Twelve-year-old Jonathan Grisby is in a big trouble. Sentenced for a horrid crime, he is on his way to a reformatory school. And not just an ordinary one, but an ancient crumbling dark and foul place — an old crumbling fortress located on an isolated island. The school for young boys (or perhaps better said: “prison”) is run by an evil man who calls himself “The Admiral” and, together with his equally crooked staff, abuses his youthful charges on a daily basis with the excuse that he’s trying to reform them for the better and save their souls from evil. When a freak accident takes the lives of all the adult staff, the boys find themselves alone on the island. Yet their newfound freedom brings unexpected danger.
Author Dan Gemeinhart manages to maintain the suspense level in his novel by withholding pieces of important information, such as the nature of the crime that sent Jonathan Grisby to the Slabhenge Reformatory School. We witness the guilt ridden sorrow of the troubled boy, and can’t help but wonder if he will ever be able to find redemption.
It can be a bit challenging to place the action in the right time period. Because of the story’s nature, one may initially feel it is set in the Victorian Age, such as Dicken’s Oliver Twist, or perhaps in the early 50’s like William Golding‘s Lord of the Flies. Yet, at other times, the story feels quite contemporary.
Book Trailer
But the inconsistency of time does not ruin the reader’s experience, mainly because one develops a true interest in the characters. The young Jonathan Grisby is an intriguing main protagonist and, as his character develops, one begins to understand his motives and even perhaps begin to admire him — despite his shortcomings. Unfortunately, not all the characters in the novel are as well developed. An exception is another young boy named Colin, “a sneaky, sneaky thief” as he calls himself, with whom many readers will greatly sympathize, especially if one chooses the audio version of the novel. Hearing Colin’s lisp becomes a defining trait of his character, in quite an adorable manner.
Scar Island is a dark and compelling Coming-of-Age adventure and I really enjoyed it. Clearly inspired by Lord of the Flies, its narrative is fast paced and engaging, while the way in which the settings are described really helps one to feel the atmosphere of this God forsaken prison. Recommended!
We have all asked ourselves who the superheroes are in this world. A plausible answer is to be found in Mathieu Lalande‘s 2012 short film: Who Are The Superheroes?
Polish cinema has 
Rebekah Fortune’s 2017 intense Coming-of-Age family drama, Just Charlie, tells the story of Charlie (Harry Gilby), a promising young football player who is suffering from an identity crisis. Charlie feels uncomfortable, even trapped in his own body, and is torn between wanting to live up to everyone’s expectations (especially those of his father) and just being who he feels he is – a female.
If one decides to watch a Coming-of-Age film, a movie from the Nordic countries usually guarantees the story will portray that important period in anyone’s life as realistically as possible. The 2017 movie Star Boys (Original title: Kaiken se kestää) is no exception and juxtaposes the peculiarities of the adult world with the inexperience/innocence of childhood.
A few years ago (2011), I stumbled upon a short film with a peculiar title, The Strange Ones (Deux inconnus). It piqued my interest (as mentioned in that 
The resulting intriguing mix of drama, thriller, and mystery includes significant Coming-of-Age overtones, thanks primarily to the stellar performance of actor James Freedson Jackson in the role of the young teenage boy — who is essentially the main protagonist of the film. His excellent performance was authentic in the 2015 American movie 
The dream-like cinematography features some stunning lingering shots of nature, the main characters and the environment, which gives the film its unique visual atmosphere, further enhanced by the frequent usage of reappearing visual motifs.
Adapted from a book by Jack Ketchum, The Girl Next Door is one the harshest films that I have ever seen.
While not a typical first-love Coming-of-Age film, The Girl Next Door is a film about love – albeit a tragic one. People say true love is always tragic – which I can vouch for based on my real-life experiences (as unorthodox as they might be). The Girl Next Door’s narrative is beautiful, yet it is not easy to focus on higher ideals considering the excessive violence and cruelty on screen. The filmmakers have not spared viewers, and many gruesome details are there to observe. Knowing that the film is based on a true story (Sylvia Likens) and that it’s not implausible that similar events are happening behind closed doors in an otherwise idyllically looking neighborhood makes the story even more stomach-turning.
I am excited about reviewing the 1972 film by Robert Mulligan – The Other. Some people are not fond of films released more than ten years ago. In this case, I can assure you that if you didn’t know the year it was made in advance of watching the film — with its excellent camerawork and good cinematography — you wouldn’t be able to date this flick. 
To others (and here I include myself), Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick’s performance is enough to justify seeing the film, or at least if focusing on it one may forgive the somewhat confusing way in which the story develops. Even so, I was able to see the whole of the film on my second attempt.
