Unfortunately I have not been able to connect with this book and after multiple attempts have had to admit defeat and mark as dnf.

I am really sorry to say that this is the first book ever I decided to not finish after 30%. The first couple of pages were interesting, and I was wondering what adventures Benji would encounter next. But then I noticed this was just a collection of anecdotes, a series of small events and thoughts of people I was not able to relate to. There was no real introduction, and most important, no real plot you could follow - just this sequence of moments and comments which I had already forgotten after turning the next page. I did not care for the people in this book, and thus was not very interested in what they had to say. The photos did not help either, they just seemed to be randomly thrown between the pages - a short note or description may have helped to put them in context.
Finally, I want to emphasize that this is my personal humble opinion. I do not intend to belittle the author's efforts in writing this book - it just wasn't mine.

This was okay, barely, for me. Some nice writing and engaging phrases here and there but not enough to keep me enthralled. As someone else said it was rather like an industrial Swallows and Amazons - I didn’t enjoy S&A either.

I found the photos in the book unnecessary and distracting - perhaps I would have felt differently had I been reading a hard copy.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

<<Weirdo' was a word I heard frequently, which I took to mean 'possessing imagination and curiosity and a resistance to being force-fed culture by capitalism'[...] (I would replace capitalism with society for it to be 100% accurate) >>

1983 is a tender portrait of a childhood at the turn of the '80s in Nottinghamshire. I guess, depending on age, many readers will find themselves in Benji's voice and recollections of his childhood! I am not one of those, as I was born in 1983, and in a different country too. But that did not stop me enjoying the tongue in cheek humour that Cox favours. Benji's voice seemed to me rather accurate for an 8 year old, especially for one with a wild imagination and a thirst for learning. Benji really made this narrative for me. It glued together all the other voices, making 1983 a vibrant novel. As for format, it reminded me of Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson. In my view, 1093 is build in the same manner, with a more prominent voice when it comes to Benji, and also a more fluid narrative, seen that it is in fact a novel rather than a collection of short stories. Also, Cox adds some interesting characters, so to speak, which was a bit surprising. But I'd say it works, because it's what one would expect for a child like Benji to come up with it! And I loved the pictures! There's something magical in looking at wired, random picture that people took and trying to imagine a narrative for them!

I struggled to get into the story. The different points of view and timelines made this a confusing read. It did improve but the ending was quite abrupt. Not the gripping read I had expected.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This is different to what I've read of this author before. It comes across as part memoir, part whimsy. Because of this it took me longer to read than normal.
Kind of kooky but entertaining.

If you’ve followed Tom Cox on social media or his blog, he is very good at photography, and pairing photographs with his words. In 1983, he presents a year in the life of Benji, as told through him and some of the other people that have been in his life. Benji’s portions feel almost like a stream of consciousness style that is a bit difficult for me to keep focus on and track the changes in the Points of View and time. Cox uses the photographs from his collection help to bring the characters and the Nottingham of Benji’s childhood to life.

(Netgalley ARC)

This book is set in a specific era and location which should resonate with certain readers. I have to admit I struggled to get into it because there didn't seem to be much of a plot and the multiple narrators were not very interesting. I would have preferred to keep the same narrator to emphasise the coming-of-age feel of the novel. It read like a collection of real-life memories with a few fictionalised details. It just wasn't what I thought it would be but I'm sure many readers will enjoy.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for an early read of 1983. Whilst I was an adult during this year it was nostalgic to look back on it through a child's eyes. Is it fiction? is it memoirs? who knows! It was an enjoyable short read.

An industrial Swallows and Amazons

Let me start with: other people are weird. The author, Tom Cox, is weird.

Actually, this novel is a lovely example of kishōtenketsu, and you will not see the fourth act twist no matter how you read the first three. In a conflict-free childhood world (of 1983, when Greenham Common was going on, when Thatcher was eviscerating the miners), the author, or rather, his alter ego Benji narrates the year he was eight, seen from forty years later. The opening chapter fails to unite the narrative, but about a quarter of the way in the book starts to work, and other voices are given their time in the sun, from Benji's family members and school friends, to neighbours, teachers and others.

The others is where it gets weird; No spoilers, but WEIRD.

Do I think it works? No, I'm not sure that it does. It's like a table with three normal length legs and one that's super-long, which means it's forever tilting, completely off balance and everything slides off the tabletop. The bit that fails most is the present day bits, too little, too light, putting all the hard work on eight year old Benji, which is fine, but this isn't a kid's book, and the other stuff suffers in comparison. It's not the first time I've noted this of an Unbound book, and it probably won't be the last.

An uneven three stars.

In his newsletter, Tom Cox recently described the genre of his last few books as 'Me', by which obviously he meant 'Tom Cox' - but there were times here, especially early on, when I felt he could almost have been talking about the genre of 'Me' meaning 'Alex Sarll'. Sure, I'm a couple of years younger than him, and grew up a few miles away, but this is absolutely the childhood I remember, climbing frames and cousins, Fighting Fantasy books overlaying a strangeness on self-directed wanderings, Nottingham polarised between the Victoria Centre and its perpetual poor relation the Broadmarsh. I'm sure it still makes sense even if you've never heard the word 'nesh' before, or experienced the sketchiness of the Savoy cinema (the last place I remember filmgoers smoking, 1994); whether it would still land the same way, I couldn't tell you. Though I suppose there have been other books recently which felt like the authors trying to fix their childhoods in amber, a hedge against their own passings and the world's, and while my boyhood was certainly less like Alan Moore's or Robyn Hitchcock's than Cox's, I loved those books too. Besides, truth be told, 1983 didn't all land the same way for me. I was so taken with child Cox alter ego Benji that whenever other narrators took the baton, it was a bit of a drop, and while that drop was mild when it was parents, cousins or teachers filling out the story, I was less convinced by the voices of the neighbourhood thug, the daffodils, or (spoiler, possibly?) the aliens. And this despite being someone who, as a rule, much prefers books about aliens, or narrated by plants, to gentle period pieces about not quite bohemian upbringings, and despite the alien sections being the ones which make most manifest the beautiful and not implausible notion of a particular flavour of loving but no-nonsense East Midlands matriarchy saving the world(s).

(Netgalley ARC)

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me this book for a fair and honest review.

I really did not like this book. I couldn’t get into it all. I just felt that was no real storyline that grabbed my attention.

Although not a child of the 80's, I did appreciate the nostalgia of this book. Set from just before the miners strike ,it really did capture the sense of place and time. Not sure that I followed what was going on some of the time but did enjoy the setting.

I enjoyed this novel because it was just slightly different from what I usually read. The author’s voice was both descriptive and nostalgic, with meandering pacing to match. Photographs are randomly included from time to time, but not captioned, so I consistently wondered if is was a memoir or fictional.

This novel is very character focused, starting as an imaginative stream of consciousness / slice of life wander through the eyes of a young boy, Benji, focusing on friends and school and parents and his neighbourhood in Nottinghamshire in 1983. But then the pov switches to other characters (mostly adults) reminiscing about that particular time and place in the past. This switch didn’t completely work for me for awhile - while the adult povs added extra information to the boy’s story, I really just wanted to get back to the Benji’s story, and the timeline jumping took a bit to get used to. However, in the end, it all gets a bit weird, which works out quite cleverly as the povs start to corroborate elements previously told, and though the conclusion is abrupt I found it quite satisfying.

So I didn’t mind this, particularly the slow, nostalgic atmosphere of the Benji’s story, and the clever speculative callbacks nearer the end as the story comes together.

Thank you to Netgalley and Unbound for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Reminded me of my childhood, growing up in a similar time and place. thank you for sharing. Thank you to # NetGalley and the publisher for an ARc.

Not sure if this was memoir, memories or fiction. The writing is engaging, especially by Benjy, but I could have done without some segments.

I did not like the photos. Sorry. I want to use my own imagination.

You might enjoy this if you were a child in 1983 and like gentle and humorous memories.

I read a review copy provided by Netgalley.co.uk and the publishers.

3.5 / 5

Thank you Tom Cox, netgalley and unbound for providing me with this arc in return for an honest review.

The book synopsis does describe the book perfectly.

As a child of the 80's (The best decade of course) I enjoyed this book. The endless references to all things 80's had me nodding in agreement and smiling when something I had forgotten about suddenly turned up.

Shout out to the Gnasher pin-badge. Wore mine with pride.!

The book tells of events Past, present and future of 1983 through recollections from many characters. The stories inter-connect with mentions of other character stories observations. The cast of characters is certainly expansive and often strange including Alpacas and Daffodils !

I decided a 3.5 as although I enjoyed the book, it did meander all over the place sometimes and ultimately the ending was very abrupt and I am not sure I fully understood the ending.

I really enjoyed this! There were a few chapters in this book, such as the chapters by the daisies, that I felt did not add anything to the story, but overall it was a really good read and I recommend reading it when it comes out later on in the year.

This fictional reminiscence of an eight year old boy in 1983 defies categorisation and is all the more effective for it. It’s like an oral history where the whole work is more than the individual stories. Some realistic and supported by photographs from the author’s past, some fantastic (in all senses), this felt like an immersive as well as a reading experience. Remarkable.

A nice little blast from the past, that brings back so many memories of what it was like living in those times.
For me at least.
Benji has a wonderful imagination, and brings his family to life so well, with bonus photos.
A lovely little read.