Mini-Review

Henry is calmly cruising along in his last year of high school. He has good grades, a loving family and tight-knit friends. He’s about to be made editor of his school paper. Then Grace shows up – with an injured leg, oversized boys’ clothes, a seeing allergy to washing or smiling, and a mysterious past – and Henry, despite knowing the danger, becomes deeply involved.

This debut novel shows the intensity of teenage love and friendships, in a way that’s reminiscent of John Green’s Looking for Alaska. It has some funny pop-culture dialogue (although this dates quickly — all the teens are on Facebook, for example) and some good writing. It’s not perfect: at times the seams show and the minor characters sometimes seem inauthentically quirky. Overall, pretty good though, and would be suited to teen readers who enjoy/relate to intense, dramatic relationship novels. I very much enjoyed Sutherland’s third novel House of Hollow, which is better controlled (and a different genre – gothic). Ends in a more interesting way than I thought it would. Audiobook was good – the narrator had a mild US accent and his Australian accent (one of Henry’s friends is Aussie) was passable, if not great.

Fyi: non-graphic sex, underage drinking, death, grief, heartache, mentions of divorce and alcoholism

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