we are all struggling about – drugs, murder, sexual identity and others. Lucas is the title of the book. It is about a young man who appears on an island off the coast of England. He might be a Gypsy and he might be magic. He is immediately disliked and mistrusted by a number of the locals, but is befriended by a young girl who finds him both different and compelling. Soon Lucas and the young girl are embroiled in series of events that soon escalated to something very dangerous. If you like contemporary stories about tough subjects, no one does it better than Kevin Brooks. I suppose Robert Cormier comes closest when I think of someone I could compare this writer to. I also finished Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, the third book in the Hunger Games trilogy, which was wonderful. But I was still thinking of Lucas for a longer time after I finished it.” — Terry Brooks