lawbooks600's review against another edition
3.0
Trigger warnings: Abusive father, death of a mother from a car crash (in the past), near-death experience in a lake, death of a dog, death of a friend
6/10, after taking a break from Australian authors after the last one written by them underwhelmed me I was hoping that this was better and I was expecting more from an author's crime debut; sadly it wasn't due to the many glaring flaws in this, where do I begin and come on Australians, you can do better than that. I do wonder whether the books this author made after this would be better than this one. It begins with the main character Lucy Hart living in Digger's Landing in Queensland and she wants to get out of there as soon as possible, I can understand that because it's just a boring fishing town with nothing much to do there and everything looks fine but I keep noticing that when she sleeps she has a recurring dream of her swimming in the ocean and there was a sinking boy and she tries to save him but he sank, then she wakes up from that and goes on with her normal life but she feels like an outcast and I don't know why but it's probably the reason why my library put the book in the mystery rather than the realistic section. Somehow I couldn't connect to Lucy at all since she wasn't developed or fleshed out enough even when she was unpopular and I didn't like her abusive father but at least he developed his character towards the end. In the end, there was a character called Tom who died for whatever reason, it was hinted that Lucy's mother who was a dream walker like herself died in a car crash. It turns out that her father couldn't swim and this helped me understand her recurring dreams however her dog Glen died and her father almost did, wrapping up the book on a low note.
6/10, after taking a break from Australian authors after the last one written by them underwhelmed me I was hoping that this was better and I was expecting more from an author's crime debut; sadly it wasn't due to the many glaring flaws in this, where do I begin and come on Australians, you can do better than that. I do wonder whether the books this author made after this would be better than this one. It begins with the main character Lucy Hart living in Digger's Landing in Queensland and she wants to get out of there as soon as possible, I can understand that because it's just a boring fishing town with nothing much to do there and everything looks fine but I keep noticing that when she sleeps she has a recurring dream of her swimming in the ocean and there was a sinking boy and she tries to save him but he sank, then she wakes up from that and goes on with her normal life but she feels like an outcast and I don't know why but it's probably the reason why my library put the book in the mystery rather than the realistic section. Somehow I couldn't connect to Lucy at all since she wasn't developed or fleshed out enough even when she was unpopular and I didn't like her abusive father but at least he developed his character towards the end. In the end, there was a character called Tom who died for whatever reason, it was hinted that Lucy's mother who was a dream walker like herself died in a car crash. It turns out that her father couldn't swim and this helped me understand her recurring dreams however her dog Glen died and her father almost did, wrapping up the book on a low note.
mockingjayreads's review against another edition
2.0
2.5
Very slow. I like purple prose but this is bumbling and unclear. I want my writing to invoke an image and sadly this one didn't do that for me. It was a lot of fancy words that felt like they didn't quite fit.
The story itself is a very strange mix of parts, all which don't seem to culminate into much of anything.
Very slow. I like purple prose but this is bumbling and unclear. I want my writing to invoke an image and sadly this one didn't do that for me. It was a lot of fancy words that felt like they didn't quite fit.
The story itself is a very strange mix of parts, all which don't seem to culminate into much of anything.
b_robinson's review against another edition
1.0
I cannot get past how utterly depressing this book is.
It felt like there was so much unnecessary death in it, and often sad and hopeless things would come one after another in an endless tidal wave of all-consuming despair.
I was goddamn miserable reading this book. And I hated that in the end Lucy decided to stay in Diggers. My reading experience was often sprinkled with some genuine queasiness around some of the scenes in the book; anything to do with Gavin, for example, or that bit with her mother and the fishing net. The dream walking thing was weird, and I felt as though it just added a whole other layer of confusion.
Triggers (sort of) in the book that I was not aware of: implied suicide (that's if I'm reading between the lines right, which I'm 99.99% sure I am), death of a dog (how dare that be put in there when everything else was already terrible), and child abuse/neglect.
Also, the whole time I was reading, my poor over-worked brain kept looking at all of the Australian slang and being like OMG AFFIXATION, HYPOCORISMS, AUSTRALIANISMS AT THEIR FINEST. My EngLang teacher should be so proud.
It felt like there was so much unnecessary death in it, and often sad and hopeless things would come one after another in an endless tidal wave of all-consuming despair.
I was goddamn miserable reading this book. And I hated that in the end Lucy decided to stay in Diggers. My reading experience was often sprinkled with some genuine queasiness around some of the scenes in the book; anything to do with Gavin, for example, or that bit with her mother and the fishing net. The dream walking thing was weird, and I felt as though it just added a whole other layer of confusion.
Triggers (sort of) in the book that I was not aware of: implied suicide (that's if I'm reading between the lines right, which I'm 99.99% sure I am), death of a dog (how dare that be put in there when everything else was already terrible), and child abuse/neglect.
Also, the whole time I was reading, my poor over-worked brain kept looking at all of the Australian slang and being like OMG AFFIXATION, HYPOCORISMS, AUSTRALIANISMS AT THEIR FINEST. My EngLang teacher should be so proud.
missusb21's review against another edition
4.0
Much to ponder here. Great sense of setting and landscape. Fresh voice. A magic surrealism element (not covered by my shelves).
lauredhel's review
4.0
Magical realism in a tiny, claustrophobic Queensland creek-fishing town. This book is beautifully written but please be warned that it is also grim AF. Very spoilery content notes: child neglect, child abuse, bullying (including severe physical bullying), death of a closeted gay teen character, and the dog dies.
emlinthegremlin's review
4.0
i really enjoyed this!! i'm always down for some australian ya content, especially when it's: magical realism, well written, atmospheric, and genuine. This book was all of the above. A book that is well worth reading.
gillyreads's review
4.0
Really excellent read - and exactly the sort of book I devoured as a teenager
kali's review
5.0
Lucy is in her last year of high school, living in a small township in FNQ where the only thing that grows is 'resentment'. She lives with her uncommunicative father, going out on his boat to check the fish traps day-in and day-out, but the fish aren't biting. And the town is losing its lifeblood. Somebody has to be the scapegoat, and towns of this size don't take too kindly to strangers. And 'strangeness'. Since a car accident with her best friend Tom, Lucy has been having odd dreams, which she feels aren't her own, and slowly she finds out what others in town secretly long for, except that which she longs for -- the reason why her mother committed suicide. I absolutely loved this YA novel, where everyone dreams of getting out, but the town has a way of throwing its net around you and dragging you in -- or under. There are nets of other kinds, ghostnets, those drifting bits of fishing net that wash up on shore, now being turned into beautiful works of art by Indigenous and Islander communities. The language and humour in this novel are stunning, and magic is weaved through like a spell.
More...