'Dumplin'' by Julie Murphy

Received from the Publisher 

From the BLURB:

Willowdean Dickson (Dumplin', to her mum) has always been at home in her own skin. Her thoughts on having the ultimate bikini body? Really, the criteria is simple. Do you have a body? Put a swimsuit on it.

But life as Willlow knows it is about to change, and when this happens she suffers an unaccustomed, and unwelcome, attack of self-doubt. In an effort to take back her confidence, she enters into the local Miss Teen Blue Bonner beauty pageant.

With starry Texas nights, red candy suckers, Dolly Parton songs and a wildly unforgettable heroine – Dumplin' is guaranteed to steal your heart. And send you out to buy that bikini!

‘Dumplin'’ is the second stand-alone contemporary young adult novel from American rising star, Julie Murphy (whose 2014 debut was ‘Side Effects May Vary’)

“Eff Your Beauty Standards” was a hashtag coined by Tess Holliday back in 2013 – Tess being a body positive activist, feminist, all-round awesome lady, world's biggest plus-sized super model and this year she was on the cover of People magazine. Oh yeah, AND I’VE MET HER! But I mention her here because in reading ‘Dumplin'’ I was moved by this idea that Julie Murphy’s book is basically a YA-ode to “Eff Your Beauty Standards!” – and that’s goddamn awesome.

Because let me just say, that when we talk about ‘We Need Diverse Books’ probably one aspect of that grassroots movement that doesn’t get talked about more often is an acceptance of all different body types and physical diversity, and the promotion of positive body activism. I think Tess Holliday has been a great activist on this front, as has blogger Jes Baker (‘The Militant Baker’) and Australian author Robert Hoge who, if you haven’t yet - please watch his Australian Story and read his words on how important it is to embrace “ugly” in this beauty-obsessed world of ours (especially because the definitions of “beauty” are so narrow and restrictive).

There has really been a body/beauty positivity movement growing bigger and bigger, even in the last five or so years. And this year we have Julie Murphy’s ‘Dumplin'’, which is just the most beautiful young adult crystallization of this message – “Eff Your Beauty Standards!” love who you are. And, honestly, I couldn’t think of a better book or author to gift this message to teen readers.

The book is about 16-year-old Willowdean Dickson who, when we meet her, is a big girl already brimming with body confidence. She says completely rad things like;

I say the pants are to blame. I don’t like to think of my hips as a nuisance, but more of an asset. I mean, if this were, like, 1642, my wide birthing hips would be worth many cows or something.

And also …

 If living in my skin has taught me anything it's that if it's not your body, it's not yours to comment on. 

… not to mention …

It's not that I don't like new people. It's just that, in general, I do not like new people. 

Basically – she is an amazing individual and I don’t care that she’s fictional, because we are totally best friends.

And then Willowdean (‘Dumplin’ to her beauty pageant-obsessed mama) suddenly finds herself crushing hard on fellow Harpy’s Burgers & Dogs employee – and all-round dreamboat – Bo Larson … who starts to reciprocate the crush right back.

Suddenly Willowdean is thrust into a relationship with her dream guy, but far from being on cloud nine, she suddenly feels self-conscious. Her insecurity at being on Bo’s arm (and worrying that everybody is wondering what he sees in her), manifests in her sabotaging their relationship and her friendship with Ellen Dryver – her best friend in the whole world and the only person as obsessed with Dolly Parton as Willowdean is.

Running beneath Willowdean’s burgeoning insecurities is the memory of her aunt and surrogate parent, Lucy – who was obese and has died recently. While Willowdean is still mourning the loss and coming to terms with the emptiness in their home and her life, Willowdean’s mama throws herself into the Clover City Miss Teen Blue Bonnet Pageant … which gives Willowdean a brave idea to win back her confidence, and maybe win back the guy and her bestie too?

I loved this book. It’s smart and sassy, and Julie Murphy’s underlying message of loving yourself and embracing your own beauty standards is a great one, brilliantly communicated through the whip-quick character of Willowdean.

What I haven’t loved so much has been some of the mainstream reviews of the book, which are reductive and infuriating. Kirkus for example, summarised it thus; ‘a confident fat girl confronts new challenges to her self-esteem.’ And ended with; ‘In the end, it’s more liberating than oppressive, with bits of humor and a jubilant pageant takeover by beauty rebels to crown this unusual book about a fat character.’ Wow, Kirkus – way to miss the point and play into the fat-shaming by reducing an awesome, multi-layered teen like Willowdean to ‘a fat character’ … because, FYI – she’s more than her weight.

Thankfully though, those reviews that have missed the point are in the minority – and especially amongst teen readers, ‘Dumplin’’ is hitting a high-note – the word-of-mouth is insane, and overwhelmingly positive. Which just goes to show that the YA readership has been waiting a long time for someone as amazing as Willowdean, and an author as clever as Julie Murphy to introduce her to us.

This is a favourite of 2015 for me.

5/5  

'Becoming Kirrali Lewis' by Jane Harrison

Received from the Publisher 

From the BLURB:

Through a pair of ornate wrought-iron gates was one of the oldest universities in the country. Our paths had just intersected. It was 1985 and I, little black duck, was about to embark on a law degree.

Set within the explosive cultural shifts of the 1960s and 1980s, Becoming Kirrali Lewis chronicles the journey of a young Aboriginal teenager as she leaves her home town in rural Victoria to take on a law degree in Melbourne in 1985. Adopted at birth by a white family, Kirrali doesn't question her cultural roots until a series of life-changing events force her to face up to her true identity.

Her decision to search for her biological parents sparks off a political awakening that no-one sees coming, least of all Kirrali herself as she discovers her mother is white and her father is a radical black activist. Narrative flashbacks to the 1960s, where Kirrali's biological mother, Cherie, is rebelling against her parent's strict conservatism sees her fall into a clandestine relationship with an Aboriginal man. Unmarried and pregnant, Cherie's traumatic story of an unforgiving Australian society give meaning to Kirrali's own rites of passage nearly twenty years later. The generational threads of human experience are the very things that will complete her. If only she can let go.

‘Becoming Kirrali Lewis’ is the new novel from Indigenous author and playwright, Jane Harrison. Winner of the State Library of Queensland’s 2014 black&write! Indigenous Writing Fellowship, ‘Becoming Kirrali Lewis’ is available from June and published by the wonderful Magabala Books.

The book begins with Kirrali in 1985, about to begin university and a law degree. Kirrali comes from a small country town and a big family – she’s one of six kids, two of whom are adopted including Kirrali, who knows at least one of her biological parents was Aboriginal.

Kirrali got used to being the ‘skinny black kid in the all-white family,’ in her hometown, but when she gets to Uni she’s a bit taken aback by the politics inherent in the colour of her skin.

Why did people have to categorise? So what if I was black? Did that mean I had to fight every cause championing black people?

There are some great pathways for readers to further explore with this aspect of the book, and Kirrali’s emerging political awareness – like the Koori Advancement Centre on Kirrali’s campus. These sorts of cooperatives do exist and hopefully young readers will go and do some digging and discover the real ones, like at the University of Sydney for example, which is a ‘culturally safe space for all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.’

The book is really about Kirrali discovering herself when she gets to Uni; her Indigenous culture and, – as every young adult experiences – forming her political ideals and moral compass. Harrison also delves into dark and brutally honest territory including violence, assault, and police brutality/excessive force. In this country we talk about America’s ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement, without looking similarly critically at our own society and the racial inequities we fail to right. Harrison brings all of this up, and young readers will discover a lot of parallels to modern Australia.

There’s also a push-pull that Kirrali feels in her law degree. Initially she wants to go into International Law, but particular circumstances open her eyes to where she might be more useful in the community … and it is that realisation that she has a community that needs her which helps shape her career.

 So lawyers made good money and could walk away at the end of the day, did they? The ones I saw at the Aboriginal Legal Service didn’t.

Kirrali is also given the opportunity to further know herself after a certain chain of events grants her the chance to find her biological mother and learn the story of her being put up for adoption. From Part Two we meet Kirrali’s white biological mother, Cherie, in 1960s flashbacks that delve into her meeting Kirrali’s biological Aboriginal father Charley Jackson.

At the end of the night, I was leaving to catch the train home and saying goodbye to Mary when I felt a tap on my shoulder.

‘You still here? Haven’t you gone back home yet?’ His voice was curious, not malicious like the last time we had met. 

‘Where would my home be? My descendants came from England and Ireland but that was five generations ago. Haven’t I earned the right to call Australia home yet?’ I replied boldly. 

‘My descendants have been here for 40,000 years. When you’ve been around for that long you can call Gondwanaland home.’ 

‘Oh, Charley, give the girl a break,’ said Mary, exasperated. ‘You don’t talk to me that way and I’ve only been in the country five minutes.’ She smiled at him and I was struck again by her gentle nature. 

‘Just teaching the white girl a little black history, that’s all,’ Charley retorted.

I loved Cherie’s narrative – explaining her suburban upbringing, and how it was flipped on its head when she moved out of home, and especially when she met Charley;

 My parents were racist in that middle-class pseudo-tolerant way I was to recognise often. Sure, send a donation over to the poor starving Africans but tut-tut if an African family moves into the street — property values will fall.

If I have any complaints about the book it was that sometimes Kirrali’s language didn’t feel authentic – particularly when discussing her experiences of racism – but of course she’s in the middle of a Law Degree, so she’s able to articulate because of what she’s been learning in the classroom. I also sometimes thought that the construction of Kirrali’s unique circumstances were to make it a little easier for her to see things from Cherie’s perspective … but I was so caught up in both their narratives that this was really a fleeting thought.

I thoroughly enjoyed Jane Harrison’s ‘Becoming Kirrali Lewis’ – a gutsy and poignant coming-of-age story about two incredible women, that casts a critical eye over Australia’s changing (and still needs to change) racial landscape.   

5/5 

Author Jane Harrison will be at the Emerging Writers Festival on June 2 for ‘black&write!: Coming of Age’ – a great event which also features, ‘readings by some of the country’s most exciting Indigenous writers on their clumsy teenage years.’  

'Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda' by Becky Albertalli

Received from the Publisher 

From the BLURB;

Straight people should have to come out too.

The more awkward it is, the better.

Simon Spier is sixteen and trying to work out who he is – and what he's looking for.

But when one of his emails to the very distracting Blue falls into the wrong hand, things get all kinds of complicated.

Because, for Simon, falling for Blue is a big deal . . . It's a holy freaking huge awesome deal.

‘Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda’ is the debut young adult novel from American author Becky Albertalli.

I mean, how does a person look when his walls are coming down?

I will admit that I was a bit torn about this book when I first read the blurb. On the one hand: gay protagonist is a big YAY in YA because we do have a diversity problem. On the other hand … I was a bit so-so on the emphasis of coming out in the blurb. It seemed to suggest the book would cover overtly familiar territories of LGBTQ+ narratives, instead of moving beyond to storylines in which homosexuality is the norm and being gay isn’t the most interesting thing about a character.

It took me a while to finish ‘Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda’ – mostly because I didn’t want it to end and I was rationing my reading to prolong the enjoyment. Albertalli’s debut is absolutely going down as one of my favourite books of 2015 – because what I thought might be quite a reductive narrative, was in fact rather subversive in walking a tightrope between normalcy and individuality.  

Simon Spier is our sixteen-year-old protagonist who is gay, but hasn’t yet told anyone except for an anonymous online friend called Blue – who is also gay, and attends Simon’s high school. The book kicks off with one of Simon’s classmates discovering his private messages to Blue, and working out his sexual orientation … information this classmate uses to blackmail Simon into getting into the good graces of Simon’s beautiful friend, Abby. This incident triggers Simon having to tackle the topic of “coming out” head-on, and sooner than he feels comfortable.

Albertalli sucked me into the story from the first page – when we meet Simon between a rock and a hard place. From there she absolutely had me in Simon’s corner, and wrapped up in his saga of blackmailing and the mystery of Blue, carried along on this pitch-perfect narrative voice that’s both humorous and nervous, self-assured and insecure.

I loved how smart ‘Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda’ was – and the big ideas that are explored. The very fact that it’s a “coming out” book is interesting in itself – at one point Blue and Simon (communicating via email) talk about how they know their respective families will probably be accepting and supportive when they tell them they’re gay, and they know they have it a lot easier than gay men did twenty or thirty years ago … but it’s still a big deal; 

 Once you come out, you can’t really go back in. It’s a little bit terrifying, isn’t it? I know we’re so lucky we’re coming out now and not twenty years ago, but it’s still really a leap of faith. It’s easier than I thought it would be, but at the same time, it’s so much harder.

A few days ago I watched a great documentary called ‘Gaycrashers’, in which Australian comedians Joel Creasey and Rhys Nicholson visit this small country town to tackle the homophobia there by putting on a comedy show. There was this wonderful moment when a worker at a timberyard said he had no problem with gay people, but it seemed to frustrate him that they “needed” all the fanfare and their own day with Mardi Gras, when heterosexual people don’t have anything like that … to which Nicholson rightly pointed out, every day is heterosexual day. I thought that was really interesting, in the context of ‘Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda’ – when Simon and Blue talk about wishing that everyone had to ‘come out’ with whatever their sexual orientation, because it shouldn’t be an awkwardness only experienced by gay people.

I also loved this book because Simon isn’t perfect, and that made him more relatable. He’s actually a pretty crappy friend at times – the book has a pretty great supporting cast for Simon, with two friends called Nick and Leah who he’s known since he was a kid, and a six-month newbie to their group, the ever-perky Abby. There’s a subplot about Leah having a crush on Nick, who has a thing for Abby … and Leah feeling ousted from their group when the two boys seem to favour the more conventionally feminine Abby over Leah’s snarkier, darker outlook. I totally related to Leah, and felt frustrated with Nick and Simon for the way they treated her. I loved Leah’s story (and I’m really hoping that Albertalli has a book in store for her!) especially because in some ways it mirrored Simon’s – who at one point worries that he’s not the boy his parents wanted (assuming that being gay makes him less masculine), well Leah no doubt feels the same way when comparing herself to the “girlier” Abby. I just loved this over-arching theme that in high school, we always feel like we’re not the best versions of ourselves.

It’s strange, because in reality, I’m not the leading guy. Maybe I’m the best friend.

Becky Albertalli’s debut novel is kinda brilliant. It’s subversive and heartfelt, funny and intelligent with a protagonist to fall head over heels for, a mystery romance to leave your heart thumping and interesting discussions about sex and sexuality that make it a must-read book of 2015.

5/5

'Lois Lane: Fallout' Lois Lane #1 by Gwenda Bond

  

From the BLURB:

Lois Lane is starting a new life in Metropolis. An Army brat, Lois has lived all over—and seen all kinds of things. (Some of them defy explanation, like the near-disaster she witnessed in Kansas in the middle of one night.) But now her family is putting down roots in the big city, and Lois is determined to fit in. Stay quiet. Fly straight. As soon as she steps into her new high school, though, she can see it won’t be that easy. A group known as the Warheads is making life miserable for another girl at school. They’re messing with her mind, somehow, via the high-tech immersive videogame they all play. Not cool. Armed with her wit and her new snazzy job as a reporter, Lois has her sights set on solving this mystery. But sometimes it’s all a bit much. Thank goodness for her maybe-more-than-a friend, a guy she knows only by his screenname, SmallvilleGuy.

‘Lois Lane: Fallout’ is the first book in a new (though in many ways, established) young adult series from author Gwenda Bond.

I have been so excited for this book, ever since the blurb/concept was first announced – a young adult book based in the DC comic book universe of Metropolis and Superman, but focused on a teenage Lois Lane. SO. MUCH. YES. And now that I’ve read ‘Fallout’, I’m thrilled that it managed to live up to my hype.

Now, I wasn’t a fan of The WB/CW television series ‘Smallville’ when it aired. I tried, and I only watched the first season and wasn’t hooked enough to ever revisit it. HOWEVER, growing up I was a huge fan of ‘Lois & Clark: The NewAdventures of Superman’ with Teri Hatcher and hunky, hunky Dean Cain. I also quite liked the 2006 film ‘Superman Returns’ with Brandon Routh … at least I liked it so much more than colour-bland (everything bland, really) Zack Snyder’s ‘Man of Steel’ from 2013 (and to that – ‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ looks stupid).

Having said all that – I think anyone can pick up ‘Lois Lane: Fallout’ and come to the story with some level of cultural osmosis about the Superman series, even if they’ve never been interested in the comics or watched any of the adaptations. Bond touches on only the big, basic plot points of the Superman origin – there’s no feeling of *wink, wink – nudge, nudge* to make the comic-uninitiated feel left out.

In this new series, Lois Lane is a 16-year-old army brat whose family – mother, younger sister and decorated General father – are finally settling in one place for longer than a couple of school terms, since her father was offered a permanent position in the budding city of Metropolis. As an army brat who has always been on the move (which is a good thing, because she has a tendency to attract trouble wherever she goes), Lois doesn’t exactly have many friends. Except one – in the virtual world, Lois chats with a mysterious boy who goes by the handle ‘SmallvilleGuy’ and who first reached out to Lois after she posted a story online about seeing something out of the ordinary in the skies above Kansas.

When she starts at this new high school, two major events shape Lois’s path in this new town – she’s offered a position on a student newspaper and youth spin-off to the Daily Planet, and she stumbles across a serious case of bullying that’s being ignored by school administrators.

‘Fallout’ follows Lois on her first investigative piece as she tries to take down a group of gamers who call themselves ‘Warheads’ and have a Hydra-mind mentality when it comes to virtual and real-world bullying of fellow classmates.

I really loved this book – especially because Gwenda Bond made sure that the most important aspect of this new series isn’t how interesting Lois is in relation to Superman, but rather how she’s interesting (and pretty kick-butt) in her own right. Readers get to see Lois’s genesis story, in a way, and it’s incredible that we’re present when she gets bit by the journalism bug and starts researching real-life heroes like pioneering journalist Nellie Bly who inspire her to do good by seeking out the truth to expose corruption and injustice;

SkepticGirl1: We protect people, see what other people miss. We don’t need anyone to look after us

And while readers know exactly who that boy is she’s chatting to, SmallvilleGuy doesn’t steal the show – rather, he’s a fairly subtle hint of background romance and even somewhat of a sidekick to Lois’s intrepid reporter.

I opened the silver lid of my laptop and typed in my secret fourteen-character alphanumeric password. After it was accepted, I opened the chat window and put in the next code.He was there waiting, or at least it looked like he was. The second I logged on to my chat account, invisible to anyone else, I saw his handle. Before I could type a greeting, he did. 

SmallvilleGuy: I expected to see you on the news, the first girl ever kicked out of a Metropolis high school on her first day. I was going to tell you I was impressed. But a job?

I have seen a few reviews that liken Bond’s Lois Lane to Veronica Mars – and I can definitely see the comparisons and book-appeal for the VM fandom. But ‘Fallout’, and I’d suggest this entire Lois Lane series, isn’t nearly as dark/gritty as Veronica Mars was – there’s no murder, but both Veronica and Lois are quick with the quips and the young women are marshmallows, deep down. I think a more apt comparison – particularly for the hard news aspect – would be to another TV show, this time from the 90’s called ‘Press Gang’. I would say that Lois is much more aligned with character Lynda Day from that show … and if you don’t know what the heck ‘Press Gang’ is, do yourself a favour and YouTube!  

Bond also does well to fill up and flesh out Lois’s world with family and the friends/enemies she’s making at school. Her relationship with her father is especially interesting in that he’s both taught his daughters how to take care of themselves (with sneak-attacks to teach them tae kwon do and the like), but he’s still an over-protective father who struggles with letting his girls trust themselves and do their own thing.

The general world-building in ‘Fallout’ is also superb, particularly because it’s very much set in the comic-book world of Metropolis, but in modern day. Of course it is – when Lois is friends with Clark Kent/SmallvilleGuy via online chatroom, and she’s taking down a group of bullying online gamers. So we get some pretty hilarious references to geekdom pop-culture in particular, like Dire Wolves and this hilarious suggestion that John Green’s Nerdfighters have penetrated the culture to become a legit high school tribe;

The Nerdfighter contingent would have been identifiable by the fact that half of the table was reading (or more likely re-reading) one of their favourite author’s books – alternately laughing or weeping, depending how far in they were – even if a few weren’t also wearing T-shirts featuring him and his brother, along with tiny video cameras for making their next vlogs beside their trays.

I also just loved that Lois is dealing with something as relatable and serious as school bullying in this book – there’s some hints that there’s a bigger something going on in Metropolis (and I’m crossing my fingers that future books introduce the Luthor family!), but it’s great that Bond has Lois dealing with real-world issues.

I really loved this book, and I can’t wait to read more in this new young adult series. Lois Lane is a fantastic character to explore retroactively in her teenage years, and to that I especially love that author Gwenda Bond is letting her grow into herself away from the Superman legend. I could see this series having serious longevity, and sure SmallvilleGuy and all his baggage could come into play down the track … but for the meantime I like the idea of getting to know Lois in her own right.

5/5

AUDIOBOOK: 'Slam' written by Nick Hornby, narrated by Nicholas Hoult

From the BLURB:

'There was this time when everything seemed to have come together. And so obviously it was time to go and screw it all up.'

Sam is sixteen and a skater. Just so there are no terrible misunderstandings: skating = skateboarding. There's no ice. Life is ticking along nicely for Sam; his Mum's got rid of her rubbish boyfriend, he's thinking about college and he's met someone. Alicia.

Then a little accident happens. One with big consequences for someone just finding his way in life. Sam can't run (let alone skate) away from this one. He's a boy facing a man's problems and the question is - has he got what it takes to confront them?

Written by: Nick Hornby

Narrated by: Nicholas Hoult

Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

‘Slam’ was the 2007 contemporary young adult novel from Nick Hornby, and I’ve been meaning to read it ever since Hornby said this very intelligent thing about YA books:

“I see now that dismissing YA books because you’re not a young adult is a little bit like refusing to watch thrillers on the grounds that you’re not a policeman or a dangerous criminal, and as a consequence, I’ve discovered a previously ignored room at the back of the bookstore that’s filled with masterpieces I’ve never heard of.”

I always feel like hugging that quote.

So, ‘Slam’ is Hornby’s first and only young adult book to date – but now that I’ve read it (via listening on audiobook) I’m really crossing my fingers that he writes something else for this readership because ‘Slam’ was just so darn good.

It’s hard to pinpoint what I love most about Nick Hornby’s books. I’ve read most of them and most recently fell head-over-heels in love with his 2014 book ‘Funny Girl’ – and now that I’ve read his YA offering in ‘Slam’ I can safely say that a real strength in his writing for younger audiences is that he brings a lot of his adult sensibilities over. ‘Slam’, without giving too much away, is all about teen pregnancy from the perspective of 16-year-old father-to-be Sam Jones. Like with most of Hornby’s books, we first meet our protagonist from a place of “WTF have I done?!” and the rest of the novel is an attempt to untie the knots of their lives.

I must admit – I went in a little sceptical of a “teen pregnancy” book from the perspective of the teen father. Even as I count Angela Johnson’s ‘The First Part Last’ (which is on the same subject) as one of my favourite books of all time. What’s great about ‘Slam’ is that Hornby brings no preaching, tick-the-boxing “sorting teen problems” feel to this book. Hornby and Sam both know what a monumental fuck-up this is, and Sam is suitably terrified – especially because the men in his family have a history of repeating this particular mistake, and he’s well aware of the repercussions. This repeating of history also means that Sam sets himself up to be a better father than his own, who is uneducated and wholly uninterested in helping to raise his son.

I also wonder if part of my loving ‘Slam’ so much was the audiobook itself … it is narrated by actor Nicholas Hoult, who had a break-out role in the movie adaptation of Hornby’s ‘About a Boy’ playing Marcus Brewer. Perhaps because of Hoult’s previous affiliation with the Hornby universe, he seemed perfectly suited to narrating Sam’s story – more likely though is just that Hoult is a fine, fine actor and as such a grand audiobook narrator. There’s real vulnerability in Hoult’s reading, even as he also hits those comedic marks perfectly. Because of course, this being a Nick Hornby book there are a lot of laughs interspersed throughout the quite weighty topic of teen pregnancy – from Sam’s conversations with an imaginary Tony Hawk, to the dreams he has of the father he will grow into.

There are many differences between a baby and an I-Pod. And one of the biggest is, no ones going to mug you for your baby. 

I loved ‘Slam’.  This is a really tender and funny portrayal of what happens when a teenage boy desperately wants to take responsibility for one of the biggest mistakes (and loves) of his life. Nick Hornby has long been a beloved writer of adult fiction with tricky characters butting heads against God-awful situations, and I was thrilled to discover that his YA turn is a similarly evocative exploration. Narrated by a young Nicholas Hoult (circa 2007), Sam’s voice shines through in all his earnest, shit-scaredness.

5/5

'All the Bright Places' by Jennifer Niven

 Received from the publisher 

From the BLURB:

Theodore Finch wants to take his own life. I'm broken, and no one can fix it.

Violet Markey us devastated by her sister's death. In that instant we went plowing through the guardrail, my words died too.

They meet on the ledge of the school bell tower, and so their story begins. It's only together they can be themselves . . . 

I send a message to Violet: 'You are all the colors in one, at full brightness.'

You're so weird, Finch. But that's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me.

But, as Violet's world grows, Finch's begins to shrink. How far will Violet go to save the boy she has come to love?

‘All the Bright Places’ is the new contemporary young adult novel by Jennifer Niven.

I first heard about this book because it caused quite a stir in the youth literature world, when film rights were bought before it had even hit bookshelves – with wunderkind Elle Fanning attached to play one of the lead roles. Pretty quickly I read it likened to John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars crossed with Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor & Park as the “next big thing” – which is a surefire way to put me off and turn me into an instant sceptic.

Then I received an advance copy from Penguin Teen Australia, along with a letter from the author. It was the letter that really intrigued me, as Niven explained the circumstances around the idea for her book being the sudden death of her literary agent: “part of me wanted to just stop. Stop writing, stop working. But another part of me said no, push through this, and don’t just push through it, make something great happen.” Intersecting with her grief were sudden memories of the first boy she ever loved, and Niven concluded her letter; “All the Bright Places was written about a very hard, sad, lovely time during a very hard, sad, stressful time – but in just six weeks, the book was born.” Cutting through all the PR rhetoric of “next big thing” and “if you liked X and X, you’ll love Y!” – this brief letter was Niven putting her heart and dark inspiration on the page, and I was impressed.

There’s more painful beauty in the story itself – the story of Theodore Finch and Violet Markey who become each other’s unlikely saviours in the worst of circumstances. Theodore is fascinated by death, and constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister’s recent death. The explosive opening chapter has them meeting on the ledge of their school’s bell tower – in a case of ‘girl and boy save each other,’ which carries throughout the book. But when death keeps encroaching on Theodore’s thoughts, Violet doesn’t know how she can keep him here and keep him safe from himself.

Jennifer Niven has written a beautiful balancing act in ‘All the Bright Places’ –at once a thoughtful exploration into mental illness and teen suicide, lightened with a first-love story of tender honesty;

I feel like I’m living for these moments – the moments when I’m just about to lie down beside him, when I know it’s getting ready to happen, his skin on mine, his mouth on mine, and then when he’s touching me and the electric current is shooting through me everywhere. It’s like all the other hours of the day are spent looking forward to right now. 

We kiss until my lips are numb, stopping ourselves at the very edge of Someday, saying not yet, not here, even though it takes willpower I didn’t know I had. My mind is spinning with him and the unexpected Almost of today. 

When he gets home, he writes me a message: I am thinking rather consistently of Someday. 

I write, Someday soon. 

Finch: Someday when?

This is a very thoughtful book for how Niven delves into mental illness and suicide – two topics that may make parents and schools wring their hands in worry when their children (inevitably) find their way to this bestseller. But these are not topics to fear, especially when they’re explored in youth literature and with an author like Niven – even her Author’s Note is a thoughtful coda on the topics: “If you think something is wrong, speak up. You are not alone. It is not your fault. Help is out there.” And a number of organisations are listed – those for suicide prevention and mental illness diagnosis as well as anti-bullying organisations.

The book does take an (inevitable) dark turn – it’s foreshadowed from the first page, when our fated heroes meet atop a ledge. But Niven lays the groundwork so well that when the worst happens, a cast of stellar secondary characters help fill the void – highlighting the impact on those left behind, and the strength of them to survive after such loss.

I do appreciate why this book was compared to the likes of The Fault in Ours Stars and Eleanor & Park – there is loss and sadness here, and such books do have same themes and even romances that follow a similar trajectory. But perhaps their kindest comparison is because such authors take the pain of life and colour it with hope for young readers – and that’s why these book stand out and leave their mark.

All the Bright Places is a favourite of 2015; I can’t wait for the film adaptation and to read more from Niven.

5/5