Tape by Steven Camden

Tape by Steven Camden

Published by Harper Collins UK

Paperback, 364p

My Rating: 3 and half/5

Book jacket summary:
2013

Things happen for a reason. That’s what Ameliah tells herself. The universe has a plan, right? Why else would it take her parents? Then she finds an old tape, with a boy’s voice on it – a voice that seems to be speaking to her.

1993

Ryan is lost. Mum gone, new step mum, evil stepbrother. Why would this happen? He records a diary on a tape, for his mum, about a girl he just met who he can’t get out of his head.

 Ameliah and Ryan are linked by more than just a tape. This is their story.

My Review:

Tape by Steven Camden has two main protagonists who are both 13 yrs of age: Ryan and Ameliah. When the story sets out across the two different time settings of 1993 and 2013, it soon becomes clear that both are coping with loss and alien settings. For Ryan, it means having to cope with the memories of his mother even as his father brings in two new additions to the family: a stepmother and an intimidating step brother. For Ameliah, it means carrying the memories of her mother who died in a car crash 3 years earlier and then losing her father to cancer a mere 6 months before the story unfolds in the book. Both are trying to be in the scheme of things with regard to life around them with their respective solo good friends helping them go through the motions. For Ryan, it is Liam and for Ameliah, it is Heather. Ryan’s uneasy relation with his step brother Nathan is forged over the course of a forced family vacation and the two slowly bond. Over the years, the bond breaks and there are amends but that comes in only later. Ryan records a tape for his mother over which he re records his feelings about a girl who is moving away. It is this tape that Ameliah finds which helps her work out the fog of memories that she is not able to see through after the trauma of the death of her parents.

Tape is essentially a simple enough story of two 13 yr olds who are trying to deal with life…about things that are meant to be. The narrative goes back and forth between Ryan and Ameliah with no hurry to force plot twists. There is a charm in this but it also means having to struggle through the first 100 pages as the reader can get impatient. The different fonts used for the two protagonists is a bit distracting considering that the chapters are very brief. But overall, if one can stick with it, Tape is a sweet story that gives you a warm nice feeling by the time it ends.

I got this book copy as a giveaway win from #HaperCollinsIndia