acaciathorn's review against another edition
2.0
Friday Never Leaving is a book about a homeless Australian teenager and her stint with a group of other runaways and their charismatic, sociopathic leader. The book killed off my favorite character, which is pretty much par for the course for me when it comes to literature.
Rating: Made me cry, but still meh.
Rating: Made me cry, but still meh.
poachedeggs's review against another edition
3.0
Wakefield's writing is lovely but I couldn't bring myself to care for the bunch of homeless teenagers she brought together here.
sammy234's review against another edition
2.0
Vikki Wakefield is a phenomenal writer.
There's no getting around that fact.
It actually astounds me that there was never a point in Friday Never Leaving where I wasn't overcome with extreme emotion.
So to say I cannot rate this , when my heart wants so badly to give this brilliantly penned book five stars , is really disappointing for me.
But you see , I have one issue with this book.
And its hard to get around.
Maybe its just specific to ME as a person , and maybe that's the case since there are very little negative reviews for this book.
I'm just going to write my thoughts out to try and get past what EXACTLY stopped me from loving this book completely , when I have confessed to myself that writing doesn't get much better than this.
Let me give you a summary.
Basically, the short version is that Friday Brown has known nobody her whole life except her mother. She talks about how her personality has shaped hers , and without her , she doesn't much understand her identity. So when her mother dies of cancer early on in the story , Friday can't imagine living with her grandpa , a man she barely knows who kicked her mother of the house years before.
So she runs away , only two hundred bucks to her name.
There she meets Silence , who I adore just as much as Friday , at a train station. He takes her back to where he lives squatting with his friends in an abandoned , rotting house.
This is all still pretty early on in the story.
Friday meets Arden , a girl who rules over the young teens in the squatters house and gains a almost cult - like devotion from them that is really freaking creepy to read about.
Now here's where my big issue comes to play.
Arden is , for all intents and purposes , an abuser.
I could spot it on the first page. In fact , its not supposed to be a secret , though it is never explicitly stated. Its all in the gory subtext.
So now , I understand why all these kids follow her around like she's their savior. Most of them have been abused or mistreated. They are either roughing it on their own because their family housing is too small , running away from abusive parents , or selling their bodies in prostitution to get by.
It was all really , terribly heartbreaking to put it lightly.
What I'm trying to get at is that if you have been mistreated your WHOLE LIFE , its easy not to be able to differentiate between abuse and non- abuse. Its all they know , and Arden seems a much , much better choice than their parents , who are more forwardly abusive.
The lines are extremely blurred.
I get it. Its realistic , even if the reader can spot Arden's cruelty from a mile away.
But this is my point.
Our main character , Friday Brown , was NEVER abused.
Sure , she had a hard life. Her mother was a wanderer and never let them settle down anywhere. She didn't have turkey dinners or family cookouts.
She was however , loved unconditionally. That is well proven in the text.
This may be just me , but having been treated well by my parents , having been taught through their actions the difference between RIGHT and WRONG , I could never sit by and witness abuse or injustice without thinking , " Hey , this is not right. Let me do something about it."
The FIRST TIME I saw Arden lift a hand in anger to those children , I would have erupted.
Nobody needs to tell me that's wrong.
I'm not even going to mention the verbal abuse ( because that's definitely a real problem) and the subtle manipulations that Arden enacts in this novel.
As a psychopath , Arden was really fantastically characterized.
I'm being a bit hard on Friday. She was in a very vulnerable situation ,and Arden was said to be charismatic.
But charisma only gets you so far.
And there comes a point when I as a person stop relating to a character when she sees bad things going on but does nothing at all to change them , except by saying that she's going to leave.
Which she never actually does. Hence the title , I suppose.
But you see , its NOT like Friday doesn't fully grasp what's going on. She doesn't think abuse , but she DOES think , wrong , wrong , wrong , wrong.
Once you acknowledge that in your head , YOU are responsible to save others and yourself.
Listen , I'm not saying that the way your parents treated you as a child guarantees that you will be a good person , or that you will be able to understand abuse.
Eventually , it comes down to you. What do I know innately, down deep inside me , is the right way to treat someone?
What I AM saying , is that your parents hold a lot of sway and influence. Its easier for a child to become like their parents than not.
So when your parents instill in you the necessity of right and wrong , unless you are a horrendous person ,which Friday is not , those lessons and that knowledge stay with you.
I'm going to say something really trite.
Knowledge is power.
Friday had the knowledge that what was going was wrong , but she didn't DO ANYTHING until it was too late , until ( spoiler , spoiler , spoiler , spoiler , spoiler ) her friend was DEAD by Arden's hand.
That's another thing that never made sense to me.
Friday knows that Arden is bad news.
They are trapped in a ghost town ,about to be drowned. Arden wants to stay for some reason ,so Friday is going to go get help because she's the only one who can drive besides Malik , who Arden states will never be allowed to leave her side.
Arden says , "I'm keeping your friend Silence here as insurance that you come back."
Ring ring ring ring !
Alarm bells immediately would have gone off in MY head.
A girl who Friday knows has abused this little boy , though she doesn't know how , is holding him for ransom. She gets off on power , so after the flood is over , Friday knows Arden isn't going to give him up.
She KNOWS this.
At this point I would have
A) gotten out of the car. I'm not leaving my dearest friend with this girl , who HATES him now that he is no longer devoted to her , because he recognized the abuse.
B) Demanded that Malik drive. If that wasn't going to happen , I'd rather have WALKED to my destination than let them stay with my friend.
C) If they still didn't let Silence go. I would have waited till nightfall to sneak away. They were all okay anyway doing that.
D) UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES EVER DO YOU BARGAIN WITH A MENTALLY UNSTABLE PSYCHOPATH.
You just don't.
But no. Friday drives away.
And when she gets back , Arden says her friend hitched a ride with somebody and is gone.
Friday knows this is NOT true. She KNOWS Arden lies with every breath.
She searches for her friend. Desperately.
Falls asleep in a heap of exhaustion.
Wakes up to a clanging noise.
Goes to investigate the cellar where the noise is coming from.
Her friends come with her.
Arden gets up. She coaxes them back and says , " It's just the wind. It's just the wind."
Did I mention this girl is a liar?
Did I mention that Friday KNOWS this girl is a wicked liar?
NO WAY WOULD I NOT INVESTIGATE THAT NOISE.
And it WAS her friend Silence. He was a mute , so he couldn't scream in the cellar. He banged on it with rocks. He made the clanging noise.
By the morning , he was dead.
I feel this is needless tragedy. I feel that the heroine had at her disposal common sense and intuition.
She just doesn't USE IT.
WHY? WHY?
So I can feel devastated when my favorite character dies horrifically and needlessly ?
It was NEEDLESS tragedy.
It's the worst kind , and maybe other people can tolerate it , but I just CAN'T.
I don't believe a human being would react the way Friday did. Can't wrap my brain around it.
Its why I don't get Romeo and Juliet. I don't get the depth of their irrational madness and grief ,after knowing each other a day.
I don't get it. Unless they are MENTALLY ILL , I'm calling bull.
It's why I don't get Jodi Lynn Anderson's , The Vanishing Season.
Unless you are a completely unfeeling and callous horror , how do you let someone give you all their clothes to keep warm in a snow storm?
Why wouldn't you think of switching the articles of clothing around? Why wouldn't you ?
I have an answer. You would think of that.
Its not realistic to think otherwise , and despite the emotion of this novel , I feel the tragedy was a ploy on my feelings when there are many ways that logically it could have been prevented.
Friday Brown is far from a dimwitted character.
She just conveniently forgets not to trust a pathological liar because the plot demands it.
I don't like being manipulated , nor do I appreciate gratuitous violence and death. I know it happens , but not like this. Not if you have a brain.
That whole scene , where the clanging is ringing in the background and Arden is stretching out her hands , wheedling away with her words and lies , is going to haunt me forever.
Its the worst possible thing . It's darkness and ruin.
Maybe I'm thinking entirely too much of myself , but I don't see how Friday trusted her for a freaking minute.
And that ruins everything.
Vikki Wakefield is an amazing writer. There's no getting around that fact.
But her story left me feeling worse than when I started , so I can not in good conscience recommend this painful wound of a novel.
There's not enough hope to carry it to its conclusion , and books need hope. Otherwise, what's the point?
There's no getting around that fact.
It actually astounds me that there was never a point in Friday Never Leaving where I wasn't overcome with extreme emotion.
So to say I cannot rate this , when my heart wants so badly to give this brilliantly penned book five stars , is really disappointing for me.
But you see , I have one issue with this book.
And its hard to get around.
Maybe its just specific to ME as a person , and maybe that's the case since there are very little negative reviews for this book.
I'm just going to write my thoughts out to try and get past what EXACTLY stopped me from loving this book completely , when I have confessed to myself that writing doesn't get much better than this.
Let me give you a summary.
Basically, the short version is that Friday Brown has known nobody her whole life except her mother. She talks about how her personality has shaped hers , and without her , she doesn't much understand her identity. So when her mother dies of cancer early on in the story , Friday can't imagine living with her grandpa , a man she barely knows who kicked her mother of the house years before.
So she runs away , only two hundred bucks to her name.
There she meets Silence , who I adore just as much as Friday , at a train station. He takes her back to where he lives squatting with his friends in an abandoned , rotting house.
This is all still pretty early on in the story.
Friday meets Arden , a girl who rules over the young teens in the squatters house and gains a almost cult - like devotion from them that is really freaking creepy to read about.
Now here's where my big issue comes to play.
Arden is , for all intents and purposes , an abuser.
I could spot it on the first page. In fact , its not supposed to be a secret , though it is never explicitly stated. Its all in the gory subtext.
So now , I understand why all these kids follow her around like she's their savior. Most of them have been abused or mistreated. They are either roughing it on their own because their family housing is too small , running away from abusive parents , or selling their bodies in prostitution to get by.
It was all really , terribly heartbreaking to put it lightly.
What I'm trying to get at is that if you have been mistreated your WHOLE LIFE , its easy not to be able to differentiate between abuse and non- abuse. Its all they know , and Arden seems a much , much better choice than their parents , who are more forwardly abusive.
The lines are extremely blurred.
I get it. Its realistic , even if the reader can spot Arden's cruelty from a mile away.
But this is my point.
Our main character , Friday Brown , was NEVER abused.
Sure , she had a hard life. Her mother was a wanderer and never let them settle down anywhere. She didn't have turkey dinners or family cookouts.
She was however , loved unconditionally. That is well proven in the text.
This may be just me , but having been treated well by my parents , having been taught through their actions the difference between RIGHT and WRONG , I could never sit by and witness abuse or injustice without thinking , " Hey , this is not right. Let me do something about it."
The FIRST TIME I saw Arden lift a hand in anger to those children , I would have erupted.
Nobody needs to tell me that's wrong.
I'm not even going to mention the verbal abuse ( because that's definitely a real problem) and the subtle manipulations that Arden enacts in this novel.
As a psychopath , Arden was really fantastically characterized.
I'm being a bit hard on Friday. She was in a very vulnerable situation ,and Arden was said to be charismatic.
But charisma only gets you so far.
And there comes a point when I as a person stop relating to a character when she sees bad things going on but does nothing at all to change them , except by saying that she's going to leave.
Which she never actually does. Hence the title , I suppose.
But you see , its NOT like Friday doesn't fully grasp what's going on. She doesn't think abuse , but she DOES think , wrong , wrong , wrong , wrong.
Once you acknowledge that in your head , YOU are responsible to save others and yourself.
Listen , I'm not saying that the way your parents treated you as a child guarantees that you will be a good person , or that you will be able to understand abuse.
Eventually , it comes down to you. What do I know innately, down deep inside me , is the right way to treat someone?
What I AM saying , is that your parents hold a lot of sway and influence. Its easier for a child to become like their parents than not.
So when your parents instill in you the necessity of right and wrong , unless you are a horrendous person ,which Friday is not , those lessons and that knowledge stay with you.
I'm going to say something really trite.
Knowledge is power.
Friday had the knowledge that what was going was wrong , but she didn't DO ANYTHING until it was too late , until ( spoiler , spoiler , spoiler , spoiler , spoiler ) her friend was DEAD by Arden's hand.
That's another thing that never made sense to me.
Friday knows that Arden is bad news.
They are trapped in a ghost town ,about to be drowned. Arden wants to stay for some reason ,so Friday is going to go get help because she's the only one who can drive besides Malik , who Arden states will never be allowed to leave her side.
Arden says , "I'm keeping your friend Silence here as insurance that you come back."
Ring ring ring ring !
Alarm bells immediately would have gone off in MY head.
A girl who Friday knows has abused this little boy , though she doesn't know how , is holding him for ransom. She gets off on power , so after the flood is over , Friday knows Arden isn't going to give him up.
She KNOWS this.
At this point I would have
A) gotten out of the car. I'm not leaving my dearest friend with this girl , who HATES him now that he is no longer devoted to her , because he recognized the abuse.
B) Demanded that Malik drive. If that wasn't going to happen , I'd rather have WALKED to my destination than let them stay with my friend.
C) If they still didn't let Silence go. I would have waited till nightfall to sneak away. They were all okay anyway doing that.
D) UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES EVER DO YOU BARGAIN WITH A MENTALLY UNSTABLE PSYCHOPATH.
You just don't.
But no. Friday drives away.
And when she gets back , Arden says her friend hitched a ride with somebody and is gone.
Friday knows this is NOT true. She KNOWS Arden lies with every breath.
She searches for her friend. Desperately.
Falls asleep in a heap of exhaustion.
Wakes up to a clanging noise.
Goes to investigate the cellar where the noise is coming from.
Her friends come with her.
Arden gets up. She coaxes them back and says , " It's just the wind. It's just the wind."
Did I mention this girl is a liar?
Did I mention that Friday KNOWS this girl is a wicked liar?
NO WAY WOULD I NOT INVESTIGATE THAT NOISE.
And it WAS her friend Silence. He was a mute , so he couldn't scream in the cellar. He banged on it with rocks. He made the clanging noise.
By the morning , he was dead.
I feel this is needless tragedy. I feel that the heroine had at her disposal common sense and intuition.
She just doesn't USE IT.
WHY? WHY?
So I can feel devastated when my favorite character dies horrifically and needlessly ?
It was NEEDLESS tragedy.
It's the worst kind , and maybe other people can tolerate it , but I just CAN'T.
I don't believe a human being would react the way Friday did. Can't wrap my brain around it.
Its why I don't get Romeo and Juliet. I don't get the depth of their irrational madness and grief ,after knowing each other a day.
I don't get it. Unless they are MENTALLY ILL , I'm calling bull.
It's why I don't get Jodi Lynn Anderson's , The Vanishing Season.
Unless you are a completely unfeeling and callous horror , how do you let someone give you all their clothes to keep warm in a snow storm?
Why wouldn't you think of switching the articles of clothing around? Why wouldn't you ?
I have an answer. You would think of that.
Its not realistic to think otherwise , and despite the emotion of this novel , I feel the tragedy was a ploy on my feelings when there are many ways that logically it could have been prevented.
Friday Brown is far from a dimwitted character.
She just conveniently forgets not to trust a pathological liar because the plot demands it.
I don't like being manipulated , nor do I appreciate gratuitous violence and death. I know it happens , but not like this. Not if you have a brain.
That whole scene , where the clanging is ringing in the background and Arden is stretching out her hands , wheedling away with her words and lies , is going to haunt me forever.
Its the worst possible thing . It's darkness and ruin.
Maybe I'm thinking entirely too much of myself , but I don't see how Friday trusted her for a freaking minute.
And that ruins everything.
Vikki Wakefield is an amazing writer. There's no getting around that fact.
But her story left me feeling worse than when I started , so I can not in good conscience recommend this painful wound of a novel.
There's not enough hope to carry it to its conclusion , and books need hope. Otherwise, what's the point?
bookishb1tch's review against another edition
2.0
I liked it but man was it so fucked up! and sometimes really confusing! I really liked Wish, Silence, Joe and Bree, and the grandfather. I wish the curse was more of a focus tho, it could’ve been super cool. Idk, it was good, just not the best. It definitely read fast tho, I read it in 4 days (:
Also, I didn’t know the main character was going to be bi but I freaking loved it.
Also, I didn’t know the main character was going to be bi but I freaking loved it.
herlifewithbooks's review against another edition
3.0
Friday Brown has a dead mother, lives on the streets, and is haunted by a family curse dictating she will die of drowning. Yikes. Super gritty, but with smooth, evocative language - the contrast reminded me a bit of My Book of Life by Angel (but not nearly as harrowing). Ms. Wakefield knows how to write, but sometimes the prose here seemed a little overwritten, especially the dialogue. I am not expecting completely realistic speech in a book, but some of these characters talk like they've spent a few years mulling over their responses and crafting perfectly eloquent deliveries.
Also, I have a new writing pet peeve - exposition after the first 100 pages. Maybe even 50. I should not be learning back story in the second to last chapter, unless the protagonist is also just learning it and it's interesting/part of a plot point, etc.
This is one of those reviews where I nitpick a perfectly good book, fyi.
Also, I have a new writing pet peeve - exposition after the first 100 pages. Maybe even 50. I should not be learning back story in the second to last chapter, unless the protagonist is also just learning it and it's interesting/part of a plot point, etc.
This is one of those reviews where I nitpick a perfectly good book, fyi.
ghostsofthings's review against another edition
4.0
"My life has been told to me through campfire tales - stories that spill over when the fire has burned low and silence must be filled. They're like old coats hauled from the back of the cupboard. Dusted off, aired out, good as new. My mother, Vivienne, doled them out as reward or consolation, depending on her mood. And so I came to know myself - through the telling and retelling. They became as much a part of me as blood or bone." - Wakefield
I was hit again and again by the poetry in this writing. It has been quite a while since I've stumbled upon such simple, beautiful prose that is consistent through the whole story.
Beyond that, the characters are unique and memorable, Friday is relatable, and the plot itself is an engaging one.
While I'm not an expert of this particular genre, this is certainly one of my favourite contemporaries to date.
I was hit again and again by the poetry in this writing. It has been quite a while since I've stumbled upon such simple, beautiful prose that is consistent through the whole story.
Beyond that, the characters are unique and memorable, Friday is relatable, and the plot itself is an engaging one.
While I'm not an expert of this particular genre, this is certainly one of my favourite contemporaries to date.
gabyreadsalot's review against another edition
3.0
I've spent a lot of time of my Grade 11 year in my school library. Maybe its because I find it calming, surrounded by books, or maybe its because I'm trying to avoid socializing and having your face in a book makes you seem off-limit to social interaction, but its become a daily occurrence that I visit the library before going home.
As said earlier, I tend to pick up a book to avoid interacting people during this time. I try to make a point of making it a book that's less hyped, so I can engage in books I wouldn't normally read/buy because I don't want to make an effort of doing that. Unfortunately, most of the meh 2-3 star books since September I've read are from this category. They're quality pieces of literature that can be liked, and maybe it's just the fact they're under-hyped, the environment but none of them have really clicked with me.
Friday Never Leaving is not a bad book on any standards. I just read it at the wrong time, wrong place and since it isn't a book i own, I'm sad to say i don't think this a book I'll ever read because unlike other books i gave a second chance it's neither well-known or i feel the need to like since i bought it. It will sit at the back of my head, probably to be never thought of again. It's sad but it's also a part of life. It's neither a book i would recommend, or discourage people to read. Honestly, i would probably tell someone asking me that i don't remember anything, that's how disconnected I felt reading it
I read this book right after having read 1000 Splendid Suns(amazing read def recommend) and that book was HEAVY, not including the 14 pages of notes I had to make for school. I only realized half-way through this book that I was not in the mood for a heavy book about adolescence, poverty, suicide and much more and unlucky surprise that was what was in store for me. It's not that this book tried to disguise itself as this happy cute book; it's literally marketed as this girl who loses her mother to cancer and then meets some teenagers on the streets who bring her in to their dysfunctional family-- i knew it was gonna be heavy from the get-go! I was just dumb and couldn't put my priorities straight until I was half-way through the book, and since I hate dnfing books unless they're absolutely shit I decided to pull through.
This book DOES have depth, even half-immersed in the story I could notice that. Was it efficient in its message that the author intended to share? yes? no? maybe? idk? I wish I could tell you it was an amazing book, or I wish I could tell you it was horrible but alas I can't. It was mediocre, and that is simply my fault, however its your fault if you lasted through this mediocre weird review/non-review ( JK ILY IM SORRY YOU HAD TO GO THROUGH THIS THANK YOU HAHA)
Anywho, it was mediocre just like my life and that's all goodbye, see you next time!
As said earlier, I tend to pick up a book to avoid interacting people during this time. I try to make a point of making it a book that's less hyped, so I can engage in books I wouldn't normally read/buy because I don't want to make an effort of doing that. Unfortunately, most of the meh 2-3 star books since September I've read are from this category. They're quality pieces of literature that can be liked, and maybe it's just the fact they're under-hyped, the environment but none of them have really clicked with me.
Friday Never Leaving is not a bad book on any standards. I just read it at the wrong time, wrong place and since it isn't a book i own, I'm sad to say i don't think this a book I'll ever read because unlike other books i gave a second chance it's neither well-known or i feel the need to like since i bought it. It will sit at the back of my head, probably to be never thought of again. It's sad but it's also a part of life. It's neither a book i would recommend, or discourage people to read. Honestly, i would probably tell someone asking me that i don't remember anything, that's how disconnected I felt reading it
I read this book right after having read 1000 Splendid Suns(amazing read def recommend) and that book was HEAVY, not including the 14 pages of notes I had to make for school. I only realized half-way through this book that I was not in the mood for a heavy book about adolescence, poverty, suicide and much more and unlucky surprise that was what was in store for me. It's not that this book tried to disguise itself as this happy cute book; it's literally marketed as this girl who loses her mother to cancer and then meets some teenagers on the streets who bring her in to their dysfunctional family-- i knew it was gonna be heavy from the get-go! I was just dumb and couldn't put my priorities straight until I was half-way through the book, and since I hate dnfing books unless they're absolutely shit I decided to pull through.
This book DOES have depth, even half-immersed in the story I could notice that. Was it efficient in its message that the author intended to share? yes? no? maybe? idk? I wish I could tell you it was an amazing book, or I wish I could tell you it was horrible but alas I can't. It was mediocre, and that is simply my fault, however its your fault if you lasted through this mediocre weird review/non-review ( JK ILY IM SORRY YOU HAD TO GO THROUGH THIS THANK YOU HAHA)
Anywho, it was mediocre just like my life and that's all goodbye, see you next time!
chwaters's review against another edition
4.0
Friday Brown has lived her entire life on the road with her mother and in near-constant fear of the family "curse" of the women all dying in or near water on a Saturday. She's never had an actual home to call her own. When her mother dies of cancer, Friday is left on her own. Her mother tried to get Friday to stay with her wealthy grandfather, but Friday isn't comfortable there. Friday runs away to the city where she finds a silver-haired boy that doesn't speak. He goes by the name of Silence and agrees to take her to the spot where he's living. As it turns out, he is part of a community of homeless teens who all live in a squat and answer to an older teen known as Arden. Friday suspects that Arden might be manipulative, but she also makes Friday feel as though there is someone looking out for her. Still grief-stricken over her mother's death, Friday decides to make life with these kids work. All of them live beneath the radar and get by on busking, turning tricks and petty theft. Things go relatively smoothly until Arden decides it's time for the group to move. To a ghost town in the middle of the outback. A ghost town that's been abandoned with good reason.
This Australian import offers the reader a rare glimpse into the lives of disenfranchised, homeless teens without feeling like a "problem novel". None of these kids have had what amounts to an ordinary life. Most of them have experienced some kind of abuse, which actually sets Friday apart from the rest of the kids. While Friday hasn't lived an enviable life, she did have a mother who loved her, something the kids in her new "family" dream of. These kids live their lives at the mercy of those around them. Friday and Silence have a beautiful and unique friendship that centers itself around protecting each other's well-being. Arden, the "matriarch" of the group, is both fascinating and intimidating. She cares for the kids on a certain level, but is also manipulative and controlling. This character-driven novel may not move quickly, but the lure of the characters will draw readers in. The writing is lovely, which somehow seems to be endemic to all the authors I've read who hail from Australia (seriously, what is it about that country that produces such amazing YA authors?). The emotional pain and discomfiting nature of Friday's circumstances feel uncomfortable, but her growth as a person is palpable. Readers will be hoping and praying that these kids make it into adulthood unscathed.
This Australian import offers the reader a rare glimpse into the lives of disenfranchised, homeless teens without feeling like a "problem novel". None of these kids have had what amounts to an ordinary life. Most of them have experienced some kind of abuse, which actually sets Friday apart from the rest of the kids. While Friday hasn't lived an enviable life, she did have a mother who loved her, something the kids in her new "family" dream of. These kids live their lives at the mercy of those around them. Friday and Silence have a beautiful and unique friendship that centers itself around protecting each other's well-being. Arden, the "matriarch" of the group, is both fascinating and intimidating. She cares for the kids on a certain level, but is also manipulative and controlling. This character-driven novel may not move quickly, but the lure of the characters will draw readers in. The writing is lovely, which somehow seems to be endemic to all the authors I've read who hail from Australia (seriously, what is it about that country that produces such amazing YA authors?). The emotional pain and discomfiting nature of Friday's circumstances feel uncomfortable, but her growth as a person is palpable. Readers will be hoping and praying that these kids make it into adulthood unscathed.
erika_briggs's review against another edition
4.0
Creepily sad and suspenseful. Friday is such a great character.
lorynaman's review against another edition
3.0
The Brown women are cursed: each one, for many years, has died in an accident related to water. Friday Brown and her mother Vivienne live on the road, moving from town to town and sometimes ending up homeless. Friday has only known this lifestyle, so when her mother becomes ill and moves them in with her grandfather, Friday knows she will not stay if her mother dies.
Soon, Friday finds herself on her own, but after a freak accident at the railway station, Friday meets a kindred soul in a boy named Silence. He takes her back to an abandoned home where other homeless teens are living and she is quickly enfolded in a new lifestyle and way of living. These strangers soon become her family, but there is always the feeling that something terrible is right around the corner.
Wakefield has created a creepy and interesting story. Readers will be wondering if the Brown curse is going to catch up with Friday, or if she will finally break it. The relationships that Wakefield develops between the characters are interesting, alarming, and intriguing all at the same time. While it is an intriguing concept, the book does not have a wide appeal for all teens or the ability to capture ones full attention the whole way through.
Soon, Friday finds herself on her own, but after a freak accident at the railway station, Friday meets a kindred soul in a boy named Silence. He takes her back to an abandoned home where other homeless teens are living and she is quickly enfolded in a new lifestyle and way of living. These strangers soon become her family, but there is always the feeling that something terrible is right around the corner.
Wakefield has created a creepy and interesting story. Readers will be wondering if the Brown curse is going to catch up with Friday, or if she will finally break it. The relationships that Wakefield develops between the characters are interesting, alarming, and intriguing all at the same time. While it is an intriguing concept, the book does not have a wide appeal for all teens or the ability to capture ones full attention the whole way through.
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