Customer Reviews
Please give your review a title. - By: Alex DaLarge, 30 Mar 2008 
Highly recommended. If you've ever seen the film "How To Get Ahead In Advertising" & thought it was a good premise badly handled, then read this. If you've ever read any patronising 'teen fiction' & felt patronised by a patronising author, & need an antidote, read Henry Tumour.
Best ending to a novel since Ulysses
Great fun - By: tybalt-quin, 08 Mar 2008 Hector's a a geeky schoolboy with a nice-but-vague valium-addicted hippy mother with a social conscience she's trying to pass on to her son. The brain tumour is a character in his own right who comments on Hector's story. Henry Tumour has a highly defined sense of fashion, nerves of steel & low animal cunning who advises Hector on how to beat the bullying Tierney & his cronies & encourages him to pursue the school goddess, Uma Upshaw, rather than Amanda Something who has a wine-stain birthmark on her face but who Hector feels more drawn to.
There's a great deal of humour in the book, although the knob jokes & sex gags won't be for everyone. Parents should note that the f-word appears several times during the story, which may not make this appropriate for younger readers. The book also shows the cruelty of the school playground or school bullies & I did shudder at one scene towards the end involving a used condom. My biggest nitpick is that the final confrontation between Hector & Tierney didn't quite convince me, not least because it relies on Tierney not knowing something that I reallly felt he would know.
McGowan shows how brain tumours can affect personality & behaviour in a way that shows how serious they are whilst keeping it interesting & humourous. You finish the book almost feeling sad about what's going to happen to Henry & worried about what will happen to Hector but you never pity Hector for his plight. Some people may read this & think it doesn't take cancer seriously, but the point of the book is to show that being a teenager with brain cancer doesn't have to mean the end of your life & in Hector's case, it actuallly helps him to take control of his life & stop worrying about what his schoolmates think.
McGowan incorporates graphic novel artwork & script-layout to help tell the story & whilst this could have been distracting, it kept me completely hooked.
Amazing - By: Me, 16 Apr 2007 WARNING!!! First & formost, this book is for TEENAGERS ONLY. There is language & topics in the book not suitable for younger audiences!
An unblelievable book. This was one book that reallly got to me, & very few books do that. It was so good, that I even rate it above the Harry Potter & Artemis Fowl series'. It's about a boy who finds he has a brain tumour, that makes him do things, & gives him advice on many different topics...such as hairstyles, or how to snog the most beautiful girl in school, etc. You get to know both Hector & Henry (the tumour) very well and, because i can relate to Hector, I found it an amazing book to read.
Shortlisted for Award - and rightly so - By: lilysmum, 16 Apr 2007 This book has been shortlisted for the Lancashire Children's Book of the Year Award, which is how I heard of it. I saw it on a flyer while browsing in my local library. I was intrigued by the title. It is about a boy who finds out he has a brain tumour. That sounds pretty heavy for teen fiction but the book makes you laugh out loud as it deftly handles philosophical themes such as: why are we here? why do we die? etc. It is probably suitable for readers over 12. My son also liked it very much. He read it in two days. Highly recommended.
