This book is simultaneously satisfying and disturbing. It touches on death, physical abuse, loneliness, alcoholism and self-doubt, and yet all of these grim themes are set against a sometimes mundane world where at least one family cares for the increasingly desperate Aaron.
Aaron is a teenager who has left school before Year Twelve. He has opted to take a job in a local funeral parlour, and it is here that he must confront death and the discomforting challenges of the trade. Compared to other parts of his life, the small family run business is actually a haven. Aaron struggles with inner and external torment. He has shocking dreams that start to push a door open to something he does not want to remember. He lives with his carer in a caravan park and there attracts the hostility of teenage thugs and a vindictive supervisor.
The story unfolds with a series of ever more intense confrontations and challenges for Aaron. Some of the detail is, I feel, far too gritty for younger readers, but John Barton, the owner of the funeral home, is doing his best to understand Aaron’s defensive secrets and silence, knows things are not going well, and is determined to help if he can.
Aaron is an engaging character, and the reader is likely to be barracking for him right through to the last page. My personal unease was that for the purpose of the story Aaron faces a perfect storm of emotional and physical struggle, so the events are well beyond the sort of thing a normal teen reader may have ever experienced. We accept this in an action story or a sci fi space opera, but this book is seemingly about an ordinary boy in an ordinary suburb.
Emotionally intense and including scenes of murder, physical violence and death. Short listed for this year's CBCA awards.
Andrew Lack
Head of the Odell Learning Resources Centre
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