YA REVIEW - 'The Year Nick McGowan Came to Stay' - Rebecca Sparrow (UQP, 2006)

Seventeen-year-old Rachel Hill is the girl most likely to succeed. And the girl most likely to have everything under control . . . that is, until her dad invites Nick McGowan, the cutest boy at school, to live with them. Rachel worries that this could only be a recipe for disaster, but her best friend Zoe thinks it’s the perfect opportunity for lurve. Sparks start to fly for all the wrong reasons. Nick finds Rachel spoiled and uptight and Rachel dismisses Nick as lazy and directionless. But a secret from Nick’s past draws them together and makes the year Nick McGowan came to stay one that Rachel will never forget. (Synopsis from Goodreads)

You may or may not have noticed me mention Rebecca Sparrow before. If you didn't notice, I will offer you the chance to take note again here, but in brief, I picked up her debut novel, The Girl Most Likely from my local library when I was in Brisbane last year, after reading a short piece in the local paper about local Brisbane authors. And I quite fancied doing my bit for the locality. AND I LOVED IT. It made me proper chortle. Lovely, slightly manic Rachel Hill, closer to 30 than to 20 and finding herself back at home after work and relationship disasters give her a bit of a knock. I remember seeing The Year Nick McGowan Came to Stay on a few bookshop shelves before we left Brissy, but as I was under pressure to decrease my own book collection at the time, my grabby, cover-caressing hands had to be restrained and I missed my chance to own a copy on Aussie shores.

This is why I had no clue that this book is actually a prequel to The Girl Most Likely. Do you have any idea how happy this made me? It's possible I may have fallen a little bit in love with this book before I'd even read the first sentence. And a big thank you to Maggie from Young Adult Anonymous for drawing my attention to this, gawd love her.

Well, I'm happy to say that my love-at-not-quite-first-sight did not diminish when I started this. In fact, it continued to turn me into a rather giddy, giggly excitable person, which happens to be one of my top 3 reactions to a book. 

It's 1989 and Rachel is 17, focused, ambitious and fond of shoulder pads and Huey Lewis. But also a bit spoilt and self-centred. Actually, quite a lot spoilt and self-centred. This is a good thing, by the way - Rachel leaps straight off the page with her pithy one-liners and stresshead behaviour. I love it when a writer offers up an unapologetic character on a plate so I can really dig my teeth into them. And the famous Nick McGowan manages to get away with being all fit and mysterious without falling into the usual YA boy-being-fit-and-mysterious traps. You don't want to slap him, for starters. He's a great foil for Rachel - dismissive, witty, ummm...fit, mysterious. Trust me, he's not that YA boy. He's lovely. And fit. And mysterious.

Their story develops at a cracking pace, with the aforementioned Nick-centric mystery bubbling away nicely, along with the changing dynamic in their relationship. My only wee criticism on this front deals with what kicks off their whole interaction - I wasn't completely convinced by some of Rachel's actions - ok, she doesn't want him there, but she does care that he thinks she's dripping with cool. But I couldn't quite tally this up with her taking a sudden interest in his career choice. Whatever, I don't care, it kicked off the rest of the story which was flawless. 

I have two favourite things about this book. And I can't decide between the two, so I shall gush about both in equal measure - 

1) THE DIALOGUE. Bloody hell it was brilliant. If I could write dialogue this good, well, I'd be a good  dialogue writer *fails miserably on the writing front there* It was incredibly funny, sharp, convincing, clever...and if you haven't gotten the idea yet, let me show you...

When Rachel tells her best bud, Zoe Budd about Nick's imminent arrival...

'"This is great. You get to have sex with him."

So I hit her with my three-hundred page Web of Life Biology textbook.

"I can't believe you just hit me. I mean, think about it. You can lose your virginity in the comfort of your own home. Think about Lisa Staples, who did it with Gavin Piper out by Trudy Garrison's pool. On twigs and shit. No, this is much better."

2) This isn't a bog standard YA romance. Without giving the ending away, it's about something that is so much more heart-warming and resonant with a teenage audience, in my opinion, anyway. Sometimes I get so sick of all these 16 and 17 year olds declaring their undying love for each other and that this is the happy ending done and dusted, forever and ever, when in reality, this doesn't tend to happen too often. I love it when contemporary stories are about more than romance, about other types of connections and relationships that are formed in teenage years. 

Ok, so I've thought of a third favourite thing about this book - even though it's set in the 80s, the whole nostalgia thing is never rammed down your throat with constant cheesy references. The period isn't central to the story (although I did appreciate the occasional Phil Collins reference) and the interaction between the characters never felt dated or forced. 

So you might have guessed that I enjoyed this one quite a lot. It's been ages since I've finished a book in a day and it's such a great feeling when I do. Ok, it's a short read, maybe a bit too short. Although that might just be me being  a greedy guts, as I tend to be in so many facets of life, but I can't emphasise enough how much this book made me smile, right down to the last page. But that might have also had something to do with the mention of the pub in Brisbane where my now husband took me on our second date.

Ahh, memories... 

(of drunken attempts at playing pool and singing along to Crowded House) 

SHORT STORY SUMMER - 'The Hallelujah Roof' - Belinda Jeffrey

You may of may not have noticed that I've mentioned the lovely city of Brisbane a fair few times on my blog. When I was last rabbiting on about the place during my travel month way back when, I gave a fleeting reference to the fantastice One Book Many Brisbanes short story competition that is run every year by Brisbane City Council to uncover new, exciting and extremely talented writing folk. Well, it won't be much of a surprise when I tell you that the stories featured are all about Brisbane. Sorry, I'll give you a few minutes while you absorb that information.

Anyway, way back in 2006, the second volume of stories was published, and one new writer that was featured was a lady called Belinda Jeffrey. You also may have read my review of Brown Skin Blue by that same lady (and if not, why not?) It's is one of my favourite YA reads and I urge you to DROP EVERYTHING NOW, hunt down a copy and fall in love with every word, if you have not already done so. Go on, off you go... *flaps hands to shoo you out from under my feet*

...Done? good. Well, now we can move on.

The Hallelujah Roof is a story about a young girl, Jane, who moves to Brisbane with her mother and younger sister to live in a ramshackle Theological College in a run down area of the city in the early 80s. Jane tells the stories of her adventures involving rats in toasters, slaughtering pigs and drinking Brisbane River water with her new friends and companions. It's a story about finding the joy in life's little pleasures, even when other people might perceive you to have very little on the surface.

"There mums smiled like they'd just tried sour lemon fizz, while my mum laughed like a tortured cockatoo, and it was so damn funny, you couldn't help but join in."

For those of you who have read a Belinda Jeffrey book, I don't need to tell you that the writing is beautiful and heartfelt and the voice is impeccable. Jane's innocent sense of humour is ridiculously sweet and even thinking about this story makes me grin like a cheesy fool... And wipe away the beginnings of the tears from the corners of my eyes because I'm such a sucker for a bit of childhood nostalgia, especially childhood nostalgia with a touch of genius about it.

The story is SERIOUSLY good folks and I highly recommend you track down a copy, particularly if you're a fan of Aussie YA, and let's face it, who isn't? (If you're not, please go away and educate yourselves in the ways of Marchetta and Eager and then come back and apologise). If I don't stop now, I'll be in danger of sounding like a creepy stalker fan girl, but I strongly recommend you read, not just this story, but everything by this writer.

This tale has inspired my to try and get my short story mojo back again. I'll keep you posted on how I go...

LETS GO TO....BRISBANE!

Well, this is my first little literary travel tour, And, yes, I have chosen a rather odd location, agreed. But I have my reasons...

Over the years, I have had a bit of a like/love/really love/miss/get-slightly-annoyed-with/resent/sort-of love-from-a-distance-kind of relationship with this city. Let me explain...When I was eighteen (lets just say this was a while back) I decided to go to Australia on a gap year. About a week after arriving in the Land Down Under I, along with some other fellow fresh-faced backpacking types, decided Sydney wasn't quite doing it for us and we bought bus tickets up the coast. The plan was to find work on the Gold Coast or Brisbane and work out what we were going to to from there.

Well, in short, this decision changed my life. A few days after hoping off the bus in Brissy, I applied for a boring sales job, met a boy and, well, several years and two children later, he's still sitting next to me on the sofa watching a film on his phone whilst I veg out in front of Britain's Got Talent (the Australian in him just doesn't get it) (and before you say it, Australia's Got Talent just isn't the same - no Cowell, no Walliams, ok, get back to matter in hand Anna...). A lot of key decisions I have made in my life, I have made in this city. The most recent one was deciding I wanted to be a writer. So when I think of writing YA, I think of Brisbane.

A house, not an old person. Romantic...Sort of

Over the years we have flitted back and forth to the place they call BrisVegas (I've never been entirely sure why it is called this - irony? It's not that laid back). This place has a very strange hold over me. When I think of Australia, I think of Brisbane. It doesn't have the obvious WOW factor of Sydney or Melbourne, but when I was a little traveller person, shacked up with my Aussie fella in the a slowly falling apart little wooden shack in the suburbs (ok, not quite a shack, but pretty close, looking back *shudders thinking about size of mahoosive cockroaches*), I remember thinking I was experiencing much more of the real Australia than in any backpackers hostel in Kings Cross. It's this strange mix of city and country and there's something about a rickety old Queenslander than conjures up dusky, laid back, romantic images (that's a HOUSE by the way, not an old native Queensland person. That would be weird.).

So, literary Brisbane. Well, in the whole YA genre, the man man here is Nick Earls. Resident Brisbanite and Aussie YA champion. I, personally, am not a massive fan of his writing - he has a very unique style, that I get you either love, or not-love-very much-at-all. Anyway, as an introduction, I would go with 48 Shades of Brown. I remember catching the film adaptation late one night, and getting all excited spotting places we drove past on the way to do the shopping etc. As much as I found fault with some of the book, I love the way he captures this place and the feeling of being young and in love here. Sorry, sorry, feel free to vom. Cheeszoid mushy stuff is over now.

Another Brisbane author worth checking out is Rebecca Sparrow. It is a real regret that I never got a chance to read more of her stuff while I was there, (hopefully I will in the future when funds permit me to ship vast amounts of Aussie books to London) but The Girl Most Likely is a great, very funny depiction of a woman having a mid-20s crisis and not knowing what the blooming heck to do about it. With sexy neighbour thrown in for good measure. What's not to love?

Probably my favourite Brisbane-based author is Belinda Jeffrey. Ok, so none of books so far have actually been set in Brisbane, but I urge you to check out Brown Skin Blue. One of the most affecting YA books I've ever read. That's all you need to know.

Two other things I have to mention that are literary and Brisbane related -

1) Annerley Community Bookshop on the south side. I used to work here one day a week last year and it is one of my absolute favourite places in the whole of the city. If I could live there, then I would, well, live there and just smell the books all day (what? come on, it can't be just me..)

2) One Book Many Brisbanes. This is an annual short story competition run by Brisbane City Council, with the winners being published in an anthology. You can't find a better literary-shaped depiction of this unique place anywhere else. Oh, and one Belinda Jeffrey was a winner back in the day. You can't get better pedigree than that. So if you can find a copy of one of them then, read it, obvs.

So, that concludes my mini-literary tour of Brisbane. Hope you've enjoyed it. I've only really scratched the surface here. Wonder where we'll be going next? *drums fingers on chin and looks of into distance with misty-eyes expression*

REVIEW - 'Brown Skin Blue', Belinda Jeffrey (UQP, 2009)

Seventeen-year-old Barry Mundy, growing up with no father, a white mother and brown skin, is now a drifter, trying to come to terms with his darkest secret. When lands a job on a croc-jumping river cruiser in the 'top end' of Australia, how can he make sure that his past doesn't determine his future?

Anyone who assumes young adult fiction is all fluff and nonsense (we all know it is anything but, but many do not, or don't really want to know) should pick up this book and get completely lost in it. They really should.

I was a bit worried about starting this - I had the good fortune to attend a recent YA workshop run by the author - she was brilliant - encouraging and really inspiring, but part of me felt I wouldn't be able to completely enjoy the book because I'd been given an insight into the thought processes behind it. Is this a common worry? Anyway, I was being slightly ridiculous, because the writing is so damn good, I had no problem whatsoever getting lost here and had a fair few problems trying to find my way out again.

On the face of it, this is pretty bleak stuff. Barry is the recovering victim of a paedophile, struggling to come to terms with his past as he embarks on his sexual maturity. He decides he need to fill in the blanks of his family history and sets off to discover the identity of his father, escaping into fantastical story-telling when the reality never lives up to what he hopes.

Yes, weighty stuff, I think you'll agree. But as with most of the more serious, thought provoking reads, there is always a heavy dose of hope to get us through the rougher stuff. The balance here is just right - the author doesn't shy away from any of the more controversial material, and so she shouldn't, and Barry's pitch perfect matter-of-fact voice makes this all the more heartbreaking.

I love different story-telling devices and they're used to great effect here. Barry's thoughts on his potential father figures translate into fables reminiscent of those told in his childhood. This adds adds an ethereal layer to the stories, bringing together the themes of memory and fantasy. Just brilliant.

The supporting characters are all skillfully put to good use, fellow lost soul Sally, in particular showing us  how everyone has a story to tell and a secret to hide.

Just such an Australian book (and this is a major compliment, by the way) - the dusty setting, the dialogue, the vulnerability to the forces of nature, the isolation. I could almost smell the muddy river!

Very much recommended for pretty much everyone. In fact, I'm going to change my goodreads rating from 4 to 5 as soon as I've posted this.

Has anyone else read this one?