Four stars for the writing. I love books written in dialect and this one really comes alive. Probably make a fantastic radio play. The narrator also comes alive and while you see clearly the people around him, by the end you feel how deeply he is cut off from from all other human beings. They are part of the scenery for him, or less than the scenery. He cares for animals and people but without fully understanding the expectations between people that underpin family ties and a wider society. This is sufficient for working on the farm, but not for normal relationships with people.

I finished the book feeling a bit queasy and reluctant to give it 4 stars and I am still exploring just why. I felt the author was colluding with the verdict of many in the book that he was 'a bad one' and that nothing could have been done, which does not fit my own philosophy. However I decided that the author is telling it like it is - and I can read it as a person not put together right, or broken - rather than evil. There is also a dark North Eastern english element simmering in the background. Unforgiving. I shall not want to re-read this book, but while I was reading it was very compelling and I'm glad I did, despite it being so uncomfortable once the half way mark had been passed and you realise there is no salvation.

Comic it is not. Don't know how anyone could use that word with this book. ( )

'Brilliantly comic' says the blub. Depressingly dark, I say. ( )

I got quite caught up in this story about a young Yorkshire man, Sam Marsdyke, who was expelled from school 3 years previously for attempted rape of a classmate. The book opens with him in the fields of his family's farm watching some ramblers (walkers) in another field. He throws rocks at them from behind a wall just because they irritate him. At this point it seems like he is a little daft but as the book goes on he appears to be quite smart. I couldn't decide if he has some psychological problem or if he just hasn't been exposed to many different types of people.

Some new people (towns) move into the next farm and there is a teenage girl in the family. She is friendly with Sam and he is quite taken with her. When she has a fight with her parents she comes by the barn and asks Sam to run away with her. And off they go into the moors. Inevitably, it ends badly and Sam is certainly guilty of some crimes but I felt sorry for him. And as the book ended I wondered what would Sam end up doing?

At times the writing was confusing because Sam likes to make up scenarios and it was hard to tell what was true and what was daydreams. It is the authors first novel so I think he will get better and it should be worthwhile keeping an eye out for him. ( )

I found this a disturbing but gripping read. ( )

Out Backward is the story of a young loner named Sam Marsdyke who works on his father's farm after being forced to leave school for inappropriate behavior. Nineteen year old Sam is an unreliable narrator and he spins a slightly creepy tale about his connection with a recent neighbour, 15 year old troubled teen, Jo Reeves.

Eventually Jo and Sam run away together and slowly both Jo and the reader come to see the fine line Sam is treading between sanity and madness. Things take a decidedly nasty turn when Jo decides to ditch Sam and return home.

The reader first feels sympathy for Sam but ultimately realizes that he is exhibiting psychopathic tendencies. Written in a thick Yorkshire dialect, I strugged a little at first with the language, but this did help bring Sam to life and make the setting all the more authentic.

Out Backward was an absorbing, troubling, terrifically written and and highly readable book. ( )