"Maggot Moon" by Sally Gardner - Review

Standish Treadwell is 15 years old and he can neither write nor read. Because of that, people view him as stupid while actually, he is really clever. In the eyes of the government compliant teachers, classmates and neighbours he is worthless, because of his dyslexia and because of his different-coloured eyes, because of his unusual name and everything in general that makes him so different from the proud citizens of his home country who see themselves as superior human beings. They won the war, raised to global power, and in a few days they are going to land on the moon, equip it with nuclear weapons and gain unlimited respect from the other nations once and for all.

Standish despises his home country since it took his parents and also his best friend Hector and his parents. He lives alone with his grandfather who struggles to keep both of them from starvation with great difficulty. Standish dreams of traveling to the country of Croca-Cola some day where everything is colourful, and drive around in an ice creme blue Cadillac with Hector. Everything would be better when he made it out of the rundown zone 7.

When Standish finds the moon man in his basement, a member of the moon excursion team, just after Hector disappeared, his life is turned upside down.

„Maggot Moon“ is set in a fictitious worst case scenario: What would have happened if not the allied forces but the Nazis won world war two? If not the USA but the Third Reich wanted to send the first man to the moon? One can indeed call it a dystopian concept, but what makes it special is that it is set in the past in 1956.

The author, Sally Gardner, is dyslexic herself, only learned to read and write when 14 years old – and she proves with her young readers book „Maggot Moon“ that this is in no way an obstacle for making something great. She follows the dystopia trend in the manner of classics like „1984“ by George Orwell and more recent works like the „Hunger Games“ series by Suzan Collins but skillfully and innovatively interprets the topic in a wholly own way that clearly distinguishes this book from others. Standish Treadwells rebellion is not a loud one, not a bloody one, but silent, considerate and peaceful. As paradox as it seems, his weapons are words and truths, as he puts it, the pebble bringing the giant to the fall. Due to the short chapters that rarely exceed two or three pages the novel reads without effort and fluently.

Visually, „Maggot Moon“ is a true eyecatcher as well: Besides the cover being designed with great devotion the pages are a flicker book showing a rat and a fly having a whole different story. Those illustrations are what makes the book a double work of art.