Trash by Andy Mulligan

“Trash” by Andy Mulligan is a mystery book about three young boys whose jobs are to dig through trash to find valuable items. The story takes place in a fictional city, Behala, based on Manilla in the Philippines. The book is written in an interesting way and lets you see how the story unfolds from multiple characters’ perspectives, from the three main characters and other people in the story. Lots of the book was fun to read and sometimes was a bit suspenseful, but some parts felt a little slow and boring. I thought the genre was a mystery, due to the fact that there is an important case happening in the book and the boys have to solve many mysteries throughout the book. The vocabulary in the book is not too challenging and I recommend it for people who like the mystery genre or want a good book to read. (Ashton. Grade 8)

Rating: 4/5

Vocabulary Difficulty: 2/5

"Trash" by Andy Mulligan is a captivating young adult novel that tells the story of three boys living in a garbage dump in a developing country. Set in an unnamed city in South America, the story follows the lives of Raphael, Gardo, and Rat as they dig through mountains of trash every day, looking for anything valuable they can sell to survive. One day, while going through the trash, the boys stumble upon a mysterious bag that contains a wallet, a map, and a key. It was a rollercoaster of a book as it had ups and downs in the storytelling. Some parts were quite awful and boring to read while some other parts were exciting. The narrative is told through the perspectives of the three boys, which offers a unique insight into their different backgrounds, personalities, and motivations. This makes the book more interesting. I believe the genre of this book is Mystery, I think this because when going on this adventure there are many mysteries that are needed to be solved throughout the way. The author's writing style is concise and vivid, effectively capturing the harsh realities of poverty, corruption, and violence that the boys face like what some scenarios could end up in this world. It is a recommended read for both young adults and adults who enjoy a well-written, suspenseful story with memorable characters and social commentary. Overall, "Trash" is an engaging and thought-provoking novel that raises important questions about justice, inequality, and the power of determination. (Jackson. Grade 8)

Rating: 3/5

Vocabulary Difficulty: 2/5

Trash by Andy Mulligan:

This book is a very adventurous book that has a good story and big plot twists. I liked the book more than I did the others, I think because the introduction is not that complicated. In this book there are a variety of different things happening, it is never boring. Something that could be better is that for example that they could sometimes explain more. But overall I like this book and would recommend it to people that like the genre Action and Fiction.

Andy Mulligan is an English writer that is best known for writing young adult Fiction books. Mulligan also won prizes for his books and is a very successful writer.  (Tomek. Grade 8)

Rating: 4/5

Vocabulary Difficulty: 2/5

“Trash” by Andy Mulligan tells the story of three boys who pick up trash for a living at a dump site. One day, one of the boys finds a mysterious item that they decided to keep, even though the police offered a great amount of reward for it. The item leads them on an adventurous and dangerous consequence, they meet a lot of disastrous obstacles on the way and overcome them together. I would recommend the book to anyone who enjoys reading the genre of adventure, or mystery books. Although the last few chapters had a few unexpected twists, I personally did not enjoy this book as it was slow-paced and lacked interest. Overall, I rated the book as a 3/5 as it included a lot of plot twists, but was too slow-paced.   (Ellery. Grade 8)

Rating: 3/5

Vocabulary Difficulty: 2/5

Trash by Andy Mulligan is a mixture of the adventure and suspense genres. The book features three boys who live in a dumpsite and pick up trash for a living. One day, one of the boys finds a mysterious item and decides to keep it even when the city police offer a considerable amount of money for its return. This decision brings severe consequences but they work together to right a terrible wrong. I enjoyed reading this book as it was interesting to follow the adventure of how the boys solve the mystery and there were many suspenseful moments that made me wonder what would happen next. The book also features important themes such as poverty, corruption, and friendship, although there might be some content that may be disturbing for some readers. Overall, I enjoyed reading this novel and would recommend this to people who like fast-paced adventure stories packed with suspense.  (Seoyeon. Grade 8)

Rating: 5/5

Vocabulary Difficulty: 2/5

Trash by Andy Mulligan is an adventure genre novel that is about three boys whose home is on a landfill, I personally really like this book because the plot of the book was exciting and it even had different characters' points of view, for the vocabulary, I found every word easy to understand as some word definitions are in the story. I would recommend this to everyone because the novel was enjoyable to read. The story is about three "dumpsite boys"; Raphael, Gardo, and Rat/Jun-Jun. One day, Raphael finds something mysterious in their landfill that can help solve a murder case that the police needed help investigating. Still, he decides to keep the evidence even when the police offer a relatively high reward for him. Still, the decision had consequences. The dumpsite boys now have to stay ahead of people pursuing them, they have to solve a mystery, and they must right their wrongdoings.  (Rama. Grade 8)

Rating: 4/5

Vocabulary Difficulty: 2/5