A review by casacacti
Terra Nullius by Claire G. Coleman

adventurous challenging tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

this was definitely an interesting concept, but a little gutsy for a debut imo. coleman definitely succeeded in putting me, a white australian, in the shoes of an aboriginal australian who lived through the colonisation / stolen generations of australia. there just wasnt a clear end goal for any of the characters except for jacky, and even when that goal was "achieved", there wasnt anything... new for him, even though the story continued on. 
coleman writes with very beautiful language, though at times the dialogue and the narrative feel disconnected. it almost sounded like someone else started writing it in the second half of the book. 
this is still a good debut; i think it just needed to be fleshed out a little more. i would have liked to have little hints of the origin of the settlers throughout the beginning of the book, just to keep readers intrigued, rather than surprising us with it half way through. 
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