'Dylan is struggling. Since he started high school, everything has become too much to handle. Now he's been expelled and is forced to more to the tiny village in Wales where his granddad lives. But when Granddad invited Dylan out on his boat to watch the Hooper swans return to their winter feeding ground, things begin to change. Granddad doesn't judge or question; he just lets Dylan be.
'Out on the water, with no distractions or pressure, Dylan beings to feel like himself again. But when the swans and their home are threatened, and tragedy strikes at home, can Dylan keep going when it feels like everything is slipping out of control again?'
Swan Song is one of those stories that I went into expecting to find moderately interesting, going to a setting I've not read many books about, and seeing an interesting slice of the lives of the characters; and whilst it did deliver all of that, I wasn't ready for how affecting the story was, and how emotional it left me.
Swan Song begins with Dylan having reached breaking point, sitting in his head teacher's office after being given the told that he's being permanently excluded. Gill Lewis doesn't give us any build up, she doesn't tell us what's bothering Dylan, or how he's got to this point. Instead we begin at what might be the lowest point of his life, and see a young teen who just doesn't seem to care anymore. It's a brave way to start a book, to introduce us to the protagonist in a way that could make us dislike him, hate him even. He's punched his friend, left him injured, and torpedoed his mothers entire life.
It's not just just that he's been thrown out of school, but that his mother can't get him into another school. She has to home school him, which means that she can't keep her job, and as such can't afford their home. The books opening shows us a young man whose actions have completely altered the course of his family's lives. It's clear that this is just the final piece in something that's been building for a long while, and that this was just the final straw.
Unable to stay in their home Dylan and his mother travel across the country to move in with Dylan's grandfather in a small coastal town in Wales. With no friends, no internet, no television, and the wide open countryside around him, Dylan is left at something of a loose end and isn't really sure what to do with himself. Enter the perfect opportunity for some bonding with this grandfather.
The two of them go out into the bay on his granddad's boat, and its the first time that we get to see Dylan as something other than depressed and unwilling. Something about the wide openness, the freedom to steer the ship, and the small wonders of nature around him speaks to him and starts to draw him out of his shell. It's here that we get introduced to one of the best parts of the town, the Swan Field, the place where hundreds of Hooper Swans come to to spend the winter months. Not only is Dylan immediately interested in this, but it's something that his grandfather loves too, and its the perfect thing for them to bond over.
Later on Dylan discovers a sick swan and brings it home and begins to care for it, spending time just sitting with his swan, feeding it, reading aloud to it. It's here that we really see that despite his temper, despite seeming to not care about anything, Dylan was simply hurting. He's a young man struggling with depression and anxiety, who needed space and time to find himself and reach a degree of peace. Together Dylan and his swan begin to heal and form a bond.
Unfortunately, it's not all smooth sailing for Dylan and his family. When it comes to light that the Swan Field is going to be bought by a local businessman, who plans to turn the field into a holiday park, tragedy strikes. Not only does this mean that the swans are in danger, and could never return, but Dylan discovers that the swans were the one thing that helped his granddad through the loss of his wife, and that they mean everything to him. The possibility of losing them hurts him so much that he suffers a stroke. Not wanting to lose the swans, or to see his grandfather suffer, Dylan sets out to try and save the Swan Field.
Swan Song is one of those stories that I could very easily see being made into one of those feature length television special, one of the those feel good shows that leaves you feeling happy come the end, but slightly teary eyed. There were a few moments during the book where I felt the tears starting to form, where I realised that I'd become so engrossed in this family and their struggles that I was worried for their future. I wanted Dylan and his family to be okay, and I wanted the swans to have a happy ending.
It was a story that I thought was just going to be about a teenager learning to deal with their issues, to see the world differently and realise that things weren't as bad as they thought once they got a chance to step back from things and reflect; and whilst it is it's also about the healing power of nature. Swan Song is a story about finding things that mean something to you, that give you a sense of passion, that do good, and giving them a shot. In this story its the swans, but it could be anything, it could be something that means something to you. I think that's the main message of this story, to try and do good and be happy.
Whether you have an interest in nature or not, or whether you've had to deal with depression or isolation, I think that there's something in this story for a lot of people. It's a feel good story that helps to show kids that even when you feel at your lowest, when everything seems to have gone wrong, there's still hope and beauty in the world.
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