I am reading this as a favour to a colleague. It is that reason, and that reason alone, that I will finish the story but - and it is a big but - I am not enjoying the book at all. The premise is that a surviving identical twin is 'messed up' as her sister committed the appalling crime of shooting several classmates. I read because it is pleasurable. But let's face it, how enjoyable can it be to be immersed in someone else's nightmare filled with grief and chaos? High school shootings are real - thankfully not in Australia - but real none the less. This story is painful, and not in a therapeutic 'good' way:
I could picture it. I could picture it exactly, without even trying. Countless versions of you in that school dress, aiming Dad's gun with psycho-steady hands. Kids running for their lives over and over again. Puddles of blood like the ones on the bitumen, but everywhere, so much that it looked fake. The sound of screams and gunshots and death just like I heard that day, but played on constant rotation. One horrific soundtrack laid over another and another, until you wished you were deaf. Bodies laid out in a line like I'd seen before, but stretching on forever. Versions of you gunning down other versions of you. Kids escaping one, only to come face to face with another. (p.76)
Well I'm a third of the way through. I wonder if Barker felt better after writing this depressing drivel. If so, at least one person has benefited from the process.
Monday 20 June 2016
Thursday 16 June 2016
TIGERS ON THE BEACH by Doug MacLeod
I grabbed this one as I loved reading 'The Shiny Guys'. I am about a third of the way through and I am thinking this is a perfect read for Year 7s (12-13 year olds) given the protagonist is a young teenager.
There are plenty of themes to engage this age group: sibling rivalry (his younger brother has Asperger's Syndrome which provides an intriguing insight into seeing the world through different eyes); telling jokes; first 'crush' (when is it right to have that first kiss?); living at a holiday resort as caretakers... Sadly, but highly relevantly, there is foreshadowing that Adam's parents might split up. His grandma's behaviour is creating tension:
Mum and dad are in the front office when I get home. Incredibly, they are arguing.
'You need to have a word with your mother,' Dad says. 'There was another incident today. While you were out shopping, she climbed a ladder.'
Mum is shocked. 'Ken, you shouldn't let her climb ladders. She's old. Imagine if she fell.'
'I didn't find out about it until afterwards.'
'What was she doing up a ladder?'
Dad replies in disbelief, 'She was hanging four teddy bears from a tree.'
'Oh.' This doesn't seem so strange to Mum.
'It's an old trick,' she says. 'It's meant to keep away possums. You know mum hates the possums.'
'I think everybody at The Ponderosa knows that by now. Nathan took down the teddies.'
'Then there's no problem, is there?'
'This is a holiday resort, Georgia,' Dad snaps, 'not The Blair Witch Project. You can't have hanging teddies. It's disturbing for the children.' (pp.86-87)
The language is simple and the story-line fairly engaging. Thus far there is not enough conflict to keep me charging through the chapters but a Year 7-er would definitely enjoy it.
Just finished reading it. Very enjoyable. The story has quite a philosophical look at humour, as it goes. It starts and ends with classic jokes. I suppose that should have been a bit of a giveaway :)
There are plenty of themes to engage this age group: sibling rivalry (his younger brother has Asperger's Syndrome which provides an intriguing insight into seeing the world through different eyes); telling jokes; first 'crush' (when is it right to have that first kiss?); living at a holiday resort as caretakers... Sadly, but highly relevantly, there is foreshadowing that Adam's parents might split up. His grandma's behaviour is creating tension:
Mum and dad are in the front office when I get home. Incredibly, they are arguing.
'You need to have a word with your mother,' Dad says. 'There was another incident today. While you were out shopping, she climbed a ladder.'
Mum is shocked. 'Ken, you shouldn't let her climb ladders. She's old. Imagine if she fell.'
'I didn't find out about it until afterwards.'
'What was she doing up a ladder?'
Dad replies in disbelief, 'She was hanging four teddy bears from a tree.'
'Oh.' This doesn't seem so strange to Mum.
'It's an old trick,' she says. 'It's meant to keep away possums. You know mum hates the possums.'
'I think everybody at The Ponderosa knows that by now. Nathan took down the teddies.'
'Then there's no problem, is there?'
'This is a holiday resort, Georgia,' Dad snaps, 'not The Blair Witch Project. You can't have hanging teddies. It's disturbing for the children.' (pp.86-87)
The language is simple and the story-line fairly engaging. Thus far there is not enough conflict to keep me charging through the chapters but a Year 7-er would definitely enjoy it.
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