Thank you Hachette for this book in exchange for an honest review
Synopsis:
Schoolies week: that strange in-between time when teenagers move from school into the adult world. It’s a week when anything is possible, and everything can change.
Grace is questioning everything she thought about herself, and has opted not to join her clique of judgemental friends for schoolies, instead tagging along with her brother Casper and his friends. Casper, an artist, is trying to create the perfect artwork for his uni application folio. Overachieving, anxiety-ridden Noah is reeling from a catastrophe that might have ruined his ATAR result. And Elsie is just trying to figure out how to hold their friendship group together.
On the first night of the trip, they meet Sierra, a mysterious girl with silver-grey hair and a magnetic personality. All of them are drawn to her for different reasons, and she persuades them to abandon the cliched schoolies experience in favour of camping with her on a remote, uninhabited island. On that island, each of them will find answers to their questions. But what does Sierra want from them?
Review:
This is one of those books where you think you know what it’s about, but then it takes you by surprise.
We meet an extremely endearing Grace, who you will adore. Grace is at a bit of a crossroads where she is finding she doesn’t fit into her church group and her collection of friends. Opting to spend schoolies with her brother’s mates, Grace gets to explore all life has to offer her. She gets to experience her first girl kiss, as she find what could be her new place in life.
You get to see how young minds feel the pressure of life, society, religion and culture as they just try to find their feet in life. While you experience this story through Grace’s mind you get to see how she takes on the fear of her bother’s future and how she feels as though she has to compete with him.
We also meet Noah, who really takes the world on his shoulders and it fill him with dreed and anxiety. Noah is the kind of character that you want to protect, wrap him up and keep him safe. Noah it the character that I feel a majority of our younger generation relate to.
Amongst Noah and Grace, you meet other characters and see the world through their eyes and in the depths of their minds, you feel their struggles. This book touches on so many of the realities that our younger generation face, and the struggles that life has to hold.
Morgan has delivered yet another brilliant masterpiece and that’s coming for a person who isn’t a contemporary fan.
Rating: 5/5
Publisher: Lothian Children’s Books
ISBN: 9780734419651