Wheels

James is travelling back from holiday with his parents when their car is hit by an out of control van coming from the other direction. His father is killed along with the young man they believe was the driver and James is paralysed. The subtitle of the book, ‘Dead Man Walking’ refers to James’ horror when some weeks later, he sees the ‘dead’ driver walking towards him and his attempt to track him down is the centre of this story.

Wheels is one of a newish wave of books for teenagers which has a disabled character as the protagonist and where the ending does not result in a cure. James goes through a lot of feelings of the ‘self-hating, wish-I-could-throw-away-the-wheelchair-and-walk-again’ kind, although by the end of the story he feels more positive about his future. The style, the language and the setting of this book all seem rather old-fashioned: James’ recovery from his angry self-hatred takes place in a church youth club run by the vicar and when equipment is damaged, he and his friends plan a fund raising disco. His long-suffering, house-proud mother is something out of the 1950s.

The story has a dramatic, engaging opening but what is described on the back cover as a ‘fast-paced thriller’ didn’t quite work for me. The mystery element is a great idea, but the characters were a bit two-dimensional and the style too flat for this reader to be biting her nails.