Smashbomb

I remember reading 'The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole' when I was a teenager and really enjoying it. So when I saw this book, I was looking forward to reading this.

This novel is based on what would happen if the institution of the Royal Family was in exile and were living on a council estate. Britain is divided into many different zones, depending on your social standing and no one can cross zones without an I.D card. Also the police know your every move, thanks to cameras which are installed everywhere and they can access all information about the residents, using the Vulcan computer system.

Firstly, I liked how Sue Townsend characterized the members of the Royal family, they are all very likable characters, funny characters. I also liked that we got the perspectives of the royal pets too, on what was going on.

However, I found a few things wrong with this book. I personally like the British Royal Family, but, even though this book is funny, I could tell that the author wasn't entirely in favour of them and so I felt that at times, the jokes were a bit cutting and were laughing at the Royal Family, rather than laughing with them.

Secondly, at the beginning of the book, I felt like this was making some interesting observation on modern British life. However, as the book progressed, what could have been a humorous insight into these issues, turned into a bit of a mess.

Thirdly, the construction of the plot was very sloppy. The plot didn't seem to focus on one specific thing. What was a book about the Royal Family and the illegitimate son of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles , randomly turned into a farce about the dogs in the area. The comedy with the dogs at the beginning was funny, as I said before,, but it escalated into farce.

Also, plot line involving a police officer having a crush on one of the lower class women in 'Slapper Valley', one of the exclusion zones, never got an resolution at all..

Finally, the ending for me, was very poor. It ended quite abruptly and was quite frankly, bizarre and unsatisfying.

I started out really enjoying this book, but in the end, it turned into a bit of a mess. This was occasionally funny, but overall, a very disappointing read.