‘The Good People’ – Steve Cockayne (Atom Books)

The blog has been up and running for a few months now and I’ve read quite a few books in the meantime. I’ve read some great books and I’ve read a few books that were absolutely useless (I even took one of these and burnt it in the back garden…). Out of all the books I’ve read though, none of them have left me feeling quite so disturbed as ‘The Good People’ did…
Kenneth Storey and his brother are teenagers in the Britain of World War 2. They are fighting another battle though; through a gate in the garden wall lies the land of Arboria and an ongoing conflict between the Arborians and their barbarian enemies. As World War 2 draws to its conclusion; other teenagers will discover Arboria and then leave it behind but not Kenneth though. Kenneth is the Lore Keeper of Arboria and will use the knowledge, gathered by children before him, to keep the land safe at any cost. However, the conflict between Kenneth’s teenage emotions and his desire to protect Arboria will have severe repercussions both in Arboria and our world…
This is a poignant ‘rites of passage’ book that will strike a chord with both teenagers and anyone who was once a teenager, we’ve all been in the situations that Kenneth deals with and you almost hurt on his behalf when you see what is coming. A sense of loss also pervades the book as various characters leave childhood behind and move onto a more adult life, Kenneth is unable to do this and you feel the loss doubly so as his childhood friends desert him. Finally, there is a sense of tragedy as Kenneth’s inability to reconcile Arboria and the real world lead him to cover up something terrible and then commit a monstrous crime. As a character study this book is compelling and so well written that Kenneth’s descent into madness stayed with me for a long time afterwards (hence being disturbed). Where it fell down for me though was Cockayne’s treatment of the more magical elements in the story. The inhabitants of Arboria were very much seen out of the corner of the eye, this is how it should be seeing as the emphasis was on it being a world of make believe. But then Cockayne introduces the ‘Good People’, a mysterious fairy race who have lived in the forest since before the Romans. Kenneth’s state of mind doesn’t really allow the reader to make much sense of the ‘Good People’, are they real or bought on by delirium? This in turn made this reader question Arboria instead of just accepting it for what it was. Perhaps the story would have been better with just one of these elements instead of mixing the two in together, maybe it needs another read to fully appreciate it. On this read though, it took the edge off what was otherwise a gripping tale that leaves you thinking about it long after you’ve finished reading.

Seven out of Ten