Steven Herrick

This was an interesting read for about the first half. The story of a boy and a family torn apart by the death of their mother/wife.

I love the poems/stories by Jack. he had a strong voice and boy thoughts and they made me laugh a little and sad a little - and they were so normal and then so not normal, because of what he'd gone through.

But then it bounced around. Sister, girl, dad, then girl to girlfriend and then back to jack. And the changes to each person weren't always obvious until you were 1/2 way through the poem.

And then, boom! The book kind of ends, and you have a second half. And that one is also the girl and Jack but then a new cast of characters. And new drama and life struggles and...it just sort of lost me. It felt scattered when there are so many people to keep track of and so many dramas.… (more)

Trigger warnings: Misogyny mentioned, abusive parent, alcohol

6.5/10, looking back at this book which won a CBCA award for Older Readers in 2022 I think I was in the minority since I actually disliked it but apparently the judges liked it and gave it an award so our tastes differ; I was already sick and tired of preachy books like My Spare Heart by Jared Thomas and this didn't help, where do I begin with this. For starters this book preaches about sexting, cancel culture, Greta Thunberg, MeToo, and First Australians but it felt awkward, unnecessary and superficial. The characters weren't really that fleshed out or developed and when Isaac and Sophie developed an attraction with one another I couldn't really connect to them even though this was a romance novel. I was wondering why Isaac's father is abusive; maybe it would cause Isaac to run away and start over with a new life, hence the title though he did provoke him a couple of times such as when he punched him and smashed his TV which might be a symbolic gesture but it's never OK to destroy someone's property. If you like romance books you can try this but there are better ones you can pick up like Where the Road Leads Us by Robin Reul.… (more)

Burruga, Australia is a small town and everyone knows everyone else’s business…or do they? Several of the townspeople’s stories are told in a series of prose poems alternating among the characters. The main characters are the Holding family: father Albert and sons Eddie and Larry. Albert Holding came back from WWII a changed man, not because he had seen action, but because he hadn’t. He refused to work in the mines and forbade his sons from doing so as well. Eddie was not much interested in school and he thought someone should work in the mines to earn a decent wage, which his father’s job as a farmhand did not provide. A girl in town is murdered and as the poems progress through several citizens of the town and possible suspects including the mayor, who did not fight in the war, the police chief, the town teacher, and others, their deepest secrets are revealed. Some tension builds through the book but several plot threads seem out of place and are never tied up. Reluctant readers who are fans of Ellen Hopkins and prose poetry books will like this quick read.… (more)