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The Lad From Castlebay Down
by James Matthews

Reviewer: spike382
Status: Complete
Word Count: 89,419

For my review I decided to read a story by an author whose work I was unfamiliar with.  So, this is my first foray into the writing of James Matthews.  

In the Lad From Castlebay Down, we meet a young man named Corbin, who, while having an artistic drive with a motivation to make something of his life, is extremely unhappy and extremely confused. There’s good reason for all of this as he is dealing a much less than ideal home life.  He has an abusive father, and a mother, who while caring, still looks the other way. He also has a girlfriend named Leah, they’ve been together for two years, and yet, Corbin is unhappy in this relationship, and they cannot seem to connect with each other.  

On top of all this, his father is uprooting the entire family and leaving their bustling town to live in the tiny seaside village of Castlebay Down. His father has decided, after watching a few videos online, that he will start a career trawling for fish. The move shakes up the entire family in more ways than one, and it starts soon after Corbin meets the titular “Lad,” a friendly local named Troy.

This was a very fast-moving story.  It packs a whole lot of events into a fairly short amount of time. I think if I expounded upon that much more, I’d be giving away spoilers. I’ll just say, this is a fairly serious story, dealing with some pretty weighty subject matter, and it does it all in just 17 chapters. There’s some pretty interesting twists and turns, and overall Corbin has a rather interesting and fulfilling journey. It’s a bit of romance, coming-of-age, and family drama all rolled into one.  

Overall, this is a great entry by James Matthews and if you haven’t had a chance to read his work before, I highly recommend this.  

Category: Fiction  Genres: General Fiction, Romance  Sub-genres: Drama, General Romance  Tags: young adult, boat, coming of age, serious, love, friendship  Rating: Mature