Megan Jacobson

Illiad Piper is 17, living in Darwin with her hippy mother and her drunk grandmother and hiding from her father who used to beat Illy's mother senseless and is supposedly in jail. She hates the world - has been kicked out of 5 boarding schools in Melbourne and is now stuck doing Yr 12 at the local high school. She only has one friend - a nerdy Vietnamese girl called Mia - and is currently is a huge prank war with her next door neighbour, an indigenous boy called Max who is in her class at school.
Then into her life comes drop-dead gorgeous Jared, the Principal's son, a year older and trying to drop out of uni to go to Sydney to be an actor. The two quickly become an item, but something is seriously off and we, the readers can see that things are going to get ugly and spiral down to mimic her mother's past life.
As well as this nasty situation, Illy has noticed that someone is trolling her mother badly on line and so she presses her mother as to whether her father is in jail or not, could he be out and know where they are?
Having just been in Darwin, this novel does indeed capture the atmosphere and sense of place - red dirt, wide open spaces, oppressive heat, etc. I also think the character of Max and his family are spot on as are Illy's mother and grandmother. Illy herself irks me - it is hard to believe that someone raised is such a violent childhood wouldn't have the radar up to detect a similar personality - self obsessed and controlling. To me it just doesn't ring true with the character introduced at the start.
One for Mature Readers as has loss of virginity sex, awful violence and swearing.… (altro)

Actual Rating 4.25

The Setting: A small Australian town near Mount Warning, mid to late nineties.

The Plot: Kirra’s life is going downhill fast. She’s just had a talking to by her friends at school; they don’t like the way she walks, among other things, and they’re trying to show her just how undesirable she is, how much she needs them. Her dad moved out three months ago and is living with his four-month-pregnant girlfriend. Her mum is attempting to drown the pain and is drinking herself slowly to death. Oh, but don’t worry, the ghost of a teenage boy who haunts a broken phone booth is going to help her fix her life, but only if she’ll bring his murderer to justice.

It’s an old Telstra telephone booth that sits beside a disused track. The glass has been long smashed, used chewing gum is shoved into the coin slot and For a Good Time someone could Call Carly The Dirty Mole, or so says the graffiti scrawled on the back wall in faded texta. The whole thing smells like pissed-out VB. It seems so forgotten and desolate, and yet here it is, ringing to itself.

Nope, nothing insane going on here!

If asked to describe Yellow in three words, I’d have to say tragically, beautifully nostalgic.

There is so much here to love. So much to feel.

The rest of this review can be found HERE!… (altro)