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A review by reanne
Yellow by Megan Jacobson
4.0
(Review crossposted from my book review blog.)
Oh man, this book is gut-wrenching. In a good way. That’s not usually something I look for in a book, but I really think it works here.(Especially since it has a happy ending.)
Kirra is a girl who it’s very easy to feel sorry for. She’s a normal teenager, but one whose life is abnormally difficult. Her parents are really terrible, and the kids at school treat her like crap even while pretending to be her friends. When we’re first introduced to them, I wonder why she’s friends with them. I don’t really understand a desire to be popular that’s so strong that it makes you put up with people treating you like crap. But the way it was portrayed, I could see why Kirra was like that. Fortunately, she does learn that popularity isn’t worth that.
As the story goes on, things start looking up for her, then more bad things happen, and we’re taken along on this tumultuous, emotional ride with her as she tries to navigate life as a teenager when she’s been dealt a pretty crappy hand. It’s not as awful as some people’s, of course, but it’s bad enough to really make me feel sorry for her.
Kirra is a very believable and sympathetic character. Even when she makes bad decisions or says things that aren’t the best thing she could have said, she’s always believable, and I can understand why she’s doing what she’s doing, based on the life she’s living. She’s not a paragon of this is how you handle life. She’s just a normal kid trying to muddle her way through the best she can. Through her efforts, some things turn out good, some bad, and some of the good things lead to bad results which end up just making things more difficult.
The ghost element is only one aspect of the story, and it’s not big enough that I’d really call this a proper ghost story. It’s more like just one more screwed-up part of Kirra’s life. Things aren’t as straightforward as they seem, and it goes to show that even if a ghost talks to you, that doesn’t mean you should believe everything it says. Which is a very reasonable lesson, really.
The best part of this book, for me, was the fact that it’s Australian. It’s about an Australian girl, set in Australia, by an Australian author, and narrated by an Australian. So I really felt like I was getting a glimpse of what life is like in another part of today’s world. (Or, rather, the world of the late ’90s.) And it’s small-town Australia, too, which I think gives a better look than big-city Australia, since big cities tend to be similar to each other in ways that small town life isn’t so much. One thing I found interesting about this was how big a part of everyone’s lives the beach and ocean were. How they acknowledged the sun was causing cancer but they didn’t care in the same way that smokers don’t care. And how they spent so much time out in the ocean even while acknowledging how dangerous it is—and, apparently, also not caring at all about that. I guess maybe they’re so bored otherwise in this tiny town that it’s worth the danger. Or maybe that’s all part of Australian culture. Hard to tell from one book, but that’s what I’m talking about, the interesting stuff that’s so different from life where I live. This book really made me feel what it was like to live in Kirra’s town, or at least get a taste of it. And really, listening to the Australian accent was just fun (most of the books I listen to are in American or British accents).
Oh man, this book is gut-wrenching. In a good way. That’s not usually something I look for in a book, but I really think it works here.
Kirra is a girl who it’s very easy to feel sorry for. She’s a normal teenager, but one whose life is abnormally difficult. Her parents are really terrible, and the kids at school treat her like crap even while pretending to be her friends. When we’re first introduced to them, I wonder why she’s friends with them. I don’t really understand a desire to be popular that’s so strong that it makes you put up with people treating you like crap. But the way it was portrayed, I could see why Kirra was like that. Fortunately, she does learn that popularity isn’t worth that.
As the story goes on, things start looking up for her, then more bad things happen, and we’re taken along on this tumultuous, emotional ride with her as she tries to navigate life as a teenager when she’s been dealt a pretty crappy hand. It’s not as awful as some people’s, of course, but it’s bad enough to really make me feel sorry for her.
Kirra is a very believable and sympathetic character. Even when she makes bad decisions or says things that aren’t the best thing she could have said, she’s always believable, and I can understand why she’s doing what she’s doing, based on the life she’s living. She’s not a paragon of this is how you handle life. She’s just a normal kid trying to muddle her way through the best she can. Through her efforts, some things turn out good, some bad, and some of the good things lead to bad results which end up just making things more difficult.
The ghost element is only one aspect of the story, and it’s not big enough that I’d really call this a proper ghost story. It’s more like just one more screwed-up part of Kirra’s life. Things aren’t as straightforward as they seem, and it goes to show that even if a ghost talks to you, that doesn’t mean you should believe everything it says. Which is a very reasonable lesson, really.
The best part of this book, for me, was the fact that it’s Australian. It’s about an Australian girl, set in Australia, by an Australian author, and narrated by an Australian. So I really felt like I was getting a glimpse of what life is like in another part of today’s world. (Or, rather, the world of the late ’90s.) And it’s small-town Australia, too, which I think gives a better look than big-city Australia, since big cities tend to be similar to each other in ways that small town life isn’t so much. One thing I found interesting about this was how big a part of everyone’s lives the beach and ocean were. How they acknowledged the sun was causing cancer but they didn’t care in the same way that smokers don’t care. And how they spent so much time out in the ocean even while acknowledging how dangerous it is—and, apparently, also not caring at all about that. I guess maybe they’re so bored otherwise in this tiny town that it’s worth the danger. Or maybe that’s all part of Australian culture. Hard to tell from one book, but that’s what I’m talking about, the interesting stuff that’s so different from life where I live. This book really made me feel what it was like to live in Kirra’s town, or at least get a taste of it. And really, listening to the Australian accent was just fun (most of the books I listen to are in American or British accents).