Little Bang
Kelly McCaughrain
A bittersweet Northern Irish romance that takes a new look at teen pregnancy, the magic and mess of first relationships, and a young woman’s right to choose her own future. Beneath the New Year’s Eve fireworks, shy science-nerd Mel and slacker songwriter Sid get pregnant on their first date. Any sixteen-year-olds would expect trouble – but this is Northern Ireland 2018, where abortion is still illegal. Mel’s religious parents insist she must keep the baby, whilst Sid’s feminist mum pushes for a termination.
Mel and Sid are determined to do this together, but they soon discover that pregnancy is totally different for boys and girls. When their relationship starts to fall apart under all the pressure, Mel finds herself feeling alone with the impossible dilemma of the Little Bang growing inside her.
Science-nerd Mel and almost-ready-to-dropout wanabee songwriter Sid develops an attraction in school, and accidentally find they’ve got themselves a pregnancy situation going on after New Year’s Eve. Mel’s parents are traditional – they’re in Northern Ireland not long before abortion was legalised there – and insists Mel has the baby. Sid’s single parent mum is upfront about the challenges they’ll face and suggests other options. Mel just wants direction, Sid wants to prove himself as boyfriend and provider.
Mel and Sid could not be more different and the dual POV really added to the reading experience. I really enjoyed being simultaneously in both characters heads at the same time. This book really does not shy away from the details, and I really appreciated that, it’s shocking that Mel had such difficulty accessing information to make her decision in such recent times. For me this book also really highlighted the differences faced by both females/males and how they experience and are treated during pregnancy.
This explores such a difficult topic, of teenage pregnancy in a country where abortion is illegal, and it was honestly scary to explore. This book showcases how different pregnancy is for a mother versus a father, particularly in teenage relationships, and the difficulties a woman goes through when making decisions about her own body. It’s written very respectfully, and clearly the author has done her research and taken care when having these conversations. There’s a lot of character development that I really enjoyed.
I would give it 4 stars because at times it felt very political and pushed the politics of certain beliefs a bit much. I would recommend this to anyone over 13. This book should be in lots of libraries and schools so kids in secondary school have access to more knowledge on topics like the ones in this book.
Published by Walker Books, 2024
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