Vikki WakefieldBesprekingen

An interesting combination of a psychological thriller, with a couple of flawed, but engaging and very sympathethic central female characters, TO THE RIVER ticks many required boxes but does so in a unique form.

https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/river-vikki-wakefield

Representation: N/A?
Trigger warnings: Death of a parent, grief and loss depiction
Score: Six points out of ten.

Looking back at this, when I read this long ago, I was expecting an intriguing read by an Australian author to boot, but unfortunately, this didn't live up to that, and I highly doubt that I would pick this up again. This author has written other books that I might enjoy. I liked this book at first until the main character became an empty shell, the plot dragged, and the mystery went nowhere. She did many reckless things like lying, skipping detention and counselling, and stealing. This novel left me feeling that it could've been better, and I'm surprised that it was shortlisted. Before that, she was just a heartless "prankster" who goes out of her way to ruin people's lives. I think it's part of a feud between two schools, but I don't know how it started. Maybe she was cold and heartless all along. In the last part of the book, there is a huge plot twist where Hannah Holt is alive, William Dean is framed, and Dominic is the killer! Wow! But the ending fizzled out, so I wouldn't recommend this to anyone, but if you're looking for a book about grief or mystery, try Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley or Cop and Robber by Tristan Bancks and both of them I enjoyed more than this.

Abbie has always blamed herself for losing Sarah, but she has never stopped looking for her.

This novel has a very adventurous time structure, with frequent use of chapter headings BEFORE, NOW, and, sometimes AFTER. The story line jumps between time frames, allowing to the reader to put together a picture of the life Abbie led, and eventually, who took Sarah.

If you were Abbie, what would you do if someone offered you the unthinkable, to reunite you with the child you lost six years ago. What would you sacrifice?½

Thrillers are one of my most favourite genres to read so I was truly excited for this one. I am happy that I wasn’t left disappointed.

The story jumps between before and after the disappearance of Abbie’s daughter Sarah and how having no answers after six years of her being missing without answers still haunts her.

“It’s okay to be happy.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”

I had a miscarriage when I was seventeen years old and there were so many times when I would have to remind myself that it was okay to find happiness in moments in my life so this quote hit me really hard and I had to immediately highlight it.

It might be a silly thing to be happy about but the author is Australian and this story is set in Australia. It’s not often I see things being set there so it made me really happy to be able to read this and support a fellow Australian.

I was so invested in this story from start to finish. It kept me on the edge of my seat and left me anxious to see what happened next which is exactly what you want when it comes to stories like these. I would definitely recommend this to people who enjoy thrillers!

Thank you to NetGallery and Text Publishing for providing me this arc!
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Excellent book about a boy called Nate who lives with his violent father Dec and step-mother Nance and twin Half brothers Jake and Otis. Dec is growing a crop of marijuana in Nate's bedroom and is up to other dodgy stuff. He also treats Nance and the twins very badly ( especially Otis who has a disability) and seems to have no time for Nate at all. Nate loves his half-brothers and his only joy in life is writing blank verse and visiting the local youth drop in centre. He has a very good English teacher who encourages him to write and be the best he can be in life. Then things start going pear-shaped when someone takes a few pages of his musings and graffities them on the Youth Centre wall when it is rumored to be closing due to government cuts in funding. And then to top it all off, his mother, who has been absent for a number of years, wants to contact him.
Can Nate "change the ending" of his own story and escape a life of brutality and lies?
This book is excellent for the "Growing good men" theme as Nate has to make certain choices in his life and sometimes he chooses wrongly, but mostly he chooses wisely. I loved the ending after a dramatic "what the" part that almost left me sobbing.½

Grace Foley believes that a girl, Hannah Holt, who disappeared 23 years ago has contacted her and wants her to solve the mystery of her disappearance. Grace's own mother, killed as she was crossing a road two years ago, was in Hannah's class at school so Grace feels a connection.

Grace has never fully got over her mother's death. Other teenagers suggest that Grace's mother committed suicide by deliberately walking into the path of the truck. Grace's father then gave up their farm and they moved into town. Things have never seemed right for Grace ever since.

This is a challenging YA crime fiction novel as Grace kicks against her life. Set in a fictional Australian rural town (Victoria I think). Compelling reading.

It took me a long time to get into this book. Originally, the blurb intrigued me, but once I started reading it wasn't what I thought it was going to be. I didn't find the main character, Grace, very likeable at all. I kind of wanted to punch her. I get that she has a lot going on, and being a teenager just makes everything worse, but I still didn't like her. The main plot of the book wasn't bad and I did enjoy the supernatural theme, but there were definitely pieces that just didn't seem to fit. I wasn't sure of the genre either. I was expecting a supernatural thriller but found it was more a YA mystery with a supernatural twist. Not that it was a bad thing, just not what was expected. I wish there would have been more excitement throughout the entire book, rather than simply towards the end. It would have made it more enjoyable. I did love that twist though! The writing style did keep me going and I definitely kept me wanting to know how it would all play out. All in all, the book wasn't bad but it wasn't great. For me anyway. I think I will keep an eye out for this author. I see a lot of promise here.

*I received this book from NetGalley for an honest review*

Not bad. For older readers. Thought this would be about mental illness but it is more about the supernatural. Grace is part of a small town pack from the local high school "Swannies' that compete against the local Catholic kids "Hearts" in all teenage comps. including the infamous quarry cross where the fastest time across a disused mining quarry on flimsy girders wins. It is after Grace freezes in mid-cross and loses the challenge that things come undone for her. She thinks she has been pelted with stones but video footage proves otherwise - is she going mad? Also what does it have to do with Hannah - a girl who went missing 20 years ago and William a guy accused of her murder who committed suicide and also Gracie's mother who has recently died? A psychological thriller that keeps you guessing until the end as past and present mirror each other and are explored through the mind of "mad girl" Gracie.½

Grace Foley is a seventeen-year-old prankster and risk-taker. The only thing she's afraid of is losing. One night she accepts a challenge as part of a feud between the two local schools, but things don't go as planned. Something she can't explain happens and now she's haunted by voices and visions. She's drawn into a twenty-year-old mystery surrounding a missing girl named Hannah Holt, and she's having trouble figuring out what's real and what's imagined. Grace is losing herself and she doesn't know if she's uncovering the truth or if she's going mad.

I don't know what made me request this book. Reading the blurb now it doesn't interest me at all. I found this book extremely hard to get in to. The writing was disjointed, it was hard to follow along. I did not like any of the characters. I just don't care. DNF @ 43%.

Thank you to Netgalley and Text Publishing for a copy of this book.

17 yr old Grace has a lot of issues, she's always been the most adventurous, the most inventive when it comes to doing pranks. She has her little gang of friends who join her, though she's always the edgiest, most outrageous. Now, however, when she really feels like she's losing control of herself, her friends aren't as supportive as before. Is Grace going crazy? Does anyone care or are they all just tired of Grace needing to be the centre of attention.
I've read one of Wakefield's previous novels which I found intense and a great read. This one had me on edge the entire time I was reading it, the dark depressing depths that Grace plunges to are described really vividly. Her friends are not there for her as they once were, they're all on the cusp of their own futures and all seem to be heading somewhere... only Grace, who always led the gang, is now holding them up. As Grace grapples with her unraveling sanity she becomes obsessed about a lost girl from the past, a girl whose body was never found.
I received a review copy from TextPublishing

Could not get into this one; didn't finish

This was great! The writing is wonderful and the novel is inhabited by some of the most interesting characters I've ever encountered in a book - Friday is strong, but not immune to the horrible Arden's charms; Silence is sad and sweet - and the plot is exciting and unpredictable. Initially, I didn't want to pick this book up and that was because of the uninspiring cover, but, boy! I'm glad I did. One of my highlights for 2013.

I was reluctant to read this book, maybe because of the front cover, however, I am really glad I finally picked it up. It took me a while to engage with the story, but once it moved to the country it became extremely addictive. There are some quite shocking characters and events throughout the book, but these are balanced by Friday, who is a strong, compassionate character, and Silence, whom I absolutely adored. I just wanted to bundle him up and take him home.

"Friday Brown" is beautifully written, a credit to the author, and deals with some intense issues including homelessness, abuse, grief, loss, friendship and family. If nothing else, this book will make you appreciate all that you have and see those less fortunate in a more compassionate light. Highly recommended.

Vikki Wakefield’s novel All I Ever Wanted was the winner of the 2012 Adelaide festival literary awards for YA fiction. So I knew with Friday Brown I was in for a real treat. I wasn’t disappointed.

The Brown women were cursed. Going back generations they all died at an early age, on a Saturday, and all involving water. Vivienne would tell Friday that when she died the curse would move to her. Knowing this Friday wondered why her mother was always drawn to water. Every time they came across a river her mother would strip off and dive straight in. They lived a nomadic life moving from town to town. Friday loved this life, just the two of them. She grew up knowing love, peace and adventure. After her mothers death (another fatality of the Brown curse?) 17 year old Friday decided that she would start a new life on her own. She is soon befriended by a reticent and sombre boy named Silence and is taken back to a squat inhabited by homeless children, headed by the militant but charismatic, Arden. This is where Friday’s true struggles with her past and future, right and wrong begin. Friday knew that Arden’s control wasn’t a good thing but every time she tried to leave she was drawn back to her. However, when events started to spiral out of control Friday realised she would have to call on an inner strength she didn’t know she had to save herself and her friends.

Friday Brown is a riveting coming of age novel. Vikki Wakefield puts into words some of our deepest feelings and quite often you find yourself nodding as you read. I loved that Friday had only positive thoughts of her life with her mother. It must have truly been a hard life wandering from town to town with a mother that was a heavy drinker and quite often having to sneak out to avoid paying bills. Friday must have had to do the mothering on some occasions but we hear only of the freedom and the love they had. A beautiful story filled with heartache, hope, danger, suspense and a twist at the end you wont see coming. It will make you think and make you cry. Friday shows us how to be true to yourself and even if you are smaller and weaker than someone else you must always stand up for what you believe is right.

Mim knows what she wants and it's not stuck in the suburbs with her drug dealing mother , and two brothers in prison. She's set herself rules to live by, but she's starting to break them. This story is very realistic in setting, character and consequences.

Weird, group of teenagers living in a squat, then go on a journey, they get flooded out....

Now this was a crazy, interesting book. Very well-written, with unique and strange characters.

Friday's mother passes away, leaving her with a grandfather she can't connect with, a legacy of stories that may or may not be true, and an insatiable wanderlust. She hooks up with a gang of street kids, and even though she is scared of a deeper connection, she is desperate to belong to something. The charismatic Arden adopts her into the gang and Friday slowly realizes the dangers both of being alone - and of getting too close.

Seventeen-year-old Friday Brown is on the run -- running to escape memories of her mother and of the family curse. And of a grandfather who'd like her to stay. She's lost, alone and afraid. Silence, a street kid, finds Friday and she joins him in a gang led by beautiful, charismatic Arden. When Silence is involved in a crime, the gang escapes to a ghost town in the outback. In Murungal Creek, the town of never leaving, Friday must face the ghosts of her past. She will learn that sometimes you have to stay to finish what you started -- and often, before you can find out who you are, you have to become someone you were never meant to be.

Friday Brown believes she is cursed. All the women who have died in her family have done so around or in water. Even her own mother died of pneumonia - her lungs drowned. At seventeen, she is cast out by her grandfather because she reminds him too much of his lost daughter. Friday is on her own on the streets.

She befriends a boy named Silence. He's strange...with a troubled past he doesn't
talk about. Silence lives with a group of squatters headed up by the charismatic, but cruel, Arden. They survive by petty crime, and their wits most of the time, with Arden running the show.

Friday resolves to leave and take Silence with her, but her money has been stolen and she is inextricably drawn to Arden in way she doesn't really understand. When the cops start sniffing around the squat, Arden packs up the crew and they flee to the bush, where Friday feels more at those than the rest of the group. Arden feels threatened by this and applies pressure to Friday with physical violence. After a rain storm, the dried creek bed they have been camping in begins to flood and Friday and the rest must again flee. In the confusion Silence disappears and things take a dark and tragic turn. Friday finds herself taking a stand - for herself, for her forebears and for Silence. She challenges her fate, and realises that love might just save her.

This book has unforgettable characters. While I found Friday to be sympathetic as a protagonist, the one I really connected with was Silence. Damaged by his past, he just wants to be loved and to feel safe. Arden is a deftly painted villain, as vile as any I have read.

Wakefield's writing is superb. Economical, but lyrical, and full of wonderful imagery. The twists and turns of the plot are completely believable and the turning point of the novel was a complete punch in the guts, but achingly beautiful too.

An utter triumph. I am in awe of Vikki Wakefield and her amazing talent.

This book shows how the socioeconomic disadvantaged can be misjudged and mistreated. Mim does not want to turn out like her mother - stealing to sell. She sets herself rules to live by, but she is starting to break them. This book involves sex, drugs, missing girl and probably for the mature reader (Year 9 and above).
It was ok but didn't reach my expectations after reading reviews.½