In Clay, David Almond introduces us to David, an altar boy who occasionally drinks a little extra communion wine and smokes stolen cigarettes with his friend Geordie. David’s life changes when he befriends Stephen Rose, a new arrival in town, at the request of the local priest. Stephen turns out to be a gifted sculptor. As his friendship with Stephen grows, David learns that Stephen has the ability to mesmerize people and that he had been kicked out of his school for playing with the dark arts. Stephen shows David that together they have the ability to animate some of Stephen’s clay sculptures.
David and Stephen build a huge clay figure, and bring it to life, but David becomes afraid and runs off. David finds out the next morning that the neighborhood bully, who has given David a hard time, has been found dead. The rest of the day clay creature follows David around waiting for his command. When David tries to put the clay automaton down he sparks a confrontation with Stephen, resulting in Stephen escaping and the end of their creation. The story is character driven, and Almond does a great job of developing David into a sympathetic and tormented character. Some of the dialogue, however, may be difficult to read or understand.
Potential readers should be aware that , although the title and cover art suggest otherwise, the clay creature appears only toward the last half of the story and isn’t really the focus or even the source of the terror in the book for David. Stephen Rose who goes from being an awkward new kid to a manipulative destructive evildoer, is the true monster. An interesting take on the creation of a golem, Clay ends up being a solid story. Recommended addition. to YA collections.
Contains: some kissing and a description of a murder.