At first glance, this seems to be a story of forbidden love and inevitable tragedy. However, it soon becomes clear its real meaning comes through the everyday relationships of the characters – it’s about parenthood, relationships between siblings and generally growing up.
The basis of the story is about a young girl, June, losing her much-loved uncle to AIDs and her struggle to work through the aftermath of his death with the rest of her family. The most important character outside of the immediate family is her uncle’s partner, Toby, who she gets to know better throughout the novel. Although the circumstances of the story are probably a bit more complex than most people will experience, they don’t feel excessive and come across as very believable. The characters are also easy to empathise with and so by the end I felt genuinely strong emotion towards the anticipated climax.
Emotionally driven, it’s refreshing to see that it doesn’t follow some of the typical ‘key events’ so easily observed in many novels. Instead of having steps such as ‘problem’ and ‘resolution’, this novel seems to grow very organically and with an even flow much more similar to real life.
It’s not a story for everyone; for people wanting a bit more action they might be left in want. But I think it finds a good balance between interesting plotlines and having enough time to get to know the characters in a more personal, introspective way.
I’m not sure that my review can really do this novel justice, as I think perhaps the voice of the novel is its strongest point and it’s hard to describe the way it works. Brunt seems to put so much of herself into her writing that it really does have a personal feel which works to make it quite unique and definitely a book to read.
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