BOY - Critic

Review Books Editor Sarah Maessen
Barefoot
Michelle Holman
Harper Collins
Barefoot is a loose sequel to Michelle Holman’s debut novel Bonkers.
She claims that she felt compelled to tell Sherry and Glenn’s story after
they featured as more minor characters in their siblings’ story.
This book can without a doubt be categorised as ‘chicklit’, so if this
is not your thing, stay clear. If you are looking for lighthearted, easy
read that doesn’t involve too many brain cells, on the other hand, you
could do worse.
Sherry is the practical daughter, the cop. Cool calm and collected.
That is, until Glenn walks into her life. Tall, cocky, and famous to boot,
Sherry doesn’t like him. But she really really wants to fuck him. He feels
the same way. What follows is embarrassingly predictable. Blatant foreshadowing
eliminates most suspense, and the main source of tension
is frustration at the characters for being so slow to realise the obvious.
What was meant to be one night in a motel room becomes a lot more
when the condom breaks and Glenn neglects to let Sherry know.
Sherry, of course, becomes pregnant, and what ensues is essentially
a struggle of wills between two incredibly stubborn people who will
not admit their affection for one another. Sherry always seems to see
Glenn at his worst, and he can’t seem to catch a break. He wants to be
a father, but Sherry doesn’t believe he has it in him. I didn’t personally
relate well to the main character, but found it refreshing that she was a
little flawed and could (at times) admit it to herself. The male protagonist
is typical of the genre; handsome, kind, talented and, of course,
filthy rich. Both lack real depth beyond their prescribed role in the
drama. Sherry’s job allows Holman to brush the surface of some tough
topics not usually addressed by this kind of novel however; she works
with victims of domestic abuse.
– Sarah Maessen
Critic 01 48
The
Uninvited
Tim Wynne Jones
Walker books
Mimi leaves the stress of the Big Apple for the tranquillity of her
father’s house in small-town Canada, only to find that she is not the
only one who thought it would be the perfect getaway. It doesn’t take
long for Mimi to realise that the moody and neurotic Jay who claims
that she is intruding in his father’s house is, in fact, her half brother.
Together the two start to investigate the strange ‘messages’ that Jay
has been receiving. Soon enough, despite leaving one twisted relationship,
she finds herself the object of someone else’s obsession.
We switch to Cramer - a weird kid who is struggling to balance his
two jobs with keeping his sometimes-crazy artist mother happy. He has
a strange obsession with the house on the river and its inhabitants.
Throughout the novel you gain pieces of the puzzle of how these
characters all fit together, unravelling the tangled branches of a family
tree. In fact, everyone is caught in the boughs in some way, to the point
that it’s a little bit ridiculous. This doesn’t leave much room for aboveboard
fraternising, and the result is a lot of not-so-subtle incestuous
undertones.
In some cases, over-emotional reactions of characters took the place
of real character development. This was especially true for Jay, who is
disappointingly two dimensional despite a rich back story.
On the surface, the novel covers it all. There is suspense, intrigue
and action, broken families and broken hearts, but unfortunately it is
lacking something that I can’t quite put my finger on.
It’s nothing groundbreaking, but worth spending a Sunday afternoon
reading. And in case you were wondering (I was), Tim Wynne Jones is
no relation to Diana Wynne Jones.
– Sarah Maessen