Christie Thompson

Laura has just moved from Melbourne to a small town in Canberra, her two mums had decided the move would be good for her, but now she is stuck without friends in a boring little town with nothing to do. That's when she decides to get a piercing, and while there makes friends with Lukey and Jaz. But just as she and Lukey seem to be hitting it off, Jaz takes an almost disliking to her.

Casey has lived her whole life in this shit hole of a small town. She is bored, reckless and always looking for her next drink, and her next conquest. There is nothing, and no one she won't do to satisfy her desires. What she can't stand, however, is her so called friend Jez looking down on her as though she were worthless.

Lukey is fed up with his home life, ever since his mother died when he was young, his father has been absent and his older brother has become increasingly drunk and abusive. But he has a plan to escape all that, as soon as he has sold enough pills, he will use the money to leave this hellish small town and hopefully his best friend Jez will be leaving with him.

Snake Bite is the story of Jez, a seventeen year old virgin with eleven piercings, blue highlights and a habit of wearing black jeans, even in forty degree weather. Although at heart Jez is hoping for a fairytale romance, this is a story of sex, drugs and body piercings, where the language is violent and the friendships volatile. Be warned, this is a messed up story that is not for everyone.… (altro)

A coming of age story set in the suburbs of Australia's capital during the 1990's, Snake Bite is a story of adolescent rebellion and disovery.

It's the summer before her final year of school and seventeen year old Jez spends most of her time with her best friend Lukey, contemplating new piercings, playing X-box and popping pills... until new girl Laura lures Luke away. While her single mother works nights and spends her days sleeping off a hangover, Jez seeks the company of her neighbour, Casey, who has no qualms about exposing Jez to the excesses of her lifestyle.

The themes of the novel are universal amongst adolescents, despite being couched in local colour. For Jez, all the angst, fear and boredom involved in growing up is complicated by poverty, family dysfunction and addiction. The summer challenges her ideas about love, sex and friendship when she confronts betrayal and exploitation. Thompson deftly evokes the intensity of emotion and drama teenagers struggle with as they learn about who they are, and who they want to be.

The story also explores the fragile relationship between Jez and her mother. Like most teens Jez considers her mother an embarrassment but the issues between them are compounded by Jez's mothers alcoholism and lack of responsibility.

Change happens slowly, and often painfully, but eventually Jez discovers hope for a future that won't necessarily include dealing drugs, stripping or repeating her mother's mistakes.

Perhaps because I have a 17 year old daughter, the slang used doesn't bother me the way in which it seems to irritate others. The few terms I was unfamiliar with could be understood by context, and neither do I have any problem with the casual use of explicit language, though some might find it confronting.

Snake Bite is a gritty, poignant and authentic novel, a raw slice of contemporary Australian life exposed for its uncomfortable truths. I enjoyed it and I'd recommend it particularly to YA readers, and adults who experienced adolescence in the 1990's.… (altro)