A Good Kind of Trouble (Brooke Blurton & Melanie Saward, HarperCollins)
Noongar-Yamatji youth advocate Brooke Blurton has teamed up with Bigambul and Wakka Wakka author and academic Melanie Saward (Love Unleashed) for a new YA series, beginning with A Good Kind of Trouble. This encouraging and warm-hearted novel for readers aged 13+ centres on First Nations characters and cultures and will appeal to readers of Angie Thomas, Gary Lonesborough and Jared Thomas. Noongar teenager Jamie Hunter is convinced her life is unremarkable. Between footy training, school and caring for her toddler cousins, the 13-year-old figures she won’t have anything to write about for the diary assignment set by her English teacher. Yet, with each journal entry, Jamie’s life proves far more interesting than she thinks, as she struggles with a crush on her best friend, Loz, who likes Jamie’s popular older brother, Poss. Things become more complicated when a new student, Stella, arrives, and Jamie challenges the school’s racist history curriculum, putting her Perth footy scholarship dream at risk. As a white, non-Indigenous reader, I found A Good Kind of Trouble insightful. Blurton and Saward thoughtfully incorporate Noongar language, reference Jamie’s ‘knowing’, and explore the concept of Women’s Places, alongside sharing knowledge about local sea life. The novel covers a lot of ground, addressing themes such as class, colourism, racism, patriarchy and queerphobia, while also presenting an alternative to the nuclear family. The narrative is generous and non-judgmental, though occasionally didactic. Nonetheless, teenagers, particularly those who relate to Jamie’s experience as the only openly bisexual student at school or share her passion for social justice, will likely find it deeply resonant.
Books+Publishing reviewer: Jasmine Pirovic is a culture writer from Western Sydney who is based in London. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.
Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.
Category: Friday Unlocked reviews Reviews
