It's got the diction (King James Bible minus all grammar), it's got a frame story of an older, wiser narrator looking back on his youth, and it's filthy - as in grit, grime, grease and legions of unwashed bodies.

I had thought this book was historical fiction, but it was more of fiction than realistic or historical. Based on this terrific debut novel, I believe author Paddy Crewe, has a glittering future to look forward to! A rollicking, page-turning wild west adventure, populated by a cast of arresting grotesques, with luminous imagery and an unforgettable protagonist. My Name Is Yip is a tremendous novel, one that both harks back and burns the way forward, that is built of sentences that sing and roar.It was fun to see how Crewe imagined it almost 200 years earlier, with all modern manifestations removed.

One October night in the small town of Heron's Creek, Georgia, Yip Tolroy is born, the cord snaked around his fragile neck, his skin a deathly white.Mama could barely look at him, but they muddled along, each in their own separate bubble of existence.

You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Plus it leads to the separation of Yip and Dud which for any reader I'm sure, is the highlight of the book! The characters of Dud and Yip are well crafted and I wish he would have done a little more with “Mama”. Other than my objection to the style which is only personal preference, the story is interesting and original.

It was a tough book to read at the beginning because of the grammar, dialect, and spelling but as the story progressed, I got used to it and it because easier. This, for me, is one of the most surprising and satisfying elements of the novel, and makes me think that the book heralds a great talent. It was very action packed and moved on quickly - I sometimes wished parts had lasted a little longer, for example when Yip meets an escaped slave ‘Solus’ who takes him prisoner. It gave me such a rare reading experience, putting it down left me feeling almost empty, as if, I didn't quite know what to read after it, because whatever it was, it wouldn't be this. As his mother still lies in the blood-slicked sheets, and Yip takes his first gulps of air, his father disappears without trace.