White Night is this lovely slowly unwinding tale about highschool and first-love and sustainability and then the end is like — BAM. PUNCH YOU IN THE FEELS SO YOU CAN’T GET UP.
Nice. I did see the ending coming, but it was like this sickening feeling of watching a train hurtle off a cliff so I couldn’t look away. But wow. It manages to be light and also heavy-hitting. And I really did like it! The meandering pace isn’t usually my thing buuuut I’ve been on such a contemporary kick lately it just suited me.
Also shout out to Ellie Marney’s Every Breath series and 10/10 you must read it or I’ll eat you. It’s an Aussie Sherlock Holmes (Mycroft is smol and sad and precious) and I do quietly pick them as my favourite over White Night…but they’re really wildly different?! So I am trying not to compare!
The cover was so shiiiiny which I like in real life but the glare for the photos was a frikkin’ nightmare.
+ The story is told by Bo, who is a fantastic collision of contrasts.
He’s like this blokey block — all into impressing his dad, doing football, using super slang. BLOKEY. (If the Americans pass out in confusion here, I will revive you with Vegemite.) At first I was like “Eh” to him but then it turns out he loves cooking (!!) and family (!!) and he’s really respectful of different opinions but still cares to make his own. This kid is just such good news. I loved his narration! Except for the part where something bad happens in his family and instead of listening to an explanation he runs out the door. I swear this happens in books so much. Why doesn’t anyone LISTEN!? I’M CURIOUS. I’D LISTEN.
BASICALLY WHAT HAPPENS
Dad: Here let me explain this betrayal.
Bo: nO
Bo: *runs out of the house*
Bo: noOOOOOOOOO
Me: Dammit I want to hear ok. go on anyway dad dude. some of us are listening
+ Bo also meets this super nice girl called Rory who’s part of a local self-sustaining hippy community.
Rory was homeschooled but she decides to try school and Bo becomes besotted with her. It’s slow and sweet and there’s so many “will they/won’t they” moments and AH! I loved their relationship.
The community is called “Garden Of Eden” because you’re not off-the-grid until you’re collecting cliches. But it was really interesting! It presents at first as such a lowkey, harmonious place. Really chill. Not hyperbolically “THE WORLD OUTSIDE IS EVVVVVIL”…although it gets more culty and intense as the story goes. This group believes humans are ruining the world, but they’re also really tight-knit and loving. They grow their own food. Use solar. Make pottery, etc. Rory embodies this whimsical, green, free-spirited lifestyle of quirkiness…but she was also complex and emotional! Such good writing. I know people will call her a pixie dream girl –> BUT SHE’S NOT.
+ I do feel it is Quiet YA™
Which is a term I made up just now. Embrace it. Eat it. Whatever. But the plot has lots of school, pottery making, conversations, frolicking about in gardens, bike rides, etc. etc. Bo had family drama, but it wasn’t highkey enough for me to panic over it. And I loved the subplot of Bo’s friend Sprog (THIS IS SO AUSSIE) who is a complete bogan but then tidies himself up to be proactive in saving the skate park from being closed down. He has a horrible home life and he was funny and dorky and just (!!!) petition to read a book just for Sprog. But overall I was a bit surprised at how little went down??? I liked the writing (except the slang was sometimes confusing to me, and I am Australia, so woah) and I was interested in the character’s lives so it wasn’t boring. I just wanted more…moreness.
+ Ending = INTENSE.
Like I said: I saw it coming but still. The build up was intense and excruciating and leaves you feeling gut-punched way before it happens.
White Night is a balance of the average tough Aussie outback life vs a closed-off gardeny cult commune. The good and the bad of both. It had a lot to say about social issues and didn’t over-preach (!!) and Bo was a fantastic cook so, ya know, that’s my language. I just tried not to turn myself into an inconspicuous scone and mail myself to Peru every time they talked football. I don’t sport. But otherwise: GREAT.
THANK YOU ALLEN & UNWIN FOR THE REVIEW COPY. White Night by Ellie Marney was published March 2018.
★★★★☆
In Bo Mitchell’s country town, a ‘White Night’ light-show event has the potential to raise vital funds to save the skate park. And out of town, a girl from a secretive off-the-grid community called Garden of Eden has the potential to change the way Bo sees the world. But are there too many secrets in Eden?
As Bo is drawn away from his friends and towards Rory, he gradually comes to believe that Eden may not be utopia after all, and that their group leader’s goal to go off the grid may be more permanent – and more dangerous – than anyone could have predicted.
A wonderfully compelling novel from the acclaimed author of the Every series.
Goodreads Author’s Twitter Publisher Buy
I loved Every Breath even though the Aussie slang in that one confused me a lot as a poor Dutch girl with English as a second language aahhhh. I think it’ll be even worse in this one and yet I still want to read it?? Is there an aussie slang dictionary I can keep close to me for this???
Bee (Quite The Novel Idea / Novel Ink) recently posted…{Bee Gets Personal} I Moved In With My Boyfriend! + pictures
Ah haha I know right?! I kind of love it but I was actually overwhelmed to start this, although I’m not sure if that was because I read SO much American lit that I wasn’t prepared for it?? Or if I just really am not bogan.😂
My family tried growing a garden once and it basically became a small desert in our back yard :’) I haven’t read many books with cults but I like the idea and the ones I have read I’ve liked. I’ll consider adding this to my tbr, I’m trying to get more contemporary anyway. Oh and on your map back round I had a crazy fan moment because I noticed Ravka! 😃
(Yesss Ravka is amazing!! I love maps so much.😂)
My parents are REALLY big on the gardening and I just…nope. I don’t even go anywhere near it. Gardening and I are not compatible in the least.😂
Hahaha I just spent 5 minutes freaking out over that Ravka map too lolol.
Saying “cult” is all you have to do to sell me a book. This is on my TBR list now. I have had vegetable gardens for most of my life, but they’re so much work! And the squirrels like to destroy them. I haven’t bothered with a garden in about 3 years.
Aj @ Read All The Things! recently posted…Review: Missing May – Cynthia Rylant
And I found this cult particularly interesting, because they presented as “not really culty” to start with and then woooo it went downhill. (And I literally loathe gardening or anything like that so.😂)
Overall this sounds like a moderately good book, BUT NOW I AM INFINITELY CURIOUS ABOUT THE ENDING SO I HAVE TO READ IT NO MATTER WHAT.
Aren’t I just SO FUN to read reviews from?! It’s like “This book is ok BUT HOLY HECK THAT ENDING YOU GOTTA READ IT” and then all our TBRs hate us and what can we do. :’)
OH MY GOD THAT COVER IS SO GORGEOUS 😍😍😍
And the book sounds great too! Whenever I read about characters who cook I’m like GIMME THIS SUPERPOWER lol
I know right?! Best way to my heart is a character that cooks.😂
I have flower/fern/hellebore gardens, but have not had much luck with veggies. Maybe this will be my year!
Good luck!! I hear flowers are actually pretty hard to maintain, so I’m sure you’ll get the veggies going 😉
…do they like scones in Peru?
And yes, why don’t book characters just tALK to each other. (aside from the fact that the book would be a lot shorter…) (oh and wait, this is basically my wip. they’re too sulky + snarky to discuss anything important. I guess I’d better discreetly leave the subject?? xD)
Jem Jones recently posted…WIP Special Part 4 || you get to meet a lot more characters
I DON’T KNOW. But I should find out. And omg books would be much much shorter if people communicated. 😂 So I guess I get why they don’t, but if it was me, in real life, I want answers so I know how mad to get, you know???
I once tried to grow a small garden with my mom and basically all the plants died, so gardening isn’t for me 😂. But I have stepped outside without a book!…on the way to a library….
Also this is unrelated but that picture of the maps and then the colorful books is so gorgeous and I’ve been staring at it for a couple days now 😂
Gardening is SO not for me too. I mean. Working under the sun…lmao noooo. I need a book and my dark darkness.😂(Aww thanks about the map photo! I’m really fond of how it turned out.😂)
Great, yet another book review in which I will be forced to add yet another book to my TBR..(I’m kidding,I love your book reviews)
This book looks so cool, I must read it. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book set in Australia, so this’ll be great. And confusing.
I do kinda have a garden…kinda..an air plant and a succulent. My family has a garden though, it’s huge.
YOU’RE WELCOME.😂 My blog is here to torture TBR piles most magnificently. And you should definitely read an Aussie book if you haven’t yet! We have a spectacular country :’) :’)
I loved Marney’s Every series A LOT. But there’s something about White Night that just doesn’t…. interest me? I swear I’m getting a lot more picky about the books that I’m going to spend my time reading. I mean, we’re never going to get to ALL the books on our TBR so we should be kind of picky. I haven’t always been picky in the past and that’s how I end up reading two star books *side eye* So even though I like the sound of some of the things you mentioned in your review, I don’t think this is one I’m going to pick up.
As for cult novels… I swear I’ve read one but I have no recollection of it? Maybe I haven’t read one. I ACTUALLY HAVE NO IDEA NOW. G R E A T. *upside down smiling emoji*
I’m glad you liked this one, though, Cait!
Haha no I understand! It’s VERY different! I still loved it, but it didn’t have the same lure to me that the Every Breath series did.😂 And it’s not bad to be picky for sure! I’m getting more picky now because I’m not doing low-starred reviews anymore (author liffffe) so I don’t want to just read EVERYTHING in case I don’t love it?! But anyway I did think this was fun, but I understand if it wouldn’t grab your interest entirely!😂
White Night sounds so interesting. I’ve heard a lot of good things about it but your review is especially convincing. I really need to read more books set in the Aussie outback since it’s an area I’m familiar with.
Julie recently posted…The Easter Book Tag
Ahh I’m so glad you liked my review! I definitely recommend this one haha.