Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Finding Home by Lauren K McKellar

Genre: YA Contemporary 
Publication Date: 1st October 2013
Pages: 165
Book Source: Escape Publishing/Harlequin Aust

Synopsis: Moody, atmospheric, and just a little bit punk, Finding Home takes contemporary YA to a new level of grit...

When Amy’s mum dies, the last thing she expects is to be kicked off her dad’s music tour all the way to her Aunt Lou in a depressing hole of a seaside town. But it’s okay — Amy learned how to cope with the best, and soon finds a hard-drinking, party-loving crowd to help ease the pain. 

The only solace is her music class, but even there she can’t seem to keep it together, sabotaging her grade and her one chance at a meaningful relationship. It takes a hard truth from her only friend before Amy realises that she has to come to terms with her past, before she destroys her future.


My Thoughts: 
Finding Home is a story of self discovery with tough issues front and centre ... grief, alcohol abuse, unprotected sex, acceptance and relationship difficulties. 

It should have been easy to dislike Amy, she's a train wreck, spiteful, obnoxious, immature and self destructive but she actually felt real. I cut her some slack as she's grieving not only the loss of her mother but what she feels is abandonment by her father. 

And in truth, the significant 'parents' in the story are pretty much absent, clueless or completely irresponsible ... no parent of the year awards need be handed out here. I know communication with teenagers is challenging at the best of times, add grief, pain and misunderstanding and you get a whole world of hurt, but really ....

Amy grows up over the course of the novel, it was good to see her find her place, and a little peace ... I'm sure the metaphorical slap around the head from true friend Lucy helped. I liked Lucy, a lot and Nick too, he was probably my favourite character. Luke on the other hand was a total ass-hat, and Amy falling for such a dick, made me throw up a little ;)  

Despite my low tolerance for angst I thought Finding Home was well written and a quick, satisfying read, one I'm sure teens will relate to.
  
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