Book info

• Title Charlotte Street
• Author Danny Wallace
• Year 2011
• Genre Contemporary

A heartwarming everyday tale of boy stalks girl... My name is Jason – and I have just met the most incredible woman, on Charlotte Street. Well, I say 'met'. I sort of held her bags for a second. But she smiled at me! And it was this amazing smile. Of course, I don't know her name, or anything about her at all. But I do happen to have something of hers. She left behind one of those old-school disposable cameras. I’ve got it. It’s here in front of me. So there are two things I could now do: I could develop the photos. See her again, see her life. Maybe work out a way of finding her. Find that smile. Or I could chuck it in a bin like a grown-up. I’m fairly sure one of those ideas is a good one. I’m fairly sure the other might be illegal. Look, if you were me… what would you do?

Thoughts

I’ve been a fan of Danny Wallace books in the past, those true life adventures that he and others (Dave Gorman) go on. The humour works very well in those because it’s honest, open and you can imagine that they really are thinking that. This book is in the same vein, only it’s a fictional adventure instead. That being the case, some of the humour feels a little bit shoe-horned in, almost like it’s trying too hard.

It also took quite a long time to get going, it felt like we were never going to get anywhere for at least the first half of the book. With those negatives out the way, I did actually quite like it in the end. You grow to love the Jason character, despite the fact he keeps withholding information from you, the reader, just so he can have some nice end-of-chapter cliffhangers.

You also grow intrigued with the story, when it starts, to where it’s going to end up. There’s a happy-ever-after, and although it’s the one you think will occur, it doesn’t happen the way you might think. I think I liked the second half more than the first, but you can’t have one without the other!

Rating: 3 / 5