Weekender Books July

Weekender Books July 

Contemporary/ SpecFic YA - from my writing community

That's me, on the beach at Egmond aan Zee, North Holland,

all those years ago when I was eighteen years old

Photo: Matthias von Herrath

I'm so behind with my Weekender Book posts, it's not funny. It has been a very busy few weeks, starting with a new addition to the family, lots of writing competitions, attending a writing festival and finishing the first draft of my Middle Grade Fantasy fiction (nearly there). And - yeah, celebrating two publications this month: my feminist historical short fiction Katherina, The Sorcerer and Her Scientist Son in the Heroines Anthology, vol II (Neo Perennial Press, 2019) and my Dark Moments flash fiction, Metamorphosis, published online by Black Hare Press, Sep 2019. Still, I have been reading nonetheless (can't go without reading) a stack of books that are definitely worth mentioning.

So, here is a selection from my book stack I read in July. They are all debut OZYA (Australian Young Adult fiction) novels but very, very different, which I love about this genre: we get an earth shattering, apocalyptic scenario of survival of body and soul in Sky So Heavy; while How it Feels to Float dives right into the physical pain of grief and the destabilising effect of mental illness; and tender, first love tugs the heart strings in Making Friends With Alice Dyson.

Despite differences in subject matter, themes, language and style, all three books have at least a couple of things in common for me. They all resonate strongly with experiences, struggles and fears I had as a seventeen/eighteen year old (picture) that are still with me - in more ways than just through memory. The other thing they have in common is that they are all written by authors I have met in person or online. 

I have to say, reading books by my fellow writers from my writing community gives me that extra level of pleasure, I don't know why. I was lucky to attend a workshop run by Claire Zorn earlier this year, where she talked about this book and others. Helena Fox and I have been writing together and Poppy Nwosu is part of my online writing community. 

I'm so glad to add them to my authors-to-watch list.

 Making Friends with Alice Dyson by Poppy Nwosu

How It Feels to Float by Helena Fox

The Sky So Heavy Claire Zorn

Making Friends with Alice Dyson 

by Poppy Nwosu (Wakefield Press 2019)

Aaah, that last year at high school! We all remember it so well, don't we? So full of pressure to study hard, while so many unwanted distractions -- like school gossip and a very annoying yet fascinating boy -- shift the main focus all the time. For Alice Dyson, learning the one life lesson that year has nothing to do with grades and tests but with Teddy and the fact that you can't plan for everything in life, especially not friends and love.

Making Friends with Alice Dyson is a tender, romantic love story about the tugs of first love. But it is also tackling the theme of friendship. To me, this book was equally about the changing dynamics of friendship in all its guises (but especially the one you have with your best friend), and how it can impact on everything we do: our hopes, dreams, and the way we see ourselves. Alice's story conveys a real, contemporary world full of inner and outer conflict thrown at the protagonist, while standing on the edge of adulthood. 



💓👫💕💘😀
Recommendation: A lovely read on a sunny Sunday down at the beach. For readers who look for a love-not-at-first-sight contemporary YA story with a dash of sweet innocence!

How It Feels To Float 

by Helena Fox (PanMacmillan, 2019)

What can I say about this book? So much and yet no words (by me) can come close to what reading this book meant to me, so I'm not even sure why I want to try. Its beautifully evocative language enabled me, as the reader, to 'flow' through the story and 'touch' the pain of grief that comes with profound loss. 

Biz, a young girl in Year 11, has a lot to hold in: all the emotional turmoil that comes with juggling school, a father who still 'visits' after he suicided and she can't/won't talk about the things that matter until she finds her own way to deal with it all.

What's so beautifully captivating is that Biz tells her story through emotive words, composed in a way that feels like moving through clouds; they reflect the story's negotiating of the fluid stages around sexuality, gender, and mental illness. Here is a trailer of How It Feels To Float. The fact that the book is set in the Illawarra was the cherry on top (I'm totally biased, I live here)!


💙💚😢😀👀

Recommendation: When you need a cathartic read (you get tow for the prize of one: tears and laughter). Keep a box of tissues or handkerchief nearby. You will need it! 

The Sky So Heavy 

by Claire Zorn (University of Queensland Press, 2013, 2017)

This book had me hanging on the edge of my lounge, where I was reading the book in almost one session (I nearly fell off once or twice, because I was so engrossed by this gripping story? Or was it because my heart stopped once or twice?   I simply forgot completely where I was, while reading). 

This apocalyptic story set in the dystopian future that is now. It is such a timely reminder of what it means to be human, of being only a can of beans away from being the worst version of one self. It's also a reminder how volatile and outright deadly political game-playing is, in the nuclear age. 

When Fin's ordinary life as a seventeen-year old ends after some nuclear testing's gone wrong, he's faced with the apocalypse and its aftermath: He soon finds out that there is a line drawn by the authorities, between those who are chosen to survive and those who are left to die a slow death in the freezing cold conditions amidst an ever growing shortage of resources. Fin, his brother and friends Noll and Lucy, the girl who makes him want to live, regardless, make their way from the 'wrong' side of the line (somewhere in the Blue Mountains) to the other side (somewhere in Sydney), only to find that the hopeless despair on this side has just a different face.

💀💀💀💪❤😱
Recommendation: This gripping story will stay with you for a long while. Best to read it when you need a reminder that life can get a lot worse!

These books, I know, won't leave my library. I look forward to re-reading them one day and I hope you will, too. If you have read them, let me know what you think.