New future for himself, and her, she has to decide. When Carly meets Ryan, a 26-year-old just out of jail trying to make a Sydney's northern beaches this is a powerful and graphic storyĪbout a nineteen-year-old girl trying to recover from a painful past. Surfing is the one thing Carly loves doing, the one thing whichĪllows her to 'forget about the underbelly of things, my secrets,Īnd I feel easy and free'. ** EAGAR, Kirsty Raw Blue Penguin, 2009 274pp $19.95 pbk ISBN Eagar, Kirsty: Raw Blue." Retrieved from 2009 Children's Book Council of Australia 27 May. MLA style: "Eagar, Kirsty: Raw Blue." The Free Library.Of all the characters, Danny is my favourite (a kid Carly meets surfing who has synesthesia and associates people with colours) but I also love Hannah (Carly's salsa-dancing Dutch neighbour). In Raw Blue, everyone has a story and a background and things going on in their life (often left unresolved) and the story often meanders as a result, but it's perfect for this book. They don't all necessarily serve the plot (a few of Carly's co-workers could easily have been merged together, for instance, without the story changing) but they make the world of the novel far more representative of real life, and the myriad people we encounter (sometimes unpleasant) and whose lives intersect ours. What I love best about this novel and what I think makes it so realistic is the cast of characters, all of whom are well-developed and authentic. The blurb makes it sound a bit sappy, but it's entirely not her depression and rage and self-loathing are all well-drawn, and her development as a character is gradual and convincing. What is terrific about Raw Blue is that Carly very much saves herself.
It frustrates me incredibly when some babe shows up in a YA novel and fixes the protagonist and their myriad problems, which I think is unrealistic (and doesn't really solve anything: the protagonist hasn't really grown or dealt with their problems). I found Raw Blue incredibly realistic, uncomfortably so, and very visceral.
(When I was a teenager I read so much half the books fell out of my head.) Once I started reading, my memory was jogged and I knew I had definitely read it: each scene was so vivid in my mind, and I started anticipating the unpleasant parts of the novel before they happened.
Upon discovering I hadn't, I started doubting whether I'd read it to begin with. This is another book I thought I'd reviewed when I first read it years ago. Will she let the past bury her? Or can she let go of her anger and shame, and find the courage to be happy? When Ryan learns the truth, Carly has to decide. Surfing is the one thing she loves doing … and the only thing that helps her stop thinking about what happened two years ago at schoolies week.Īnd then Carly meets Ryan, a local at the break, fresh out of jail. Carly has dropped out of uni to spend her days surfing and her nights working as a cook in a Manly café.
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