'Synopsis: I Had a Fucking Talking Fucking Brain Tumour'. As if school bullies and his mum's tofu sandwiches weren't enough for Hector Brunty, he now has another problem: a talking brain tumour...

Review: At first Henry is the perfect alter-ego, but soon he is trying to make life and death decisions Hector finds less attractive. Winner of the 2006 Booktrust Teenage Prize for Fiction, McGowan's second novel is even more controversial than his first (Hellbent 2005), which also addressed the taboo topic of teenage death.

McGowan understands the fundamental drivers of the adolescent psyche - and fundamental they are. Hector is fascinated (and frightened) by the titillation offered not only by possible sexual encounters, but also in the unknown interventions which may be used to investigate and treat his tumour. As a result, the novel abounds in what adults may consider to be excessively frequent references to bodily functions, fluids and fantasies, and f words in general. Although Henry appears in Hector's consciousness with the astonishing word 'arsecheese', it clearly matches Hector's fascination with everything anal, and probes in particular. His contribution to Hector's life (apart from the obvious death threat) is to grant him permission to voice his desperate worries about what faces him in the process of growing up. To Hector (and to teenagers in general) the unknown processes of adolescent life are no less frightening than those of death, and Henry allows him to face them. Once he does, and in the knowledge that his future may in any case be death, Hector takes on the bullies, sex, relationships and mortality. He is not ready to die, and at the end he is fighting Henry, not using him.

A remarkable book, microscopically perceptive of adolescent thought and experience, with many subtextual philosophical and literary references which in no way impede the hilarious narrative. Mal Peet draws attention to the Falstaff/Prince Hal relationship between tumour and boy, but there are many other themes to be picked out from the devastating directness and simplicity of this subtle text: religion, families, the insoluble connection between life and death... Whether we are comfortable with his message and how he says it, Henry Tumour speaks to us all - read it and reflect.

2006-12-22