Monday 17 August 2015

The genre-mongrel I came to love

Skin Deep - Gary Kemble
Available - July 2015

A brilliant journalistic political thriller with a supernatural twist.

What do tattoos, politicians, ex SAS soldiers and Dreadnot bikies have in common?... Quite a lot, it turns out and the way the pieces of this puzzle are put together are certainly unconventional yet balanced with a suspense that keeps you guessing!

Harry Hendrick is a man without a mission, falling through life like a re-occurring dream, no ambitions or even semi-defined goals. While my initial emotional response was "come on Harry, you're better than this" perhaps what follows just goes to show that just being happy with your lot is a much safer way to exist!

In my humble opinion its the authenticity with which newcomer Gary Kemble writes that makes this book so unputtdownable (yes its a word). Harry as a character is believable and Gary describes Brisbane so perfectly that you can clearly hold it in your mind, you are there - immersed in the story, time and place so that when the weird starts to happen its still relateable and you find yourself swept up in the impossibility of it all. 

This is Australian writing at its best, its familiar,engaging and clever with just a tiny hint of Bogan.  

Tuesday 11 August 2015

Trouble with a capitol D

Trouble is a Friend of Mine - Stephanie Tromly
Available - August 2015

Digby is the best worst best friend you ever had - the kind of guy that jumps from a burning building (that he no doubt set alight) falls two flights and lands feet first without a scratch or even slightly tousled hair. 

Zoe is the new girl in town - she's not putting in a whole bunch of effort to be in the 'in crowd' and doesn't exactly have a que of people lining up to be her new bestie, in fact there isn't much of anything going on for her...until Digby decides to insert himself into her life and unleash his special brand of chaos. Zoe, bless her heart tries to avoid his shenanigans as long as she can but lets be honest, what else did she really have going on anyway?

This is a fast paced joy ride with razor sharp wit and characters that you could even give a dam about. It's absolutely perfect for the "I just read Paper Towns, followed by John Green's entire backlog and now my life is over cause where am I going to find anything like that again?" sect. Trust me, you might just like it...