Customer Reviews

Jillaroo

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the first book by Australian author Rachael Treasure, and I was impressed. The Australian Outback generally isn't my favourite setting for a story, and I'm definitely not interested in farming, but I enjoyed this book very much all the same.

This is a family drama rather than a romance (though the blurb does not really show this), and the way Treasure wove her story, with each character struggling to get through life and save their relationships, but nobody able to truly succeed, was so impressive. Nobody and everybody was at fault here.

What impressed me most was the way every single character - and there were quite a few of them - was three-dimensional, very well-rounded. Nobody was all good or all bad, and they all contributed to the situation, both negatively and positively. Just when I wanted to hate one of them they'd reveal a sympathetic side and I had to look elsewhere for a villain. It was so very well done.

The crudeness of many of the people in this story - while perhaps accurate for the setting - had me cringing at a number of points. A problem I have with stories set in Australian farming communities is the way these people often have a superiority complex, looking down on those who live in cities. The author's attitudes about this were reflected unsubtly at many points in the story. I know I am not a lesser person for not living on a farm, but the constant implications everybody is better on the land grated.

Following on from this was the main issue I had with the book - the reason I took off one star. There was just too much detail about farming. I don't mean the author has to remove this stuff from her story, but there were many pages that discussed techniques and technologies in great detail, and it started to feel like you had to be part of the farming boys' club in order to fully appreciate the story. Any reader should be able to pick up a book and not feel excluded, or bored. The author did not quite succeed with that here.

Additionally, I would have liked to have seen a few scenes of Charlie and Rebecca happy in their relationship. The characters bounced from one drama to another, and while we constantly heard about how happy and how in love these two were, the only scenes they were in together they were fighting and upset about something. Bad editing, perhaps?

I hadn't thought I would want to read any more of Rachael Treasure's books, and only picked this one up because it seemed so popular with a wide range of readers. I know now I will be seeking out her writing from here on.