The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood

The Natural Way of Things

I don't usually include spoilers, but I think it's unavoidable with this book. The story is about ten 'celebrity sluts' (girls who have been involved in high profile sex scandals or rape cases) who are abducted and held together in an Australian outback sheep station surrounded by a high electric fence. Two men, Teddy and Boncer, have been paid to guard and feed the girls and put them to work. The girls have their heads shaved and are forced to wear dirty old fashioned clothes. As food runs out, and whoever hired Boncer and Teddy fails to show up, both the men and the girls realise they're all likely to die.

The book is reminiscent of Lord of the Flies, the girls coping with their captivity in different ways. One girl hunts and skins rabbits for the others to eat, one looks for mushrooms in the hope of poisoning the men, three girls take to grooming and depilating each other. What is striking about all the girls is the things they miss. Rather than talking about their families or loved ones, they obsess about their Chloe boots and their clothes. 

The book is obviously allegorical and has a message (I resisted using Google to find out what that is). I suspect the book is a parody of a celebrity reality TV show that I haven't watched. Perhaps its purpose is to make the reader appreciate all they have. Alternatively, the purpose may be to remind the reader that not everyone has those things and that in some parts of the world women are treated like slaves. The hero of the story, if there is one, is the hunter. She finds her animal self and a level of happiness. She doesn't personify the qualities that are normally admired in women. She is not kind, or gentle or caring. She is strong, efficient and practical. 

I enjoyed the story even if I couldn't relate to any of the characters. Mushroom picking Verla, was perhaps the one I could most sympathise with. I couldn't see why the girls didn't work together and overpower the men, but maybe that's the point of the story; how bizarre it is that women let men treat them the way they do and how much more we could achieve if we supported each other.

Beside Myself by Ann Morgan

Beside Myself by Ann Morgan

This is a psychological drama about identical twin girls. The 67 short chapters alternate between the story of the two girls as children, gradually progressing to adulthood, and the present day, where the twins are in their mid thirties, one in a coma and the other living in squalor.

At age six the twins, Helen and Ellie, decide to swap clothes and pretend to be each other. The problem comes when Ellie refuses to switch back. The adults don't believe Helen's protests and continue to call her Ellie. Helen's frustration mounts causing her to act out and leading to a hatred of Ellie. As an identical twin myself, I found it difficult to believe that the mother wouldn't use some sort of freckle or birth mark to tell the twins apart.

The story raises lots of issues around identity and mental health. I read it quickly, eager to find out what had happened to both girls. The chapters about the girls' childhood begin in the first person from Helen's perspective but switch to the second person from chapter 24; I found the repetition of the word you slightly annoying, but other than that I enjoyed the book.

The Casual Vacancy by J.K Rowling

The Casual Vacancy by J.K Rowling

Published in 2012, this was J.K Rowling's first adult novel. It has since been made into a BBC miniseries. In the small town of Pagford, the death of a councillor leads to a vacancy on the parish council. A sink estate know as The Fields sits within the parish boundaries of the otherwise genteel town. The council is split between those councillors who would like to see the boundaries changed so that The Fields becomes part of  neighbouring Yarvil, and those who think the people of Pagford should be doing more to help the Fielders. Particularly contentious is the fact that children who live in The Fields are eligible to go to the much sought after local school. Everyone wants the new councillor to be someone who sides with them on the boundary issue. 

The book is about privilege. It shows that bad parenting is not limited to any particular socio-economic group, and that middle class families are usually better at masking their dysfunction than working class or non-working families. 

The characters Rowling creates are both realistic and exaggerated. Hardly any of them are likeable. Teenagers hate their parents, parents bully their children, seemingly dutiful wives quietly despise their husbands; this makes the book truly unputdownable!

I created a character map to help me see where the book was going; it made who the main characters were more obvious. It's definitely something I'll do again. 

The Eye of the Sheep by Sofie Laguna

The Eye of the Sheep by Sofie Laguna

The story is written from the perspective of Jimmy Flick. Jimmy is the autistic son of a working class Australian couple. The story begins in the late 80s when Jimmy is six.  It reflects the fact that Autism wasn't widely recognised at the time. The word is never mentioned, instead Jimmy is described as retarded, special or different.

Jimmy's mum has asthma and his father has a drink problem. Tales of domestic violence are narrated through the eyes of a child with Autism.

What makes the story special is the insight it provides into Jimmy's thought process. Jimmy sees lines joining the people he loves to one another. He is aware of his body and how it speeds up and slows down as he heads towards a meltdown or before he begins to run around in circles. I used to think that children with Autism were cold and treated people like objects; I've recently learned that they are often oversensitive and treat objects as if they had feelings. This is reflected in the book.

Mid way through the book I began to suspect that nothing much was going to happen, but that all changed and it turned out to be great read. I'll finish with an extract as you've really got to read the book to get a feel for how Jimmy sees the world. The passage below is Jimmy meeting Ned the dog.

"I touched Ned's head with my fingers and a small current entered my hand wires. We couldn't have a dog at home because its fur would clog Mum's air ducts."

"Ned sat on his back legs and I went closer. Ned didn't blink as he took in the scent of me and made his decision. I looked into his eyes and I saw myself inside them...I felt my cells slowing down until they spun at the same speed as Ned's; there was no difference."

Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith

This is definitely the best so far of J.K Rowling's pseudonymously written Cormoran Strike crime novels. Strike's partner Robin is sent a severed leg in the post with a message that relates to Strike's past. Strike can immediately think of four men who hate him enough to have targeted his partner and his business. The story unfold as they try and track down each of these men.

Robin's impending marriage to the good looking but shallow Matthew and her past secrets, feature prominently. One of the four suspects is Strike's former step-father, so more is revealed about his past and his childhood.

By basing the case around Strike himself, the book avoids wasting time building up background stories for a whole array of possible suspects. Each suspect reveals something about Strike's past. Business plummets as a result of the publicity from the severed leg. This allows the story to focus on the single case. The police investigators are all characters from the earlier books; this again saves time sketching out new characters.

Rowling seems to enjoy writing about the seedier side of life, the drug dealers, the sex trade and the paedophiles. These are all in the book but they're nicely balanced with details about wedding planning and expensive restaurants. Strike's life sits uncomfortably between the seedy world of the people from his past and the monied world of his girlfriends, his father and his clients.

The complexity of language and sentence structure, compared to the Harry Potter series, show Rowling's skill as a writer. There are plans for a BBC miniseries based on the books. I look forward to seeing who is chosen to play Strike.

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

This is the second book in the Cormoran Strike series, which currently includes three books, penned pseudonymously by J.K Rowling.

Strike is again working with his beautiful, but spoken for, sidekick and secretary Robin. They are investigating the disappearance of an erratic writer, who has recently completed a book seemingly designed to offend everyone in his life including his wife, his mistress, his agent and his publisher.

The case is more interesting than the one in the first book, but suffers from a similar weakness; there are so many thinly sketched suspects, the reader is left guessing but not necessarily caring, which of them committed the murder. This is particularly true of the male suspects. In contrast, the background stories of Strike and Robin are expertly developed. So again, I can't wait to read the next book.

George by Alex Gino

This is an engaging story, suitable for Stage 2 or 3, about ten year old George, a boy who identifies as being a girl. The narrator uses feminine pronouns to refer to George while the other characters refer to him as male.

George has a secret stash of teen girl magazines, dreams of wearing skirts and make-up, and longs to play Charlotte in the school production of Charlotte's Web. When his desire to play Charlotte is dismissed by his teacher, George and his best friend Kelly hatch a plan.

What I liked about the story is that it's not all high drama. A number of characters tell George that if he were gay it would be no big deal but this is just a bit more. Neither his mother nor his teacher are particularly onboard, but his friend Kelly welcomes a new girlfriend with open arms. It's a simple heart warming story that aims to increase empathy for transgender children.

There are parallels between the story and Charlotte's Web e.g. themes of tolerance and friendship. However, the story has a clear enough message that no deep analysis or comparison is required.

One day children's books with transgender characters won't be about transgender; children's books will just have diverse characters. Until then, we need more books like this one.