In the moving and compelling debut novel from Benjamin Zephaniah, a young man's life is completely changed when his face is badly scarred in a car accident.

Martin seems to have it all. He's cool, funny, and he's the undisputed leader of the Gang of Three, who roam their East London estate during the holidays looking for fun. But one night after the Gang leave a late night rap club, Martin accepts a ride from Pete, a Raider's Posse gang member. Too late, he realises that the car is stolen, and that the police are after them. I really wanted to like this book. The cover is good and thought provoking and the concept behind it was really interesting. I feel like if it had been executed better this book could have been brilliant. Unfortunately it wasn't. This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. What i like about this book is that it has taught me that beauty and looks don't matter. And it has all the different genres in it.

I really loved Martin´s story and his days in the hospital and the friend he made there reminded me a lot of when I was hospitalized and the friend I made at the clinic <3

With this being my 3rd reading of 'Face' (reading the book twice, and the play once), I still love this book and the message it teaches the reader.It’s just a little too shaky in places, and whilst there aren’t any overt mistakes in terms of grammar and punctuation, I did occasionally find myself being jerked out of the story when somebody behaved strangely or said something unusual. You could tell it was purely for the sake of advancing the moral. And then there was the part where Zephaniah said it was a Friday, and in the following scene it was “the next day” and still Friday, somehow. The first problem I had was with Martin and his two friends called Matthew and Mark, it took me until the accident to be able to differentiate between the two of them and at that point they became much small characters. While they seemed like they could have been more interesting it also seemed as though they were assigned one character trait and that was the whole basis of who they were. Little depth was given to them.

Face was okay, but it wasn’t Zephaniah’s best – it was a little too preachy, too much like a moral tale, and it took me a while to get into it. Even once I’d been absorbed into the story line, I didn’t enjoy it much, although I did appreciate that the large print made it easy for me to power through it. The other characters are additionally well written - with their portrayals remaining relatable throughout, thanks to Zephaniah's realistic youth dialogue. Fleshing out a very clear world these young characters live in, with the change in dialogue between speaking with their child counterparts and adults conveying an accurate fictional narrative, within a non-fictional setting. I did like his friends from after the accident the Jamaican sisters and Anthony. I thought that they were interesting and unique characters and I would have loved to learn more about them. This was a powerful read, highlighting the subject of image and other people's reaction to disfigurement. It reminded me of Wonder by R. J. Palacio, another Young Adult book that I really enjoyed.It perfectly executes a change in character for Martin, who you go from having a distaste to, to supporting every step of his lifechanging journey. The pacing is excellent as well, with events naturally following on from one another - whilst never lingering on certain situations for too long. Constantly remaining engaging and new with each chapter. This would be an excellent prompt for discussion about prejudices regarding appearance and our reaction to those less fortunate than ourselves. At this point Martin knew something terrible had happened to his face. His heart pounded in his chest. He shifted his eyes to the left and saw his father standing over him. Face is a 1999 British novel by British-Jamaican author and poet Benjamin Zephaniah. It is about a young boy who suffers facial injuries in a joyriding accident. Face has also been adapted as a stage play. [1] It follows the story of Martin, a British teenager living in east London, and how his and his friends and family’s life changed after a horrific car crash.