Poof (paperback)

Poof is a great read. So much of the content reflects my own life experience. Thank you James. I feel quite normal after reading your life challenges and experiences.

This is a wonderful story about the challenges faced by James in his childhood and the consequences of trauma. It echoes loudly in my own life and has reawakened some demons but also helped me to put them to rest. This is an emotional roller coaster of a journey exposing the worst in people and also the best.

Raw I took this book on holiday with me to Japan, and said I would only read a couple of pages a day took me a couple of days to get into it but then Boy oh boy, it flew never wanted to hug someone and slap someone at the same time I hope you’re well and safe and stay away from the meth

What a ride, what a tale. I was awed and shocked and saddened and angry, a roller coaster ride that I didn’t want to end. James has written a great story that is full of great sadness and pain, but he’s triumphant in holding onto himself.

Taking into account my review title, upon reading the book, I didn’t know there were people out there who could inflict such brutality upon another human being for sexual pleasure, or there were people like James who would take it. Did James also get sexual pleasure from the beatings? At one point MM said he could go to jail for the beatings he inflicted upon James and I was thinking like: ‘yeah you should be in jail you sadist creep’ (not that James would ever go to the police).
I found the book profoundly disturbing but James’s honesty in telling his story opened my eyes to a world I didn’t know existed that shone a light on this part of the LGBTQIA+ community for me.
I was also troubled by his being bullied as a little boy of four by another group of four year old boys who wouldn’t let him play with him. Just confirms how young bullies can be.
Furthermore, I worked at a private school for more than 30 years and, given this length of time, I became aware of, and good at picking out boys who were struggling to fit in and needed support. These included boys I suspected were gay. I was therefore appalled that James appears to not have had such a caring adult at the schools he attended as a teenager to look out for him and to engage with him about his sexuality and ensure him that it was okay to be gay and it was not something to be ashamed of. I think this would have helped him enormously as he was struggling to come to gripes with his life that he did not understand.
All in all a sobering read.