The Killing Jar
A Novel
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
In her stunning debut, Nicola Monaghan lays bare the gritty underbelly of life in Nottingham, England.
Very early on, Kerrie-Ann begins to dream of the world beyond the rough council estate where she lives. Her father is nowhere to be found, her mother is a junkie, and she is left to care for her little brother. Clever, brave, and frighteningly independent, Kerrie-Ann has an unbreakable will to survive. She befriends her eccentric, elderly neighbor, who teaches her about butterflies, the Amazon, and life outside of her tough neighborhood. But even as Kerrie-Ann dreams of a better life she becomes further entangled in the cycles of violence and drugs that rule the estate.
Brilliant, brutal, and tender, The Killing Jar introduces a brave new voice in fiction. Nicola Monaghan's devastating prose tells an unforgettable story of violence, love, and hope.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The thrills and horrors of life as a young drug dealer play out against a backdrop of suburban decay in Monaghan's sharp-edged debut. The narrator, Kerrie-Ann, nicknamed "Kez," lives in Nottingham public housing with her heroin-addicted mother. By the age of 10, Kez is working as a drug courier for her mother's dealer boyfriend. By 13, she's had an abortion and is dropping Ecstasy; when her mother leaves, she's making enough money on her own to take care of her younger brother, Jon, and to save money for a better life. In the meantime, she shacks up with another dealer, Mark, whose tenderness transforms into violent possessiveness as his heroin addiction gets the better of him. Though Kez's lifestyle involves her with crimes worse than dealing drugs, her principled discipline and vulnerability are what make the reader root for her. Monaghan writes in a heavy but readable dialect ("any normal gell'd of talked to her mam about it"; and a liberal spattering of "owt," "summat" and "wi") that fans of Irvine Welsh will recognize. This novel could have easily fallen into clich s of juvenile delinquency and teenage disaffection, but the stark material and unsentimental prose make for a wrenching look at devotion, crime and violence.
