Lowly’s Book Blog

Hmm, another book that I read quite a while ago. And as with many of these books on file, I wasn’t particularly inspired to write about it then, and even less so now.

This is a fairly typical school story. Four unlikely friends band join together to overturn the Mayor’s decision to demolish a historic building on the school campus. Using all their varied skills, but mostly an effective argument, they save the building.

Somehow I have trouble accepting this kind of story as realistic. In fact many of the fantasy novels I read have a stronger edge of realism in them. However, for junior secondary readers this is better than a great deal of the other stuff out there. In the past few years this age group has been starving for a good variety of quality literature.

Wow…I just finished this amazing book and I am still in shock. Brugman always manages to write powerful books for young adults, and this one is no exception. I knew when it first came out I wanted to read it immediately, but the waiting list was too long. Finally, a year later came its turn.

Mackenzie is an experienced liar. All the way through the book the reader is wondering which version of the story is the truth. All you can be sure of is that she is a troubled girl who has had bad breaks from the time she was a small child. She also has anger management issues, and these land her a mandatory ‘camp’ courtesy of the courts. She choses to do the 24 hours alone in the bush option, and there the demons and muddled memories catch up to her.

Fairly early the reader works out that Mackenzie is the daughter of a druggie. But she is evasive about what happened to her father and step-brother. At the end when she finally finds the courage to admit what happened the reader is caught between cheering her on, and crying that any child could truly be that alone and unloved.

As always Brugman excels in finding a strong voice for her female characters. Mackenzie is no different.

However, some readers may find this difficult to manage the conflicting stories and the minimal action. This is a book for the tearjerker, realistic fiction fan.