The front cover of the novel Millions is quite plain and simple with the title and author's name written in bold, white print and a picture of a boy next to a model donkey. The cover isn’t very eye-catching and I have to say it wouldn’t have drawn me towards the book in a shop.

 

Millions is a contemporary novel written in the first person from the point of view of a boy called Damien. He lives with his brother Anthony and dad who have moved to a new town and are settling in despite the death of the brothers’ mum.

 

The first few pages were well written in that the first paragraph grabs your attention, and Boyce gives information to the reader about Damien in an indirect way without writing lots of paragraphs about him which would bore the reader straight away. Unfortunately he leaves that part to where Damien makes references to saints many times – more times than an average reader would like, to the point where it gets quite repetitive. However I think this gives the character depth and shows more about Damien’s thinking.

 

From page 50 the story starts to get really interesting, which is where the main plot comes in – Damien finds hundreds of pounds'-worth of money and he and Anthony try to spend it all before the pound changes to the Euro which leaves them 17 days. The story deals with moral issues that Damien and Anthony have to deal with such as should they tell the police or keep the money for themselves, and also asks the question that if you kept the money what would you do with it.

 

‘I pulled back the box and Anthony saw it – a big bag stuffed with money. His face glowed. He says now that it’s still the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen.

He was so happy just then.

‘And it’s from God you reckon?’

I nodded.

‘Well, he really wanted to cheer us up’.’ 

 

The novel also contains 8 pages of high-quality shots from the film which has been released recently which will also interest the reader although the photos do mean that the reader’s imagination is limited. 

 

My only negative point about the book is that of a female character which seems to have no relevance to the story except to be the love interest of the Dad. The fact that Boyce was a screenwriter (most films include a love interest) and the film version of Millions is out now does seem to be strange and I am leaning towards the idea that Boyce included the female character because he had the film in mind, which is a shame because I think the character does spoil the story slightly.

 

However, I think Millions is an enjoyable read although the reader may have to be patient and just go with the flow of the book and not be too worried about the all the saints which frankly I just found funny, but it didn't give me that 'tingle feeling' after I had finished it.

 

I would give it seven out of ten.