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Luckily, Dorian has a means to escape the madness. There's his mates Aaron, Joe and Calum, and Rosemary (aka The Herb) who is an honorary boy and lovely and normal, not at all icky and pink like the other girls he knows. He has his family who are, on the whole, good and supportive, and some of the colourful characters - his larger than life mum, the hell's angels Granny - have their own stories to tell which add a welcome diversion in Dorian's life, and some interesting extensions to the story.
Reading this as an adult I could tell from a few pages in how this was going to end, and indeed what I suspected would happen did so. This is not meant as a criticism - in fact, something that I think would appeal to readers of this book was that it was a nice, normal, believable, every day story, rather than a huge stretch of the imagination. I also liked the way it could appeal to both boys and girls: whereas books told through the narrative of a girl of this age would often put off male readers, I don't think this is the case when roles are reversed. I grew up reading Jean Ure and had a mild obsession with her dancing books, from [[Nicola Mimosa]] to [[''Star Turn]] '' and the other books in these respective series. These had a distinct girlie feel to them, so it's nice to see a boy-friendly book for a change.
Dorian starts off by describing this story as his autobiography to date, and I know writing up your life-thus-far is something many readers in the 8 - 12 age bracket will have done, either for fun or through the force of an English homework exercise. The way he talks passionately about his hobby - all things dinosaurs - also rang true for me and I'm sure many readers will have all-consuming obsessions of their own which dictate and impact upon everything they do in their day to day lives, allowing them to relate to Dorian's story.
