Sarah

This was really interesting to reread 20yrs on not being a teenager anymore.

Read this for my work book club.
The character development was seriously lacking with the physical descriptions of the main character, Lotte, mainly described as fat and freckled and very little else. The family were also only very lightly sketched.
This could be due to the first person POV. However this perspective struggles because although the majority of the story is described by 12-13 year old Lottie, it is also from the perspective of a mid 20's (I'm guessing as I don't think it is actually stated) adult Lottie. There was no new opinions given due to hindsight of age.
For this reason, the child Lottie's story reads like young adult fiction with the drama of high school to focus instead of the heavier themes of child abuse and the ever present “Art Monster”
In a heavy handed way, I believe that the author was trying to get across that people value art and hence artists higher than that of an abused and sick child.
This would have been more poignant if the story around it wasn't written in such a childish manner.

try hard Douglas Adams that missed the ENTIRE point!

I found this novel to be very clunky and pedestrian. The elements of the era were not solid with modern refences that come across as jarring against the back drop of 1930's Australia.
The literary clues seem ham fisted (especially the lamb scene) that came across as graphic just for shock value and not how a farmer would actually conduct themselves.
I realise that it was all from the perspective of the 13 yr old the disconnect between his revelations and his age were too much for me to have a suspension of disbelief.
Overall if you want this feel read To Kill a Mockingbird and if you want a good Australian small town story read Sun on the Stubble and give this one a miss.

The relationship between the Duke and Nan felt creepy and the damn book is unfinshed. Its all fine and well that the notes tell you that Nan and Guy run off together but to not actually have it in the text is profoundly anticlimatic.