In a Nutshell: Growing up and moving on, with an imaginary bear-armed best friend in tow | A sublimely fresh and moving exploration of how it feels to be teetering on that giddy precipice between childhood and adulthood.
Marcie is on the verge of everything changing. About to leave school and head to university, she feels lost, left in limbo. She’s struggling with family, she has yet to discover her own dreams and she simply doesn’t know what she wants. Cue the re-entry of her childhood imaginary best friend, Thor, a boy with bear arms whom Marcie cast from her life some years ago. Through their alternating narratives, we learn that both Marcie and Thor are heading towards a time of epic transformation, and together they navigate these terrifying tides of change.
Spiced with pithy life lessons - ”A rollercoaster’s only fun because you know you’re getting off at some point” - this really is an unusually ingenious novel. The wildly off-the-wall set-up casts a soulful spell that becomes more potent when readers take time to take-in every single word. A rare gem.
| Primary Genre | Young Adult Fiction |
Nobody Real doesn’t play an easy game, instead pulling you through the back alleys of two strange and interwoven minds without much care as to the bruises it leaves.
There’s a subtly in the use of questions, and this book doesn’t make it easy to find the answers. You have to work just as hard as the characters themselves to put the pieces together, and no matter what you expect from the finished puzzle that certainly won’t be all there is to see.... Read Full Review
There is just something in the way that Camden writes that gets me every time.
Steven Camden has done it again. Definitely one of my favourite reads of the year so far. There is just something in the way that Camden writes that gets me every time. I loved this book, Marcie and Thor. I loved the magical realism element and the relationships and real life.... Read Full Review
A gripping, thought-provoking read. Think 'Inside Out' but in book form, for teens.
There's a number of important topics handled in this book, but I think it is done quite well. Mars and her imaginary friend Thor have been through a lot of ups and downs together. But they have reached a crossroads that will change both of them irrevocably.
Mars is 17 and has just finished her exams, her mother left when she was young and her writer father is struggling to live up to the amazing success of his first book. She lives with her aunt and has a very close friendship with Cara. Unsure about her past, her future and her ambitions her imaginary friend from childhood comes back to help her did her way.... Read Full Review
