Preloved, by Shirley Marr

Things are looking ordinary for 16 year old Amy Lee. Since her parents split up, she and her mum live in a tiny apartment above Mum’s shop, Buy Gone. Amy’s best friend Rebecca has moods that are almost impossible to fathom, or predict. It seems that boys at her school only want to talk to her if she’ll bring along the magnetic Rebecca. At school, her reputation is tipping the scale from odd to downright weird. And now there’s a ghost, Logan.

Whenever my mum decided to give me advice, it often sounded like this:

‘Amy, don’t bring an open umbrella into the house, because a ghost might be hiding under it.’

‘Amy, don’t touch the sleep on a cat’s eyes and then touch your own eyes, because you will see ghosts.’

‘Amy, never tweeze the hairs off the tops of your toes, or you will see ghosts.’

If only I had listened to Mum.

Things are looking ordinary for 16 year old Amy Lee. Since her parents split up, she and her mum live in a tiny apartment above Mum’s shop, Buy Gone. Amy’s best friend Rebecca has moods that are almost impossible to fathom, or predict. It seems that boys at her school only want to talk to her if she’ll bring along the magnetic Rebecca. At school, her reputation is tipping the scale from odd to downright weird. And now there’s a ghost, Logan. With a mother who talks constantly about ghosts and how to avoid them, you’d think Amy should have been safe. But sometimes you have to make up your own mind about what is real and what just might not be. Prelovedis a novel about reality and beyond.

What do you do when you have a mother who spouts superstitions all the time? Who puts the prices up on items in her shop so they won’t be bought? And a father who seems very good at dodging his responsibilities? And a friend who seems only to need her as a prop? None of this is good for self-esteem, and therefore to being able to look objectively at what’s going on in your world. Amy is feisty and likeable. She can see a ghost, but she has more trouble seeing what’s going on in her own head, and heart. Preloved is an engaging read about a girl stuck on the precipice of yesterday and today, not sure whether to fall back or leap forward. Recommended for mid-secondary readers.

Preloved

Preloved, Shirley Marr Black Dog Books 2012 ISBN: 9781742031903

review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author

www.clairesaxby.com

Fury, by Shirley Marr

My name is Eliza Boans and I am a murderer.
I know. It’s pretty shocking, huh?
To think I actually had a better surname before my parents divorced and my mother went back to her maiden name, taking me kicking and screaming with her. See, the judge gave Dad the Jag and gave Mum, well, me. She spewed big time over that. But seriously, unlike what that do-gooder Chaplain here thinks, I didn’t just wake up one morning and say to myself, “what a lovely day, I think I might go out and kill someone.”

Eliza Boans is 16 and in her last year of school. She’s pretty, rich, has a father she’s not seen for a decade and a famous lawyer mother she seldom sees. Oh, and she’s sitting in a police station, accused of murder. Eliza is cool and angry, in control and naïve all at the same time. Eliza introduces the reader to the wealth and privilege of her home and school and the neighbourhood. When new girl Ella arrives at the school, Eliza befriends her, despite the reservations of her two best friends Lexi and Marianne, and partly to annoy the ‘two Jane Blondes’. Eliza is outspoken and her actions earn herself detention in the canteen (although she often feels misjudged). Then there is the party.

Fury brings to mind a wind, slowly gathering intensity until it is a maelstrom. Eliza is an unreliable narrator, wearing a protective veneer so strong it seems unbreakable. She talks smart, and keeps most people away with her acid tongue and toughness. Initially she is not particularly likeable as a character, but as the story progresses, reasons for this unfold. When she is charged with murder, she refuses all help and pushes away her mother, her mother’s lawyer, her friends. Only one person, the police anthropologist, has any measure of her trust. Slowly, he supports her until she is ready to tell the story that may free her, may incriminate her. Shirley Marr takes the reader inside the world of wealth and privilege and shows that not all is shiny. Themes include friendship, family, safety and independence. Fury is for mature readers in middle secondary years.

Fury, Shirley Marr
Black Dog Books 2010
ISBN: 9781742031323 review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author
www.clairesaxby.com

This book can be purchased online from Fishpond.