The Penalty by Mal Peet

The Penalty is about a famous footballer, El Brujito, who goes missing after a match. After missing a penalty, he is substituted and he returns to the changing-rooms. However, when his manager comes to check on him, he has mysteriously disappeared. Days on from his disappearance, Paul Faustino, a South American journalist, is reluctantly drawn into the case.

He travels to San Juan to collect evidence and speak to witnesses and when he is ready to leave a witness named Maximo Salez is mysteriously killed.  When Edson Bakula is pulled into the case. it is revealed that she is Brujito’s sister and she believes that she knows where he is...
   
Combined with the story is another of slavery and violence. A young boy is taken from his village he is packed on to a slave ship and sold as a slave. His whole life changes when he is sold to work in a sugar mill. But he manages to find happiness and marries another slave, Blessing. However, when their slave master finds out, he beats them and rapes Blessing. When he finds out that his wife has been raped he is furious. Furious enough to murder Morro, his slave master...

I think that The Penalty is well written, combining the two different stories is definitely effective. I really enjoyed the book as it was nothing like anything I had ever read before.

Primarily the book is about football; however anyone who does not enjoy football would find it just as enjoyable to read - both boys and girls.

I would give The Penalty a nine out of ten because it was a good story-line. However it was a bit confusing when it swapped story-lines. For the writing I would give it a nine out of ten because it contained humour, excitement and serious bits.

The Penalty was very good and I thoroughly enjoyed it. With the separate stories from chapter to chapter, you wanted to know what was going on all the time in each story, and how they were going to be linked in the end. I would definitely give the page-turning qualities ten out of ten.

Claudia adds:
This is a beautifully written tale of religion, superstition and kidnap. There is a kind of psychological horror on the part of the main character who is practically enslaved by the spirit of his ancestors. The Penalty grips you with the dark side of fame and its unexpected turns, the only downside being a confusing plot-line. I got quite lost at the beginning with the switching between past and present, but all becomes clear at the end.

Overall rating: seven out of ten.

The Penalty by Mal Peet is published by Walker Books. If you would like to order a copy from Amazon, please click the link below:

 The Penalty