Russ Litten

This novel, set over the last weekend of Hull Fair, boasts an impressive swear word-per-line ratio and within its pages we meet so many characters that it almost feels by the end that the reader is acquainted with every single resident of that city.

Fast moving, and with frequent switches between characters and viewpoints, it’s like a fairground ride in itself. Many stories interlink and they were so numerous I couldn’t even say whether any of them was left dangling at the end. It left show more me with a slightly disorientating feeling of happiness, sorrow, horror and amusement.

All aspects of life in Hull are investigated from the fishing to the famous bridge, helped along by the dialect I remember from my Yorkshire childhood, used not only by the characters but by the 3rd person narrative voice too. My favourite bit was where the character Brian muses about fairs: “Them big silver helium balloons bobbing about ... Fiver each them balloons, someone told Brian. A f*ckin’ fiver! So that’s a tenner if you’ve got two bains. Two bains round Fair, two goes on a ride at two quid apiece, two balloons, two bags of sugary shite, then two goes on the Hook-a-Duck to win two plastic pieces of tat worth about three bob apiece. Jesus Christ. Must spend a f*ckin’ fortune. Brian’s glad his two are grown up now.” Well said that man. show less

I read Scream If You Want To Go Faster for two reasons, firstly I was born and grew up in Hull, and secondly, because I had read a few reviews that talked about interesting and complicated POV.
I enjoyed it as I did not know where the differing threads would end up. I also thought the omniscient third person narrator, that came across as almost a first person Hullensian was quite clever, in fact that was the best bit of the book for me.
If I have a criticism it would be all the characters show more depicted Hull in a grim light. And when you have the Economist stating recently that Hull should be ‘shut down’ – this book does nothing to dispel that stereotype!
I also thought the description of the fair, which is quite atmospheric and invigorating did not go into enough depth. I know it was just something that book was hung on, but nothing really happened at the fair. The floods would have been a more emotive hook, and a better conscious rather than possible sub-conscious catalyst to certain actions of the characters.
I thought all the main characters would converge in quite an unpleasant way, or at least pass or meet fleetingly, to suggest the ‘connectiveness’ of everyone in tight community. This again is not a criticism, it is better not to know what will happen, than it be sign-posted.
Some of the characters needed a little more depth, like David/Denise, although there was lovely moment in the hospital between Denise and his mother, where ‘character through action’ occurred.
I would certainly recommend this book. It is not complicated, with the exception of the narration and it might not be a book to read just before you go to sleep every night, as there is no direct or indirect speech marks, a bit like McCarthy’s The Road. I really enjoyed, and not just because Hull gave birth to me. I read it quickly over four days – so there is a good indication of a good book. show less