‘I’m going to tell you everything. I’m gonna tell you the whole story.’
– Jaq, A Top Boy Story
[ About JAQ, A Top Boy Story ]
Sometimes all it takes is a single message. Maybe it’s bad, like a rival top boy’s been switched off. Or maybe it’s good, like an opportunity you never thought you’d get. But opportunities mean risks, and debts, and you never want to owe anyone anything.
Jaq’s worked hard on the road since she was fourteen, bringing in money to keep her broken family afloat. Now she’s built a good life near the top of the Summerhouse crew, with a beautiful home she shares with her girlfriend Becks and her heavily pregnant older sister Lauryn.
But messages are coming in — good and bad — and Jaq has to make a choice: step back from the road and start a life she’s never even considered. Or seize her opportunities and risk everything for life-changing money. Either way, Jaq will make enemies. And those enemies aren’t going to let her go easily …
[ My Review ]
Jaq, A Top Boy Story by Ronan Bennett published January 25th with Canongate and is described as an ‘original novel set in the London portrayed by Bennett within his celebrated and award-winning TV drama Top Boy.’
I have never watched Top Boy on Netflix, or read previous novels by Ronan Bennett, so I went into this novel with no expectations and a vague notion of what Jaq, A Top Boy Story was about. Jaq, A Top Boy Story is a novel told from the perspective of Jaqueline (Jaq) Lawrence, a top drug dealer with the Summerhouse crew. Jaq has worked hard to get to the position she is in and now lives with her girlfriend Becks and her sister Lauren, who is pregnant.
Jaq has shown that she is fearless and willing to do whatever it takes to survive. She is extremely protective of her family, with vague plans of a new life away from the one she currently inhabits. Jaq loves Becks and wants to provide a forever home with her but her attention is constantly pulled in multiple directions as the leadership of the crew is in jeopardy.
Jaq gets wind of an opportunity that could be the catalyst she needs to walk away from this life of drugs and criminal activity but there is a huge risk attached to any decision she makes. With Lauren due at any moment, Jaq is torn.
As fractures develop further within the Summerhouse gang, Jaq has to double-down and closely examine her options. This life she leads is a minefield where one wrong turn, one wrong decision means certain death. There is no forgiveness for mistakes made and disappearing usually means only one thing. What will Jaq decide? Will she make a decision that will guarantee her safety and that her family if all goes to plan? Or will she seek advice and look at the alternatives? Either way Jaq’s life is about to change.
There is a great sense of urgency and danger throughout Jaq, A Top Boy Story, as it depicts the lives of those caught up in gangland activity. It is my understanding that much of the content in the novel has already happened on screen so, for those readers who are already fans of the Top Boy series, I have no doubt that their opinions will be quite definitive and exacting. I’m really not sure what audience this book is targeted at but what I can say, for someone like me who knew nothing about any of the characters, it stood perfectly fine as a standalone novel. My only issue was that I did struggle with some of the language being used but I referred to the Urban Dictionary when necessary.
Jaq, A Top Boy Story gives an insight into these characters, providing a more human side to their stories, beyond that of being just drug dealers and gang members. These individuals have personal problems and family members in difficulty like most people have. There is no glamourisation given to their lives, with the fight for survival very evident at all times. It will be interesting to see what true Top Boy fans make of this spin-off novel but I suspect it will be a controversial one!
** My thanks to Gill Hess for a copy of Jaq, A Top Boy Story in exchange for my honest review.
[ Bio ]
Ronan Bennett was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. His novel The Catastrophist (1997) won the Irish Post Literature Award and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel Award. Havoc, in its third year (2004) won Irish Novel of the Year and was longlisted for the Booker Prize. His recent work includes the feature film Public Enemies in 2009 and the television series Hidden (2011), Gunpowder (2017) and Top Boy (2011–present).
