Being Billy

Being Billy by Phil Earle
Published January 6th 2011
264 pages
Genre: Young Adult 
Stars: 4/5

Description:

Faces flashed before my eyes. And for every face there was a time that they had let me down. Each punch that landed was revenge, my chance to tell them I hadn't forgotten what they did. Eight years in a care home makes Billy Finn a professional lifer. And Billy's angry - with the system, the social workers, and the mother that gave him away. As far as Billy's concerned, he's on his own. His little brother and sister keep him going, though they can't keep him out of trouble. But he isn't being difficult on purpose. Billy's just being Billy. He can't be anything else. Can he?

Being Billy was so much better than I expected it to be! I found the description to be only vaguely intriguing and certainly nothing original at all. I didn't expect it to be so engaging and unique! I thought Billy was an excellently developed character and had no problems empathizing with him and his whole situation. While Billy is certainly not perfect, he's still a good person who has just been through a lot. I loved his relationship with his little siblings and I loved that he wasn't afraid to admit that he was wrong sometimes. Billy certainly grew as a character throughout the whole book and I was very satisfied with the ending. It wasn't amazing but it was well written, interesting and kept my attention until the very last page.