Excerpt from Freefalling

by Maura Pierlot

(YA fiction, unpublished)

Carter walks down the aisle, nodding to everyone, in a friendly, gotcha kind of way, his peacock-blue eyes casting a spell upon contact. There’s too much to take in as my eyes dart from one fine feature to the next. His straight, well-proportioned nose, full lips and strong jaw coexist harmoniously on his enviable face; his broad shoulders complement his tall and lanky frame; and his tousled, sun-streaked locks give new respect to blonds worldwide. Eden is salivating; she keeps wiping the sides of her mouth like she can’t stop the drool from escaping. Talia smiles, having just spotted the same thing. She holds out a tissue for Eden, like a bib, but Eden’s too busy slobbering to notice.

It’s Carter’s walk that reels me in: he moves without ego, effort or entitlement, seemingly oblivious to Mother Nature’s many blessings. Nervous energy takes over. My hands have a life of their own, like I’m having a fit, so I quickly sit on them. My heart is racing, my chest feels tight, and there’s a weird tingling in my arm. I think I’m having a stroke – I remember these signs from a medical show Mum made me watch over the summer – but I quickly work out that my bum is cutting off circulation to my hands. Target locked: Carter’s eyes meet mine and his mouth is taken over by a wide grin, revealing killer dimples. Could this guy be any cuter?

Beware that Girl by Teresa Toten (Bonnier Zaffre) PB RRP $19.99  ISBN 9781471406393

Reviewed by Daniela Andrews

‘… But in the end, the main thing I learned – the best thing – was never to bring a knife to a gunfight.’

To play or be played, that is the question. Kate needs some serious social credibility and a secure place to live in order to forge her path to Yale University. She’s living in sub-standard accommodation across town and working as many hours as she can, outside of school, to support herself. She attends her elite high school by scholarship – and by inventing an address. Hiding a terrible secret, she is desperate to change her fate and keep her promise to her dying mother at all costs … she will go to Yale, no matter what it takes or who she has to use to get there. With everything she has been through, it is no wonder she is mentally unstable.

Then there’s Olivia. Do we feel sorry for Olivia? Also hiding a secret about her past? So lonely and desperate for friendship – real friendship – that she falls prey to Kate’s manipulative charms and invites her to come and live with her?  Or does Olivia have her own, dark agenda that puts Kate at terrible risk?

As this dark and thrilling novel twists and turns, the reader will question which of these girls deserves their sympathy. Teresa Toten, award-winning author of The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B, cleverly uses short chapters with shifting perspectives to keep her readers on edge. The chapters alternate between Kate and Olivia, though Kate’s chapters are always in first-person perspective and Olivia’s in third. The chapters are always dated. The opening is set in the future, describing the two girls in a hospital scene. It is not clear which girl is barely conscious, and which is keeping vigil by her bedside. The answer is, of course, revealed in the conclusion of the book. The final chapter is deeply disturbing, suggesting that the victim is still not safe. The book might, therefore, leave the reader quite unsettled! 

Beware That Girl is YA fiction, suitable for readers aged 14 – 17 years. The publisher suggests it might appeal to fans of Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars. It raises themes of friendship, physical and psychological abuse, and mental health conditions in general. A film adaptation is in production.

War Brothers

War Brothers by Sharon E. McKay, art by Daniel Lafrance (Walker Books)

PB RRP $19.95

ISBN 9781406358377

Reviewed by Anastasia Gonis

Anything involving hurting children in any way always shatters me. This confronting graphic novel was painful to read. It will affect many readers the same way, but it is something we must all know about. The telling took tremendous courage.

All begins in Gulu, Uganda, 2002. Kony Joseph leads the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). He’ a man who manipulates the word of God to his advantage, uses it to justify his horrendous actions, and calls it the true Christian way.

‘My country knows this man simply as Kony, the leader of an army of abducted children’, fourteen year-old Jacob of the Acholi tribe writes in the retelling of true events.

He writes about the boys and girls abducted from their villages, families and schools, and forcefully recruited into a child army. They are ordered to kill or be killed themselves. Their lives become ‘full of unthinkable violence and brutal death.’ The fate of the girls is equally unbelievable. Some are maimed. Others are forced to breed children fathered by the commanders, considered pure, to be future rulers of Acholiland.

This heart-rending novel is also ‘a story about hope, courage, friendship and family.’ It takes all of these and more, to attempt escape and face possible death at every movement; every sound.

The text is supported by magnificent art that magnifies each word and action a thousand times. It engages all the senses and emotions and the reader will physically feel the children’s suffering.

This book was hard to finish and harder to write about. It contains extreme violence therefore discretion should be used when choosing the readership, regardless of it being directed at the 14+ age group.