Martyn Bedford - Writer

Terrific review of Never Ending in the Life & Style section of today’s Metro. In a round-up of recent YA novels, the influential critic Imogen Russell Williams describes my latest teen novel as “addictive and harrowing from the outset” and “utterly arresting reading”. Here’s her review in full:

Fifteen-year-old Shiv is the focus of Never Ending, Martyn Bedford’s second novel [for teens]. She’s a girl trying in vain to process the grief and guilt she feels over her brother Declan’s death. Addictive and harrowing from the outset, Never Ending is an acutely observed, meticulous rendering of a mind in crisis and a family at war with itself.

It’s particularly memorable for its affecting contrast of before and after, alternating flashbacks to the blithe, saturated richness of Shiv’s and Declan’s final family holiday with its grey, grief-bleached aftermath. Shiv’s progress through the unconventional clinic where she relearns how to live in her changed world makes utterly arresting reading.