Shy (2023)

Shy is a short novel, with experimental and poetic flourishes, focusing on the inner life of the titular adolescent Shy. We find him, in 1995, in the appropriately named ‘Last Chance’ school, an institution offering an unconventional home for troubled teenagers with a history of delinquent behaviour. At the start of the book he’s setting off with a bag weighed down with rocks, heading for the school’s pond in the middle of the night, with an obvious intention in mind. We explore his mindset through both present tense interior monologue, flashback, and snippets of commentary from other sources - a therapist’s words, the narration of a documentary being made about Last Chance, the taunts of his classmates, and the lyrics of contemporary Drum’n’Bass tracks - his one true passion.