Bruce Gargoyle's Reviews > What To Do If You Turn Invisible

I received a copy of this title from HarperCollins Australia for review.

Ten Second Synopsis:
Ethel lives with her grandmother, is plagued by terrible acne and has become the unwilling friend of new boy Elliot (Smelliot) from London. When Ethel discovers she has the ability to become invisible via her new skin treatment and the generous application of UV light, her life suddenly becomes a lot more complicated.

If you are looking for a story with charming characters, a solid friendship and some shenanigans involving a sunbed and seriously dodgy alternative medicine this is the book for you. On immediately finishing the book I felt that I didn't feel this one as much as Time Travelling with a Hamster, but with a bit of distance since the time I finished it, I've decided that I'm actually more fond of the main characters of this novel than the previous.

Ethel lives with her grandma and is bullied for having terrible acne. Elliot is a recent blow-in from London and seems unaware of his status as social pariah. An unlikely but heartwarming friendship is formed over the course of the book (and I mean that in the least vomit-inducing way possible) and by the end one can really believe the bond between Ethel and Elliot is authentic. Did I mention that Ethel also suffers from spells of invisibility now and then? Well, she does, and that's where most of the humour comes in, but really, this is a story about family past and present and the family you build for yourself.

I did have one niggle though. Hailing as I do from the country with the highest rates of skin cancer in the world, I have a natural and pathological aversion to sunbeds given the fact that they are proven to increase rates of deadly skin cancers and have rightly been banned here. It did grate on me that Ethel happily gets into one multiple times throughout the story and I feel there should be some author's note at the end (or the beginning, or throughout) that plainly points to the dangers of placing your naked skin under intense UV radiation for any period of time for the sake of a bit of a tan. It will kill you people.

Admittedly, this is not a good enough reason not to read the book though.

Apart from sunbed irritation, this was a thoroughly enjoyable story that skilfully incorporates elements of magical realism to lift the plot out of the expected boundaries for contemporary middle grade and YA "issues" books. Yes, Ethel is dealing with some difficult issues about identity, bullying, loyalty and honesty, but the inclusion of the invisibility works both as a humorous side plot, and a metaphor for escaping one's problems and taking decisive action. Elliot is a fantastic character who, it seems, can only be himself and this provides a nice foil for Ethel's desire to become someone different. All in all this is a strong contemporary story about growing up, with the added bonus of fun and fantasy woven in.