My Place by Sally Morgan

My Place by Sally Morgan (Fremantle Press) PB RRP $23:00 ISBN: 9781925816761

Reviewed by Jeffery E Doherty

My Place is a great Australian classic, one of the best loved biographies of Aboriginal Australia ever written. It has now been adapted for younger readers. From the blurb: ‘Sally Morgan always wondered about her family: who they were; where they came from; what they were hiding. She asked questions but received few answers. So, Sally travelled to her grandmother’s birthplace. What started as a tentative search for information, became an extraordinary pilgrimage that would change their lives forever.’

My Place is a search by the author for identity and belonging. The dedication to her family sums up the essence of the book. “How deprived we would have been if we had been willing to let things stay as they were. We would have survived, but not as a whole people. We would have never known our place.”

Sally’s story begins in the mid 1950’s in Perth, Western Australia, as a five-year-old, visiting her father in hospital. All through her childhood, she had questions for her mother and grandmother about their family. Questions like, why did Nan hide whenever she bought friends home after school. Over the years she received lots of evasion and very few answers. This emotive, often heart-wrenching and beautifully written book explores Sally’s search for answers about her heritage. It took her entire childhood, through her university years and into adulthood before she found the answers to her identity. My Place not only tells her own story, but explores the story of her great uncle, her mother and grandmother, giving the reader a glimpse of the inequality and hardships faced by the aboriginal people. What she finally discovered was a rich heritage and the sense of belonging she had been searching for her entire life. She found her place.

I usually read books as an escape from the real world, and it is rare that I read non-fiction or biographies for pleasure. This is not a book I would have chosen to read. I am so glad that Claire from Fremantle Press sent this book to me for review. Not only is it, the sharing of a touching and emotional journey of discovery, it resonates with me on a personal level. I was in my late twenties when I discovered my own aboriginal heritage. Reading My Place has made me even more determined to delve deeper into the rich culture I missed out on as a child. My Place was originally published as three separate books in 1987. It remains highly relevant today. 

This adapted version combines the three books into one volume. I highly recommend this wonderful biography for both adults and younger readers.

The Disasters

The Disasters by M.K English (Harper Collins) YA Science Fiction

PB RRP $19.99     ISBN: 9780062909817

Reviewed by Jeffery E Doherty

The Disasters follows the adventures of Nax Hall, an aspiring young space pilot, straight from the farm, attending the elite Ellis Station Academy. Unfortunately, he is kicked out on the first day and is about to be sent home with three other young washouts when the station is attacked. The four cadets are thrown together and manage to escape in a stolen shuttle but that is where their real troubles begin.

The four cadets are branded as terrorists and hunted, not only by the ones responsible for the attack but by the authorities on all the colony worlds as well. They need to work together, utilising their individual skills sets to discover who the real terrorists are, what they want and to clear their names. In the process they might just become heroes.

During its early stages, this book seemed in danger of shaping up to be an angsty teenage romance in space. Fortunately, this aspect of the characters relationships did not overpower the flow of the story. The characters are interesting, and their diversity should appeal to fans of LGBTQI fiction.

The Disasters has lots of action but weaves in quiet moments where we learn about the each of the main characters. The book is well written and the story would resonate with teens and lovers of YA speculative fiction. Hard science fiction fans might rankle a little at the story’s mechanics of long-distance space travel but on the whole, I would recommend giving this is a story a read.

  

River Stone – Book One of The Burning Days

River Stone – Book One of The Burning Days by Rachel Hennessy

(Midnight Sun) YA Science Fiction  PB RRP $19.99  SBN: 9781925227499

Reviewed by Jeffery E Doherty

Disaster comes to the River People on the day of Pandora’s Blossoming. Most of the adults are struck down with a sickness and the only chance to save them lays in finding a cure inside a city, mostly destroyed in The Burning. Pandora believes in her heart that she is destined for more than her inevitable pairing with her life-long friend Matthew, so she volunteers to find the cure.   

Joined by Matthew and several other young people from the village, she sets out for the city. The group do not realise how unprepared they are until they meet, Bayat, a young hunter from the Mountain People. Bayat decides to accompany them and help the group prepare for the dangers they will face.

River Stone is a post-apocalyptic story set after an event called The Burning. It explores the conflicted feelings of Pandora, while being paired with Matthew by the village elders, develops a deep connection with the confident young hunter. Although there are moments of struggle and high action in this book, it is essentially a quiet, character based, coming of age story of a group of sheltered young people discovering a big and dangerous world.

River Stone is the first book in The Burning Days and is a great lead into the series. Rachel Hennessy has created an appealing cast of characters and left several threads to be explored in the next book. There are questions to be answered about the city and the strange once human creatures inhabiting it. There is a missing friend who Pandora has vowed to find, and will Pandora fulfil her duty to the village by pairing with Matthew or will she choose Bayat.

This is a book I would recommend to readers 12+ years and fans of character driven dystopian fiction.

  

Olivia Stone and the Dread of the Dreamers (Book 2)

The Guardians of St. Giles: Olivia Stone and the Dread of the Dreamers (Book 2) by Jeffery E. Doherty (IFWG Publishing) PB RRP $24.95
ISBN 9781925759136

Reviewed by Kylie Buckley

Olivia is a twelve-year-old girl who was left with a limp and an ineffective arm after a giant grotesque statue fell from the roof of her school, St. Giles. However, all is not what it seems. The accident did leave Olivia with some disabilities, but it also left her with a lot more…a secret identity! The grotesques on the school roof were magical protectors of the city and Olivia inherited some special powers from the fallen grotesque. After the accident, all the grotesques were taken down from the roof and it’s now up to Olivia and Yip, the tiny grotesque she rescued, to rid the city of any evil.

Yip senses that something strange is happening in the city and he needs Olivia’s help to sort out what’s causing it. After much speculation, they discover that dreamweavers are infiltrating the town. Dreamweavers are supernatural spiders whose venom forces victims into having ‘mind destroying nightmares’. Olivia learns that a friend of hers is in trouble and they must do everything they can to save him. The only complications are… Olivia’s fear of spiders, the ignorance of the town’s doctors and the overwhelming number of dreamweavers!

Olivia Stone and the Dread of the Dreamers is a middle grade fiction book suitable for children aged 10+ years. The dark and gloomy book cover sets the tone for this dark adventure. It is not for the faint-hearted or those prone to nightmares. This novel, written in the third person, would appeal to those who enjoy magic and fantasy as well as hero vs villain action stories. While it’s not a necessity, I would recommend you read Book 1: Olivia Stone and the Trouble with Trixies prior to reading Book 2, as there are references to it throughout.