Breakers by Doug Johnstone – Blog Tour Review.

About The Book

A toxic family … a fight for survival…

Seventeen-year-old Tyler lives in one of Edinburgh’s most deprived areas. Coerced into robbing rich people’s homes by his bullying older siblings, he’s also trying to care for his little sister and his drug-addict mum.

On a job, his brother Barry stabs a homeowner and leaves her for dead, but that’s just the beginning of their nightmare, because the woman is the wife of Edinburgh’s biggest crime lord, Deke Holt.

With the police and the Holts closing in, and his shattered family in devastating danger, Tyler meets posh girl Flick in another stranger’s house, and he thinks she may just be his salvation … unless he drags her down too.

My Review

With thanks to the publisher for the copy received. Every so often I read a book where I am reluctant to put it down. Where I need to know what the characters would be facing next. Breakers was one of those books. I needed to know that Tyler, aged seventeen, responsible for his younger sister, Bean, would stay safe. 

He isn’t entirely innocent, the danger he is in is because he was breaking the law. But when you start to see how how relationship with his elder siblings Barry and Kelly and the terrible situation his mother was in you know he had little choice.

Each of the siblings had an affect on me. Tyler is still at school, is trying his best to be there for Bean, clean up after his drug addict and alcoholic mother and avoid the local police officer who tries to help, of only he could see it. If it was possible to help a character in a book I would do. Kelly, out of her depth, with a misguided loyalty, probably governed by fear. Barry, a vicious bully, coke head, and capable of anything. Barry was a character who I feared more than many others I have ‘met’ in fiction. And Bean, adorable, outspoken, wise beyond her years.

But Tyler isn’t the only one whose family life is tough. Flick, wealthy, privileged, but whose family are not as perfect as you’d expect them to be. Pearce, the police officer who tried to be a friend because she knew how difficult it was. And who proved that life could be turned around.

The relationship between Tyler and Bean was something special. Warmth, love and devotion in an impossible situation. Their scenes together, even the bedtime stories were special. Even more so when you could see their relationship with Barry. 

It is a believable read. I imagine there are families like Tyler’s everywhere.