Beautiful Malice

…by Rebecca James.

17 year old Katherine Patterson has moved to Sydney to get away from her life in Melbourne. While she lives with her aunt Vivien and attends Drummond High School with the aim of keeping to herself and getting through the HSC, she is befriended by Alice at school. Alice is infectious. An extroverted, bubbly girl living by herself in the inner city, breathtakingly beautiful and with no apparent regrets or anxieties. However, Alice avoids talking about anything emotional. But it doesn’t bother Katherine as she too has a secret she wants to keep hidden. It has to do with the death of her younger sister Rachel. The very reason Katherine left Melbourne and chose not to go to Newcastle with her parents.  However, all is not right with Alice. She can be vicious and mean. She treats her boyfriend Robbie like dirt. She doesn’t like it if things are not all about her.

Will Katherine put up with this or will she see through Alice? 

What is it about Katherine’s past that makes her still feel so guilty?

What happened to her sister Rachel? What is the deep dark family secret?

And what secrets does Alice have herself? 

To find out the secrets, read the book. All in all, it was a captivating thriller and I managed to read it in a day. The author has an engaging style and the plot is pretty interesting. The characters are average in that there isn’t too much depth to them. However, you have to remember it is a book aimed at young adults and possibly the plot is more important than characters. Some of the shit that Alice dishes out to her ‘friends’ makes it a bit hard to understand why they put up with it. Why they put up with her. The book goes from present to past with an adult Katherine narrating the story. The adult Katherine appears to have dealt with a lot of grief through her life and is now living for the sake of her 4 year old daughter. In short, it is a great debut novel.

I would give it a rating of 4.

Until next time,

Cheers!!

Note: This has been cross-posted on my personal blog.

Wanting

‘Wanting’ is a book by Australian author Richard Flanagan. The year is 1839. The setting is Van Diemen’s land (Tasmania, as it is known today). A young Aborginal girl by the name of Mathinna attempts to get help from the Protector for her dying father. Fast forward twenty years on. Charles Dickens, the most prolific author of his time, is dealing with a dead end marriage and lack of interest in life. Until he is approached by the person connecting the two stories together. Lady Jane Franklin, the wife of one of the most famous explorers, Sir John Franklin.

In 1841, Sir John Franklin was the governor of Van Diemen’s land and lived in the convict colony with his wife. Lady Jane is enamoured by Mathinna and decides to adopt her as part of an experiment to ‘civilise’ the ‘savage’ child. The underlying belief of the times is that by controlling one’s passion and wanting, one will be civilised. It is apparently the ‘savages’ who give in to the passion and wanting. Thus, Lady Jane, being the civlised person that she is, does not give in to her needs to hug or comfort the child. On the other hand, Sir John eventually finds himself living for the time spent with Mathinna. Thus drawing ridicule from his peers. Lady Jane’s experiment fails and Mathinna is left back in Van Diemen’s land in an orphanage. Sir John Franklin disappears on an exploration which is rumoured to have ended in cannibalism. A scandalous suggestion for the times. Lady Jane requests Dickens’ help to put an end to these rumours. As Dickens get into the story, he ends up producing and starring in a play inspired by Sir John Franklin. His belief is that discipline and strong will can help conquer yearning and desire. Except, through the play, he meets Ellen Ternan and finds himself unable to conquer his own wanting.

The central theme of course, is wanting. The belief of the era that giving in to your longings and wants is something a ‘savage’ would do and not a gentleman or lady. The book looks at how there are consequences of giving in to ones wants and that is seen through the characters of Dickens, John Franklin and even Mathinna while similarly, you can have negative consequences by not giving in to your desires as is depicted through Lady Jane. Flanagan also explores the colonisation of the Aboriginals. How there was a belief that they needed a ‘protector’ or someone who could make them more ‘civilised’. Through Mathinna’s character, you see the ill that was done by the British and the whites to the Aboriginal population of Australia. The stolen generation rings out loud even though this book was before the time. The sad thing is that the repercussions of this colonisation is seen till today with the Aboriginal population. Mathinna’s character is endearing and the conflict she feels after being abandoned by the Franklins between her race and the white race is one that is very relatable. You feel for the pain she goes through. The writing is quite exquisite and the chapters move between Dickens and Franklin/Mathinna, thus keeping you engrossed to know more. The author warns that it is not a novel of history. But to me, it was enlightening to learn about the past.

I give it a  rating of 4.

Note: This post has been cross-posted on my personal blog.

Until next time,

Cheers!!!

Broken Glass Park

…by Alina Bronsky.

Narrated by seventeen year old Sascha Naiman, this book reads as her journal as she goes through life after her mother is killed. Born in Russia, Sascha now lives in Germany with her two younger siblings and a relative who is their guardian. The story beings with Sascha pointing out that she has two dreams – one is to kill her stepfather, who murdered her mother and her mother’s lover, and the other is to write a book about her mother. And from there the book goes on as a chronicle of Sascha’s life as she takes care of her siblings, goes to school, and tries to live with that grudge against her stepfather who is now in prison.

The book is a journey into a teenager’s life as she’s trying to get over a tragedy, while being there for what is left of her family. Sascha’s voice is very engaging…she lets the reader get into her mind slowly but steadily; yet, keeping herself closed to a certain extent, so as to leave the reader wanting more. She sheds light on the past every now and then, narrating all those events from the past leading up to her mother’s murder. She pours out her anger, builds a bubble around herself to keep her from getting close to anyone.

What I liked most about the book was the depth of Sascha’s character. Even after the nightmare of a past, she emerges as a strong and smart personality. And a very accurate portrayal of what goes on in her mind just adds to how easily a reader is able to relate to that character. On the other hand, the powerful beginning lead me to want an equally compelling end, but for some reason it all fell very flat after a point, and that’s where I was left disappointed.

Overall, this realistic and touching story about a teenager with a brutal past is worth a read.

My rating: 3*.

*for the rating scale, click here.