I happened to have a copy of this book, a pdf version, bought for me by my big sister Chiara Tomasi a.k.a Kat (@kiaretta_t) (@katspaceoddity). She happened to buy the eBook five times before getting the pdf and be able to send it to me. I’m so grateful for her for all the effort she exerted into getting me to have this book. It’s really worth the effort and the time reading. When I received the copy thru email, I already downloaded it to my phone and then let it there for a day or two since it was tax season and it was the busiest day of the year for me. So there was a time that I was so tired working my ass off and I want my mind off the pressure from work, so I opened the pdf file and started reading from the first page (cover photo) of the eBook to the Praises, Dedication, Prologue. I was hooked reading not noticing the time until chapter 2. I overly spent my time reading; forgetting that I still have tons of work to do. So I stopped and set it aside. I couldn’t resist the imagination I had since reading chapter 1 and 2, my imagination wanders. So I found myself again holding my phone with the pdf file open. I couldn’t stop myself and I know that I won’t be able to finish working if from time to time, I keep on stealing time reading. So, what I did was take the memory card off my phone. That way no matter how many times I have to get a hold of my phone, I won’t be able to read it. Deadlines from work had passed, and I manage to do the work I am supposed to do. I inserted back the memory card on my phone with the pdf file of Kingdom of Scars and continued reading. There are times that I got caught up with work and every time I am pissed I just read #KoS and that calms me.. Picturing the characters and events of the book I’m reading…
Kingdom of Scars is a book that I can relate with. I guess everyone seemed to have to relate with this book since we all have to go through that adolescent stage of our lives. I can see myself in Sam. I know I’m from Philippines and the culture that was present in the book is not the same with the culture I’ve had been brought up with, and Sam is a boy, I am a girl, but in comparison to the feeling of the need to be accepted, I feel for him. Sam is a boy with good upbringing from parents: a boy that despite having a complete family- longed for something that will fill the emptiness in him, a boy that feel the need of being recognized by the circle he’s in, and a boy that is in need of sense of belongingness with his peers. I believe every teenager has this moment of breakdown. There always came a point in our juvenile life, that although everything seems to be okay, we tend to find something that completes us, something that we go through beyond the books just to feel fulfilled and Sam (like me), felt that need.
Eoin Macken is very thorough in writing this book. It touches a lot of aspects in a youth’s life. It makes the reader see not just the physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual but also the sexual phase in a teenage life. I learned how boys think about girls and I wish I had read this book 10 years ago just to have the heads up during my High School life. I am an old-school kind of girl, a nun prisoned in a convent type or as what others used to call “conservative”, so my eyes widened while reading what boys usually expects on girls and learned about their sexual desires.
A chapter of this book, specifically Chapter 20, really scared the hell out of me; having goose bumps that I have to turn the lights on in my room. Macken reliving that supernatural stuff that teenagers usually experience no matter how bad ass one is; is the kind of stuff I’m certain everyone is familiar with - fear of ghosts and supernatural being.
On the other hand, Macken tends to stress out the idea of why most of the teenagers acting strange and a pain in the ass. This book is not just for teenagers or for young adults. This book needs to be read by parents too. That way they will be able to understand their children’s journey and struggle to manhood. That sometimes in order to fit in, doing the bad thing is a necessity among peers.
Humiliation is like Sam’s twin brother almost every day being bullied by some of the kids his age. That state of struggle on his way home pushed him the urge of wanting to be part of a gang; a gang that would serve as his reference to his masculinity and as one of the respected lads you don’t want to mess with.
The bruises, the scars, the emotional damage he received day by day are very hard dilemmas that a certain juvenile goes through. I believed most of us are easily judged by our parents every time we did something bad- drinks, drugs, sex, riot and violence, but this book gives us an opening of a door to enter and witness a deeper look on a teenager’s life, giving us justification for the reasons why they did what they did.
Once in our lives, we need to feel shamed, disrespected, humiliated, hurt and abused in order to learn. Making the bad decision and suffer the consequences from it is the master teacher of all. Sam made bad decisions in his teenage life, doing bad things that cause him misery just to feel belonged with the lads in his town. Those bad decisions made him realized in the end that pleasing those lads and being accepted is not really that important.
The spiritual aspects of this book comes in, when Sam became unconscious being beaten by Jayo, and he had vision that he is in a place where he had this feeling of joy, pure bliss and contentment, a place where he felt happy and doesn’t want to leave- that’s the feeling of spiritual fulfillment. A feeling one couldn’t explain that no matter how pained your physical body was, you still manage to find that serenity inside.
So, the part where this book hit me most is the emotional fragment. Like Sam, I did a lot of things in my teenage life, stupid things anyone could imagine just to seal that desolation of my whole being. Those things that I didn’t regret of doing and will be doing again if turned back in time. Sam even though without having to impress someone somehow feels the impulse of doing something stupid or dangerous – like what he did on the swing. As a teenager, we love to explore, we love adventures that even though we know that, that something is dangerous, but still we manage to do that stuffs just to feel a sense of self contentment. At times we need to feel danger just to sense that we are alive and to feel how it feels.
This book really would make you reminisce from your youthful life, look back on the things you did and makes you realize how you made it through. The adolescent period in one’s life is the most delicate yet very memorable moments in our lives. It is most delicate because the decisions we made during those times will hone us to be the person we choose to become. It is memorable in a sense that the things we do during that time whether good or bad, embarrassing or relishing will make scars in our lives that would serve as a constant reminder of what we are today. It is those moments that trade marks the past in our present and the present in our future.
This is really a must read book for teenagers, young adults and parents. Thumbs up for the author Eoin Macken (^_^)