Intense, dramatic and romantic, this novel is part picaresque, part rite of passage and part magic realism. It's challenging, affecting and haunting and is highly recommended for all adolescents.

It's 1962 and a young boy is sent to a minor public school in East Anglia. He is just the sort of boy for whom the education system proved a nightmare. He's not athletic, he is not strong, he is not special in any way yet he has an independent personality. So when he meets a strange boy on the beach - a boy outside the social system, surviving alone and depending largely on nature for life, it's no wonder that this failing school child falls completely under his spell. But all is not quite as it seems...

Played out on the disappearing coastline against the rattling forces of nature, this adolescent relationship has intensity, longing, love, courage and loss - and all a prime part of life itself. It's a first person narrative, but with the name hidden, the powerful individual voice of the story captures the reader, giving a true examination of gender and sense. An intense, haunting and lyrical novel also provides sharp intelligence and wit. In style, it has an essence of David Almond (author of Skellig and The Fire Eaters etc…), powerful and naturalistic.

Although the strength of the ending could be questioned, What I Was is a page-turner, with many moments and chapters filled with stunning suspense. I simply couldn't put it down. Yet, it is revolutionary, dramatic in action, taking the reader through many contrasting emotions.

In my opinion, it is a novel delivered in precise detail from Rosoff, a 9/10.