Crossings

Crossings is a thriller, set in small-town Australia, with some supernatural/spiritual elements behind the mysterious, and violent, events that coincide with our main character's abusive ex returning to town.

I was reading this expecting some more of the fantastical, which turned out to be largely absent. The blurb mentions a giant white kangaroo, which is one of the supernatural elements, sort of, but not much else in the speculative realm. The mysterious giant roo doesn't make an appearance until halfway through the book and while there are some other weird goings on, this is still a thriller that happens to have some supernatural elements.

Those supernatural elements are, however, a little confused and not explored in much depth. While trying not to put spoilers in reviews is my preference, there are some ahead because I want to demonstrate what I mean by the previous statement.

–!!!spoilers!!!–

There's the giant white roo, which no one knows how it grew so big, or so white, or how it gives people visions but leaves no trace of itself behind. There's a brief mention of looking for kangaroo related myths and legends but no follow-up. The roo, as it appears to the MC (Lisa), turns out to be the ghost of the giant white kangaroo, which explains how it never leaves a trace but when she finds the body of the roo dead (still dishing out visions) it turns out those who saw it before her might've seen it pre-ghost form. Then there's the giant red kangaroo, which may or may not be a were-kangaroo situation and actually be her abusive ex.

Then there's zombie animals seeking revenge on those who killed them. But there's also a bunch of other deaths that aren't revenge killings. There's a giant kangaroo skull in her ex's basement and a pile of human skin that seems to have been cut off with a blade, including a tattoo, which she maybe sees later on the arm of the giant red roo, who is maybe behind all the zombie animals and killings? But maybe her ex is resisting it? The giant red managed to survive being shot several times, even in the chest, and then survive a rampant bush fire that carbonised everything else in sight but somehow it just disintegrated in water leaving nothing but a giant kangaroo skull (but wait, wasn't that sat in her ex's basement?). Not for any reason other than the white roo showed Lisa a vision of a river at one point.

–!!! end of spoilers!!!–

Possibly, this could've been a much more cohesive story if the disparate elements were explored more deeply and woven together. As it stands, the end of the story becomes a bit of a deus ex machina, everyone assumes the ex died in the bushfire that had been threatening to sweep the town and that he was responsible for everything. Almost in the same breath they decide that no-one will ever know what really happened here and, at this point, it doesn't matter. Lisa alone had theorised things were more than they seemed so after everything is burnt away by the bushfire or washed away by the river, there's nothing more to say or do, leaving the reader somewhat frustrated at the lack of answers.

2.5/5