Flash

One evening, coming home from a theatre performance which was mercifully brief, I was sitting wearily beside my companion as he steered the car down City Road towards Cleveland Street.

From nowhere, the road was filled with nude young men, weaving between the cars and running along the footpath. They gleamed in the streetlights and car lamps, these naked boys, all shapes and sizes, intoxicated with their own youth and daring. They were giggling as they ran, shoed but unclothed, about twenty five of them. One held firmly onto his donger, but the others obeyed the Streakers' Code and let their flesh move as it would. They streamed past us, and turned into the forbidding Victorian stone gates of Sydney University, their buttocks winking their hilarious farewell at us, heavy and stationary in our cars, sad that we were old and clothed, and scrambling to remember the last time we raced through the dark in the nick.

Burnt Snow by Van Badham

Burnt Snow: The Book of the Witch I by Van Badham (YA)

Yet again, sixteen year old Sophie Morgan finds herself the new girl. This time she’s landed at Yarrindi, a small coastal town south of Sydney. When Yarrindi High’s popular girls invite her into their clique, the chance to remake her image is too good to pass up. Shaking free of her mother’s overprotectiveness, Sophie plunges into the swirling morass of high school. What does Goth girl Ashley hold against her? Why does bad boy loner Brodie Meine have to be so irresistible? And is she safe from betrayal within the in-crowd itself? With Lauren, the sarcastic nerd best friend she left behind in Baulkham Hills her only anchor, Sophie struggles to find herself. Then her Finnish grandmother is felled by an enormous crow, and Sophie uncovers the disturbing secret of her place in the world.

Van Badham’s debut novel is a fantastic read. The characters are identifiable without being stereotypes. Older teens will recognise themselves and their friends in the kids of Yarrindi, as well as their confusions and discoveries. The occult elements are deftly realised and fit seamlessly into the quotidian world. There is sex and violence, and some genuinely scary moments. Badham beautifully sets up the rhythm between the daily grind of school and home, and captures the thrills of attraction, betrayal, ghastly visitations and self-discovery.

As the book thundered toward its exciting finale, this reader started to panic. Van! Van! There aren’t enough pages left to bring this to a calm resolution! And indeed this talented writer stops short at just the right moment, to leave her readers panting for Book 2, White Rain. Write faster, Van, I’m begging you.

(reviewed as part of the Australian Women Writers Challenge 2012)

Australian Women Writers 2012 Challenge

The marvelous Elizabeth Lhuede has issued a challenge. You can read about it here. In this spanking new blog, The Cheese Sandwich Follies, I will rise to this challenge, as well as telling all about my Adventures in Art, and log-rolling friends' and colleagues' work and events. Join me, won't you?

Genre: Devoted eclectic (or genre whore, as I prefer it)

Challenge level: Franklin-tastic (come on, what else did you expect?)

this photo by: Dean Hills (Berlin, 2011)

blog title by: Pete Miller Tetherd Cow Ahead (Melbourne 2011)

author photograph by: Eileen Connolly Wallis Knot (Dublin, 2011)