Written by Jonathan Trigell
Genre: Fiction
Published in May 2009
379 pages

We make a first impression and feel prejudice through a person’s background and this affects how we treat them. In particular, we often have a negative prejudice against criminals and make a wall between them and us. Many people still treat people as criminals even after they have been released from prison. This book is said from the point of view of a perpetrator, not the victim, and the story is about the crime and thereafter.

Boy A is a criminal who killed a child cruelly. When he was released on parole, he came back to society as Jack. Jack had Terry who acts like a father figure to him, and Chris who is his best friend. Furthermore, he had a lover, Michel, who gave him his first feeling about love. However, they left when Jack came back as Boy A. What happened to Boy A?

Boy A was a weak and small boy. He used to be bullied by his friends, and his homeroom teacher thought he was a disorderly student because he looked very dirty. Around that time, he met Boy B. Boy B was strong, despite being small. Although he had a small body, he tried to be look strong. After Boy B pinned friends who bullied Boy A, they became closer.

One day, they followed a very pretty girl, Angela, in town. She met a boy who had a powerful family background and he led her to Burn river. The boy raped her by riverside and then left. Boy A and B approached Angela, who was left alone, and then they asked her to do like she did with that boy. However, Angela gave a frosty reaction, so Boy B felt hurt by this. He hauled her under the bridge, and took out his knife. ‘Boy B started the horrible thing, but they killed her together.’

Many people were shocked that at just 10 years old, the boys committed murder. It was captured on CCTV, and they were sent to a youth detention center and then later moved to prison. In prison, other prisoners bothered Boy B and killed him. However, they made it appear that Boy B committed suicide. Contrary to Boy B, Boy A survived the abuse and finally he was released on parole.

In society, Boy A wanted to live an ordinary life and did not want to do harm to anyone. He tried not to break the law. When he got released on parole, he trembled with fear because he was afraid of being known as a murderer. At first, by pretending to be crazy, he wanted to live in a mental hospital to slip out of public view. In addition, he hid himself from others every day.

However, Terry helped him so he could live well in society. He fell in love with Michel and got a best friend, Chris. Although he became an ordinary person called Jack, he was always tormented about hiding his past. Then one day, he rescued a girl who had a car accident. In the newspaper, they made him out to be a hero and people called him a hero. But soon, his true identification was revealed by the media. The hero Jack became a murderer, Boy A, again. When he became Boy A, he lost his job, friends and his lover. He wanted to go a place where nobody lives, so he jumped into the sea to ride a boat.

When we read the book, Boy A, we realize that society has a negative prejudice against people even though they have been reformed and regret their crimes. There are many people who have been a criminal but are now living among us. When we meet them, we shouldn’t have a tendency to be partial in our judgment but we must instead try to view them as a normal person like ourselves.