What Milo Saw by Virginia MacGregor

What Milo Saw by Virginia Macgregor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 3 days

Pages - 400

Publisher - Sphere

Source - The Works

Blurb from Goodreads

Nine-year-old Milo suffers from retinitis pigmentosa: his eyes are slowly failing, and he will eventually go blind. But for now, he sees the world through a pin hole and notices things other people don't. When Milo's beloved 92-year-old gran succumbs to dementia and moves into a nursing home, Milo begins to notice things amiss at the home. The grown-ups won't listen when he tries to tell them something's wrong so with just Tripi, the nursing home's cook, and Hamlet, his pet pig, to help, Milo sets out on a mission to expose the nursing home and the sinister Nurse Thornhill.




My Review

Told from the point of view of Milo, nine years old, owner of Hamlet his pet pig, carer of his 90+ year old gran and has a condition called retinitis pigmentosa. When Milo's gran has one incident too many his mum decides enough is enough and off she goes to a care home. Milo is distraught and soon discovers the care home isn't what it first appeared to be. It isn't easy being nine, trying to get adults to listen when something isn't right and gathering proof against the charge nurse Thornhill. Milo will stop at nothing to try and get his gran home, making friends along the way and with the trusty Hamlet at his side what can go wrong.

We learn a little about the condition retinitis pigmentosa and I will look more into the condition however I would have liked to have had a bit more in depth in the book. As well as Milo's grans dementia we have family issues, infidelity, abuse, relationships, friendship, the struggles of a refugee and flashes of a war torn country.

It is a busy wee book, emotive at times, humorous, sad, Milo is such a sweet wee boy and I loved his relationship with both his grandma and his pet pig. Such an innocent lad with a big heart, very pure in a situation that is horrific in parts. I think some of the choices made by Milo's mother will rile some readers for different reasons, she made my eyebrows raised & crossed on a few occasions. Easy enough to settle into, I did enjoy it if enjoy is the correct word, this is my first dance with this author, I would read her again 3.5 out of 5 for me.

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