To let DD (12) read 'A Spot of Bother'

[WhitePhantom]

She's read 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime' (as have I) and now she wants to read A Spot of Bother.

I haven't read it myself, and won't have time to for quite a while. I've looked for age recommendations online and can't find any, just find it described as Mark Haddon's second adult book (The Curious Incident being the first one). The write-up mentions strangler's hands, affair, gay lover - is the content very adult / graphic or would it be ok?

Anyone?

It's nothing like the curious incident.

It's about a man who finds a dodgy mole and instead if doing anything sensible about it becomes obsessed and tries to cut it off himself in various gruesome ways. It's a book about health anxiety, not funny but quite disturbing.

I don't think your 12 year old would enjoy it.

Hello. I’ve read it a few years ago. To be honest I’d be surprised if it interested her - from what I remember it was about a not terribly happy marriage. It depends what she’s like: as a 12 year old I read anything and everything and my parents took the approach that if something was conceptually beyond me I wouldn’t get it, or would just give up, so I tend to be similar. I think books are quite different from films in that it can be difficult to visualise stuff that’s beyond your maturity- if that makes sense?

Perhaps I read unhappy marriage into everything I read!! I’d forgotten all about the cutting it off

aw, I love that book. Tbh I don't know though if it's really suitable for age 12. the main adult content is depression and mental health stuff, with one character harming himself badly (not trying to kill himself but cutting off something on his skin he's worried about) and quite a lot of gay sex. There aren't extensive sex scenes or anything but there are brief ones and lots of direct references to anal and oral sex and some pretty explicit language.

There were scenes I found very disturbing and I'm not particularly squeamish. I'd say definitely not. I'm sure a bookseller could recommend you something similar to Curious Incident though.

(It was the self-harm scenes I found disturbing, just to clarify!)

Thanks everyone! I'll put it away for now and she can read it when she's older.