Something Wicked

Is there ever a good reason for a bad crime? Ashworth’s novel addresses this question and, via a rather predictable narrative, comes to the conclusion that there is not. Her 16-year-old heroine, Anna – ‘happy some of the time, pissed off some of the time, but bored most of the time’ – becomes attracted to Craig, a new arrival at her school, and to his idiosyncratic way of tackling what he perceives as the unfair distribution of wealth. Their initial attempts at a more equitable reallocation bring moments in which, for them and the reader, the frightening and the exciting are combined. Eventually, though, their novel concept of ‘taxing’ the rich leads to hospital beds and, for Anna at least, to quite serious speculation as to the nature and degree of her responsibility for what has happened. The frequent references to Macbeth add a teasing intertextual dimension to what is, in spite of its contemporary trappings, a good old-fashioned cautionary tale.