I’ve been a huge fan of David Almond ever since I encountered his debut novel Skellig back when it all began in 1998. He is a prolific author and I always discover after the event that he has produced another. Such was the case with this book – his fifteenth novel – and (as it turns out) his first for adults. His first novel for adults it may be but it is still unmistakably Almond here, and I would recommend it to any of his younger readers.

David Almond’s books have a distinctive style about them. I like to say they are deftly written; sparse but effective language to carry a powerful, often hard-hitting story. This is a story that is probably as powerful and hard-hitting as they come. The title character of the book, the Monster Billy Dean, is anything but a monster. He is a boy born on the same day as a devastating terrorist attack.

The book, is one of two halves with a short epilogue. The first, and best half is almost entirely shut away in the house where Billy lives with his mother, with night-time visits from his father, a priest. It’s a story of child- and domestic-abuse and is unflinching in its portrayal. Billy Dean is illiterate, and as this story is his story, written through his eyes, they are his words. I opened the book up to page one and thought I was reading Chaucer for it is written, not just in phonetic English, but Geordie Phonetic English. I thought that this was going to be a book that was going to be hard-going, but once you get used to it (surprisingly quickly), it is actually really easy to read.

The second half of the book sees Billy coming out in the world, transformed by the bombings and we are introduced to more characters. Here, in this world, Billy is seen as a messiah-like figure to heal people, and the book takes on the nature of religion and faith.

Ever since I first read David Almond’s Skellig I have been a fan of his writing, and loved every one of his books, and this is no exception. A Song for Ella Grey is a story of “love that leads Ella, Orpheus Claire to the gates of Death and beyond”.

Just as with David Almond’s other books the the language is beautifully understated and simple but the stories are anything but; deep and rich, and mysterious. It is told mainly through prose, that, almost poetic at times, does as the story of Orpheus moves to a conclusion sprials into actual poetry, and then, just as the author has previously done with My Name Is Mina, utilises typgoraphic effects to further push home the story.

This is a story of teenagers on the cusp of becoming adults and finding themselves in the world. Ella and Claire are friends who you wonder if they are more than just friends, and Orpheus is the mysterious lyre-playing stranger who enters their lives.

A Song for Ella Grey is a beautiful and enchanting book with a dark secret which is both impossible to describe and to not recommend. Read it. Now.