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For some a coming-of-age can feel more like a coming-of-rage when feeling overpowered in the struggle to process the maelstrom of emotions seething through us in a world that feels uninviting. Beleaguered by condemnations of bad behavior often worsens the feelings of isolation and shame, such as is the case for Max Porter’s titular character, Shy, who’s attempts at temporary relief have been been short on solace but lengthy on his criminal record, and the road to healing often seems impossible to find in the fog of frustration. Porter’s Shy is a very empathetic and experimental look at young men teetering off the edge—a leitmotif of Porter’s works—and brought to Last Chance House, �a shite old mansion converted into a school for badly behaved boys in the middle of bumblefuck nowhere,� that is possibly also as haunted as the boys feel their own minds are. Using an impressive variety of form and playful poetic expression that structurally recreates the bewildering way Shy processes the �shattered flicker-drag of these sensejumbled memories,� the experimentation occasionally seems to supercede the execution though the overall effect still lands. And like Shy’s own feelings, this novel �feels colossally sad. Blisteringly sad. Almost ecstatically sad,� yet the healing power of music and and optimistic finish keep it afloat and send the message deep into the heart of the reader. Caustic yet heartfelt, Shy is a moving novella that interrogates masculinity and mental health while critiquing the ways society would sooner brush those in need out of sight and out of mind, all culminating in a unique and penetrating novel that reminds us everyone deserves a chance to heal.

�The night is huge and it hurts.�

Max Porter has a knack for expressing emotional extremes and trauma, with his best-known work, Grief Is the Thing with Feathers, being a searing portrait of grief, especially when expressing the ways two young sons wrestle with it. Grief had the bemusing and darkly-comical Crow figure to soften the heartache which is an element missing from Shy which instead plunges the reader into the swirling pain of memories, shame and frustration. The only real relief comes from some great passages on music, taking on ethereal qualities through Porter’s prose, but even the aims at comedy through young men’s antics feels more bruising than bemusing. This is part of the attempt to show the struggles of boys in a society that pushes and models a masculinity on them that is detrimental to their emotional growth and expression. Slurs and insults abound even when �just having a laugh, and �the boys just rip and rip at each other, endless patterns of attack and response, like flirting’s grim twin.� It makes boyhood seem a very unfriendly landscape, especially for those who are more sensitive. This is furthered by these boys often having a lack of positive role models, such as Shy’s step-father being aggressive and abusive as his response to confrontation or parenting in general.

Shy struggles in this, and while Last Chance is a place for healing being in close proximity to a lot of rough personalities only makes him feel more on edge. The novella all takes place on a night he chooses to run away, though the story spirals back across the timeline to capture his experience of �sensejumbled memories.� While it may take a moment to get one’s bearings in this abstract and chaotic narrative approach, it is where Porter really shines. It is written in a unique space between fiction and poetry, changing forms frequently and accommodating multiple voices (sometimes in multiple timelines at once) through text modifications like italics or bolded letters or simply placement on the page. The style shifts dramatically, from short, staccatoed lines to big dense passages without punctuation to reflect frenetic thoughts bubbling over in anxiety. Or there is the voice of the step-father, written in a poetic form that seems to cluster frequent phrases rather than reflect a single argument (the text appears center-justified in the novel):

�Do you think that's an appropriate way to speak to me? / Do you want to break this family apart, is that what you want? / I can't believe you would choose to do this / Some people don't have the luxury of a nice mum to speak to like that / Wow, here we go again / Don't you dare walk away / Please don't do this again /
Have you any idea of the hurt you've caused? / Are you trying to trying to destroy our lives? / What's the point of all this? / I am literally begging you to treat me like a human being / Come back here / Not again, please not again�

It is apparent that Shy has a lot of guilt and feels powerless against his own actions, and has been treated with disdain for them. It is another critique of masculinity here, though the softer approach of those in Last Chance house still haven’t gotten through to him.

It is also an interesting critique on the treatment of those deemed criminals or troubled youth, the way they are discarded from society, and how the already minimal resources for help are typically underfunded and staffed but overworked and underpaid professionals. The possible end of Last Chance house is brilliantly indicative of this. �If the owner of the building gets planning permission to convert it into luxury self-contained flats, then Last Chance will be a thing of the past.� There is a documentary being filmed about Last Chance, though being used as a prop is another element that sets off Shy here.

This is experimentally brilliant, though occasionally it feels that there isn’t enough beneath the experimentation. One benefit of abstraction in narration is the reader’s mind fills in a lot of space and you can imply a lot with only a few linguistic strokes, which might by why the middle of this book felt a bit overstuffed, repeatedly adding to Shy’s litany of crimes or sorrows that could have been understood just as strongly in implication instead of constantly bringing them back up. I really did like the music elements, however, with some playful passages about that really breaking up the harsher sections.

�God is a bouncy bastard who wants his people together in the dance. Rolling. Technology and soul. Hallefuckinlujah he loves the drums. Rain them down on me.�

This is definitely a “its not you its me� thing, but when I read Grief Is the Thing with Feathers I was reading it alongside Master of Reality by Mountain Goats singer John Darnielle which deals with many of the same things here: a boy in a mental health hospital using music as he way of processing his emotions. I think because I liked that one better and associate it with Porter I may have felt a little underwhelmed here. I like how this one launches into some pretty surreal moments (particularly with what might be the ghost of the place?) but it does kind of unravel. The ending makes up for it all, however.

A short but powerful little book, Shy excels on experimentation and expression for a sharp look into mental health and the people fighting against their own minds. It is deeply empathetic and wonderfully poetic, and while it might go off the rails a bit and value experimenting over substance, it makes for a brilliant little read.

2.5/5