20 october, 2018

Reading Log
Stone Cold
By: Robert Swindells
Week 41 - Chapter 1 to 3

The novel is written with two utterly different perspectives; the perspective from the newly homeless
16-year old boy, LInk, and the perspective of the newly retired sergeant-major, Shelter. Both of their
names are aliases and the reader never really found out about their real names.

Link starts narrating his story from the beginning, when he was just an “ordinary teenager” born to a
happy family in Bradford, Yorkshire. That’s when things changed and he was not as ordinary anymore.
The main reason is the big change happens in the family. The dad that ran away with a woman and his
mum got a new boyfriend, Vincent.
Through Link’s eyes, Vincent is the root of evil.
Not just that, his sister Carole, who was the only thing that kept him in that house moved to live with
her boyfriend. He felt that his “backbone” in this house has been broken.

After he left the house, he experienced a lot of hardships, unwelcomeness from people he knew and
dirty looks from people he didn't as they avoided him.

Shelter’s perspective seemed that of another man in his forties that had to leave his job in the military.
A job that he kept for so long he does not even know what to do anymore, which leads to him being
mentally deranged. At first, it felt that he was a homeless man, from the way he presented the word
shelter, however, later on, he speaks about his background.
Link often visited his sister for a good night sleep and a warm meal. He still felt the ill-favored glares
from Carole’s boyfriend, Chris.

Week 41 - Chapter 4 to 6

At each chapter's beginning, Shelter speaks more about his missions and his pattern in killing his
victims. I think his alias symbolizes the fact that he "takes" in homeless people and gives them the
food, the bath and the warmth they seek in a shelter.
However, he thinks he ends their suffering through murder while not even considering the fact that it
is not the right way to solve the homeless people's situation or problem. After killing them, he places
them aligned under the floorboards where it works like a built-in-refrigerator. Therefore, the bodies
won’t smell because of the heat.

Link searched for jobs everywhere starting from King’s Cross area and wider as far north as St John’s
Wood and as far south into Lambeth. He asked in restaurants, cafes, hotels, and pubs with no luck in
finding a job. That might because of his age living alone in a city as big as London.

Eventually, he got kicked out of the room that he rented by the rat-face renter. He joined them “- the
homeless kids” as he looked for a place to stay. A doorway. A good, deep one. He felt comfort in his
anonymity, where he was one among many.
A cold night with no bed awakens the urge to answer mother nature’s call. Link had to pee and
decided to go to the station toilets. He pushed away the attendant to get into the toilets after a short
argument with attitude problems.
As he went back to his doorway, he faced a bigger problem. A six-foot problem. That night, he got his
doorway and his watch snatched by the aggressive and non-friendly homeless man.

Week 42 - Chapter 7 to 9

Shelter is changing his victim pattern to avoid being caught in the trap of pattern. He chooses victims
with a variety of race and gender. For example, his second victim was a woman. Simply because the
one before was a man.

Shelter met Link and Ginger supposedly as he referenced to being approached by two dossers - one
scruffier than the other who looked young. He had also killed his third victim, becoming a serial killer.

Link met Ginger, the homeless man with a tad bit of more experience than Link had. A six-month
experience. Link wanted to hang onto Ginger, hoping to get a friend that could ease his loneliness and
teach him all he lacked in his journey as a new homeless person.

They had coffee together and started their day by “dossing” for some money in different places.
However, it seemed that they met Shelter while begging as it’s mentioned that “Ginger accosted a
stiff, military-looking guy who stopped, looked him up and down as if he was something the cat
sticked up and said ‘Change? I’d change you, my lad, If I had you in khaki for six weeks.’” and that
statement was mentioned earlier in the book from Shelter’s perspective.

Link went back to the DSS and got the response. However, he was told that “he made himself
homeless” which makes eligible for the benefit. So all he had to do was go back to begging for some
change.

Later on, he and Ginger went to sleep at Captain Hook’s boats where they stayed for a really cheap
price. Despite it being illegal when it comes to fire, health, and hygiene. The government does not
interfere since it keeps people off the streets. “Packing em’ away where the tourists can’t see em’, so
the powers that be turn a blind eye.”

Ginger meets three old friends, that were zombielike: two guys and a girl. Link started feeling jealousy
and insecurity rise in his heart. ‘Ginger’s friends’. They’ve shared experiences and hardships together.
‘What if I became alone again?’

Week 42 - Chapter 10 to 13

The winter had started in London with unbearably cold weather. Link and Ginger were cold, tired and
hungry with nowhere warm to go. Ginger went to Holborn to meet some mates and Link felt that he
wasn’t welcomed along. Thus, he decided to wait for him at the station.

Shelter was able to deceive (Ginger or Laughing boy one as he calls him) after he separated from Link.
He tricked him into thinking that Link was hit by his car and that he was at Shelter’s flat dying. Ginger
followed him foolishly into his flat and was unfortunately murdered there,
The next day, Link woke up with no signs of Ginger showing up, and thus, he decided to look around
for him. He asked a man who sells newspapers since the man is usually there. The man simply said
that he had seen Ginger with another old man and they were screaming frantically at each other. He
also mentioned that the other mysterious man said Link’s name.

After that, he went on seeking more information. He bumped into Toya, the girl that Ginger met a
couple of days ago in the cafe with the other two guys. She said that they met up the day before but
that Ginger went back from Holborn. Now, Link was sure Ginger had dropped him and left him. He
decided to start a new life with a new him. Those were his thoughts as he slurped a cup of coffee in a
small cafe. However, everything flew out of the window when Gail, the Scottish girl with the dark and
wide eyes, came into the cafe and sat at his table. She was the best-looking dosser Link has ever met.

“‘I’m scared, Link,’ she murmured. ‘I don’t know what to do - how to live on the street.’ was what
she said that made Link hesitate about leaving her and starting the new life. I think he felt the need of
someone in his life after he felt ‘betrayed’ or left behind by Ginger.

Link and Gail stuck together and it felt as if they were drawn to each other. Nevertheless, they had to
fall in love differently than normal people with houses and families do. LInk was starting to fall in love
with Gail. I think he noticed that he became possessive over her when she had vanished. He panicked
and searched all around the Gallery where they were begging. When he saw her come out of a phone
box, he felt so relieved about her not dropping out of his life as Ginger did.

The longing to work became an obsession. That’s what Link was thinking about as spring came
around. He was afraid of Gail being snatched away by a man with a job and a car knowing she was too
good-looking.

Gail and Link encountered an old man that asked them about his runaway daughter. Apparently, that
was Toya, Ginger’s friend.

Week 42 - Chapter 14 & 15

Nick, the newspapers’ seller, came up to Link and told him something shocking. Toya went with the
same guy as Ginger did, Shelter. They suspected a murder case but couldn’t tell the police because
they would drop the case since there’s no evidence. So instead, Link decides to investigate the issue
himself.

Two cops paid Shelter a visit at his flat as they were investigating the case of the vanishing dossers.
However, instead of not answering the door, Shelter decided to confront the enemy. I think he did
that because he believed that doing this in such a situation would kill every single suspicion the police
would have.

Gail and Link went to collect information about this suspicious flat where dossers vanish. Gail got the
address mysteriously from Captain Hook, she probably used her ‘charm’ to achieve that. After they
headed to the sought location, they kept an eye on their man.

‘He might be ordinary, Link. We don’t know he’s done anything, do we?’ was all Gail and Link could
think about while watching Shelter’s house in an attempt to find a clue.
In the midst of all these situations, Link and Gail get into a fight and separate. That happens because
Gail refuses to go and watch Shelter’s flat as it was pouring that night. Link got angry and told her to
shove off and went alone to Mornington Palace where Shelter lives.

Suddenly, after hours of waiting, shelter opens the door to call for his cat for its supper time. That’s
when he spots Link who stands there filled with embarrassment for being caught. Shelter asks Link
while putting on an innocent act if he would like to come in to stay away from the rain and cold; but
when Link refuses, he offers to give him an old coat. Link follows the old man into the house and looks
around deceived by the old and tidy furniture and the frilly aprons around the house. Then suddenly,
he sees the watch, the one he had handed over to the six-footer ages ago.

That’s when the story took a twist. Shelter came into the living room giving Link a different smile than
before. “Link. Link the Stink. Laughing boy two, at last. Whassamatter, Laughing Boy - cat gotcha
tongue?” said Shelter before overthrowing Link and holding him down with his head through the hole
in the floorboards. That’s when saw it. Saw them. Saw Ginger. They all looked different in military
clothes, cut hair, and camp boots. Link started vomiting and almost passed out.

That’s when the siren was heard in the distance. Two cops broke the door and barged into the flat
taking Shelter away from Link.

Gail was the one who brought the cops, which left Link astonished wondering how she did that since
they wouldn’t listen to them before.

She told him the truth, the bitter truth. “Link. My name is Louise Bain. I’m a journalist. -”. She was
living undercover as a homeless to make a research about their lives and has been doing it for months.
That is probably why she decided to stick to Link so that she could easily access more valuable
information about this underground world.

I found kind of confusing and unreasonable: the fact that she and Link fell in love and were dating. To
become a journalist, you need to seek a long education, which leaves Louise being at least 25 years.
How could she be seeing a minor? Also, how could Link not see that she is much older than what he
had interpreted?

The book ends with Louise leaving in a car and with Link standing there with some money in hands
that Louise had given him. Leaving the hero of this novel to have a tragic and confusing ending in the
book, I think the writer’s motive was to keep it realistic. The real world is not all happy endings and
fuzzy unicorns with sweet love all around. That ending reminds us that there are real people out there
living through these situations and not having a happy ending like a telly main character.

The last sentence was “It’s a free country, right?” which can be interpreted in many different ways
from different perspectives. However, I don't really understand why Link would stay that at the end.
Perhaps it could be the author speaks through his main character in this book stating his thought
upon homelessness in his ‘free’ country. Homeless people don’t get rights nor chances even though
Britain is supposed to support those troubled people.
Key entries
1. Vincent becoming Link’s mom’s boyfriend. Link moving out.
2. Link moving to London.
3. Link getting kicked out of the flat with the “negotiable” rent.
4. Shelter and Link and Ginger encountering each other.
5. Link and Ginger meeting.
6. Shelter murders Ginger.
7. Link meeting Gail.
8. Toya’s father speaking to Link asking about his missing daughter.
9. Link finds out the truth about Gail being a journalist and that she had lied about
her background.