Book Review: I'm not Scared by Niccolò Ammaniti

I'm not scared : [a novel] by Niccolò Ammaniti

A strange and creepy novel which leaves you with an uneasy feeling.

A young boy from rural Italy stumbles into the dark secret of his village.

I’m not sure I can say I left this book happy but it certainly made me want to read more. The author does a beautiful job of capturing that feeling of being a kid and there are only a very few authors I’ve ever read who do that very well. (Ray Bradbury being the first which comes to mind.) I don’t know how these authors do it but I’m always happy when it happens. Many authors write about being a kid and it feels real (not forced), but writers like Bradbury and the author of this book leave me feeling as though I’ve been a child again (at least for a few short desperate hours). They capture the strange pangs and yearnings that come with being a kid and that is something I find fantastic in a book. For this alone I give “I’m Not Scared” high marks, but because the book is so desperately dark, in the end I had very mixed feelings about it