Where We Begin by Christie NiemanMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Well that sure was 1000% more traumatic than anticipated.
What a mess.
Sigh.
Where do I begin? (See what I did there)
The blurb tells us Anna is running away from home. The destination: her grandparents' place (in country Victoria). Grandparents she has never met, so clearly there's a secret there. Plus, there's all the secrets surrounding why she's running. And secrets surrounding the weird relationship between Anna's grandparents and Leonie, an old friend of Anna's mum. Secrets, secrets, secrets. Eeeeeverybody's got secrets.
Sigh.
I hate secrets. Especially dark family secrets. I support Baz entirely on this one: 'Secrets are bullsh*t.'
But what can you do, other than power through the book and hope things turn out okay?
I'm gonna be straight up: the pain in this book is excruciating. But I guess that's what makes it important. It tells a tough story, but it's the same kind of story that so many people can relate to. There are so many elements to its pain that it's almost inevitable every reader will find something in it they relate to and/or empathise with.
For the cautious, here are your trigger warnings: (view spoiler)
At first, I was a little annoyed by how much of an idiot Anna was being. But then this story just became so much bigger and it was like a ten-car pile-up I couldn't take my eyes off. I felt like the secrets were kind of oozing out unimportantly and I thought it was going to miss the mark because I could see where it was all headed but the way it all played out went and got my feelings involved and suddenly I was far more invested than I'd realised.
It's not a perfect novel - it has a point to make, and at times it can feel a little forced with its tactics (for example, emphasising the importance of having open, honest discussions is fantastic but doing so through a 17yr old girl who has literally run away from responsibility seems a bit off to me). It works very hard to offer an appropriate method of dealing with these problems and unforunately it does feel a little hollow in places. But the pain is real and the echoes of it at times feel incredibly overwhelming. This is a story about generations of pain, and as such it is ... well, if I'm honest ... it's kind of a downer.
This is another one of those books that I didn't really enjoy reading, because it was so damn depressing, but I really appreciated the story it told.
It's hard to elaborate further without divulging some of the book's secrets, so I'll just say that this is a book that will make you think, and feel, and want to understand people a little better. It will hopefully make you think about how far pain can carry, and how one small act can affect many lives, whether it be an act of cruelty, or an act of thoughtlessness, or an act of kindness.
I'm pretty messed up over this one, I think.
Not fun at all but an important, thought-provoking read that I highly recommend.
With thanks to Macmillan for an ARC
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