SPUD (Troye Sivan) is a boy from an ordinary background who wins a scholarship to a private school in Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa. Initiated into the CRAZY 8 and surrounded by boys with nicknames like Gecko, Rambo, Rain Man and Mad Dog, Spud has his hands full trying to adapt to his new home.

Armed with only his wits and his diary, Spud takes us from illegal night swimming and schoolboy pranks to the red-hot furnace of the rugby field and cricket pitch. He also invites us into the mind of a boy struggling to come to terms with a strange new world, a boy whose eyes are being opened to love, friendship and complete insanity.

This is a huge book both literally (at 594 pages) and emotionally in its message regarding humanity, as throughout her story she constantly defines (both negative and positive) what it means to be human.  From the very first page this book is totally engaging and emotionally challenging. It begins with the trauma, despair and hopelessness of Bettencourt failing in one of her numerous attempts to escape her imprisonment as a hostage of the FARC (a brutal terrorist guerrilla organisation).

The beauty of the Colombian jungle is juxtaposed against the physical hardships of living in a very dangerous and consequently (and more often than not) an extremely physically painful environment.    With the Colombian Army sending out search and rescue teams the guerrillas were constantly moving camps and forcibly marching the often starving hostages through the jungle.