2 Feb 2011

the deathday letter by shaun david hutchinson (2010)

ollie is fifteen. he's a virgin. and he's going to die in about 24 hours. he knows that because he has received his deathday letter, which every person gets one day before they die. he didn't expect it and now he has no clue what to do with the rest of his life. 

ok this it truly a boys-book. it's all about boobs and wanking and doo-doo... i mean i know most boys are obsessed with sex but come on. i didn't like it so much to be honest. shaun david hutchinson's debut has very good thoughts in it and is not boring or anything but that was really too much awful teenage-boy-fantasy for my taste. 

also, hutchinson has used some german words in his book, which i really liked, but unfortunately there were a few mistakes, nobody would say it like that... i think that could have been easily avoided...

great quote:
"and i realize the truth: i was dead yesterday and i'll be dead tomorrow, but today i'm alive."

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4 comments:

  1. Hey :) Thanks for the honest review. I don't normally comment on reviews but you're the first person to bring up the awkward and not-great use German. It was actually intentional. I was trying to portray Klaus as someone who only knew the kind of dictionary German that one picks up in class. The kind of awkward phrasing that Google Translate might spit out.

    The funny thing is that there's going to be a German translation of Deathday and one of the suggestions we're going to make is having the character of Klaus have a goofy American name and only speak in bad classroom American English.

    Anyway, I really appreciate you taking the time to read Deathday :)

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  2. hi shaun =)

    thanks for visiting my blog! i really appreciate your comment, mabye i didn't get it because english is not my mothertongue... but it's funny, now that i think about it =) i think you should have such a character in the german version too...

    is klaus a german or not?

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  3. Klaus is supposed to be an American who thinks he speaks good German but who only speaks the kind of German you'd hear in a classroom.

    The truth is that I was probably trying too hard to be clever lol. Your thoughts on it are really illuminating and I appreciate them greatly :)

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  4. ha ha, i thought he's a german, and therefore should be able to speak german... but yesterday i talked about it with my mom (who read the book too) and she said: "no, i think that was supposed to be awkward german..." i''m positive everyone got it except me... =)

    may i ask if you will write something about deathday again?

    ReplyDelete

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