The Accident by Kate Hendrick

Title:  The Accident

Author:  Kate Hendrick

Genre:  Young Adult/

Publisher:  Text Publishing

Publication Date:  26th June 2013

ISBN:  9781921922855

Stand alone or series:   Stand Alone

Pages:  272 pages

Book Received from:  Text Publishing

First Lines:  Phones ringing, the constant chug of photocopiers, the whirr of the fans.  People talking, walking, typing...  After the months at home I'd forgotten how busy the world can be.

Synopsis:

A rainy night.  
A car crash.   
After the accident Sarah moves to a new school. A new place where no one knows what happened to her or her brother—where she doesn't have to deal with the history that's pulling the rest of her family apart.  
Will is keeping his head down at home, just trying to get by. Then his sister Lauren comes back—as caustic as always but somehow changed. Will doesn't know what upheaval brought her home. But it's sparking some serious change in his life too.  
Eliat's got no mother of her own, and she's way too young to be one. Looking after a two-year-old, trying to finish school—sometimes all that keeps her sane is partying as hard and fast as she can. Now the pressure's building and Eliat just wants to get away.  
Just get into a car and drive.   
In this impressive and beautifully written debut, Kate Hendrick sets the butterfly effect in motion. The moving stories of three teenagers going through crucial changes—before, after and around the accident—show how random actions acquire significance. How one pivotal moment could transform your life and you might never know; how what you do matters.

My Thoughts:
I'm not sure whether it was just me but the beginning of The Accident was hard to get into.  You have three different characters; Sarah whose POV is told a while after the accident aka "Later.", Will whos POV is told after the accident, and Eliat who's POV is told before the accident. 

My biggest thing was getting confused with who was who.  For me there didn't seem to be a distinct voice for each of these characters but there was something about their stories that spurred me on to keep going.  I kept having to flick back to the beginning of the chapter to see which "POV" time it was before what I was reading clicked a little more.  Once I got to about halfway, things got easier.  Again this could just be me, and others may not find this problem.

I think my favourite character had to be Sarah.  I really enjoyed her POV especially when she encounters a tape that her brother had made.  Just reading about her watching it over and over had me feeling quite sad along with her.

Eliat's wake up call couldn't come soon enough.  From someone who has had a kid, I found it really hard with some of the things that Eliat did.  Her nonchalance towards Tash simply grated on my nerves at times.  It wasn't all the time throughout the story but it was enough for me to want to reach in and go "You've had this child, grow up, step up and take charge."  My little rant done lol.

Overall, while I found the beginning of the novel confusing, I was quite happy with how the story tied together at the end.  I'm glad I stuck with this.

Pulling Down the Stars by James Laidler

Title:  Pulling Down the Stars

Author:  James Laidler

Genre:  Contemporary Australian Thriller

Publisher:  Hybrid Publishers

Publication Date:  1st February 2013

ISBN:  9781921665820

Stand alone or series:   Stand Alone

Pages:  376 pages

Book Received from:  Author (Advance Reader Copy)

First Lines:  Charlie stood in the hallway of the family home facing his grandpa's bedroom door. 

Synopsis: Charlie Lansdowne’s life is going nowhere ... fast. Trapped at home with his eccentric father and his stroke-affected grandfather, he finds life a daily exercise in dysfunction as three generations of men strive to get along. But when Charlie meets the volatile and tempestuous Maxine – a surfer girl who works at the local abattoir – his life goes supernova. Friendships implode, passions ignite and death comes stalking in the night. Set in the seaside country town of Warrnambool, this is a contemporary Australian thriller likened to 'Jasper Jones'

My Thoughts:
Pulling Down the Stars is very different from the first novel The Taste of Apple which was written in verse.  But in saying that this was just as good, if not better.  Pulling Down the Stars is told from mainly Charlie and Maxine's POV, but we also get's snippets from Bill, a very unstable and scary Serial Killer, which only adds mystery to the overall story.

Chapter one really does hit you in the face.  Charlie is attending to his Grandfather who has suffered a stroke and is very dependant on his son and grandson.  One thing I'll say.  Nothing gets any more real then this first chapter.

We are then introduced to Maxine.  Her chapters start out short and to be quite honest, even reading the beginning of hers you know she is going to prove to be one tough little character.  I do love how the book has Maxine's POV as first person but Charlie and Bill's as third.  Maxine is at times a difficult character to like but bringing it in to first person really helps get inside her head more.  Well that's how I feel.  Mind you, by the end of the book I loved all the characters involved, including the less likable ones.

I also love how James has broken up the chapters with subtitles under each.  It breaks up the text and makes it easier to read and go back and find things that have really stuck with me.

His writing is real, confident and drips with Aussie culture.  Another thing I love!  Reading this is like sitting down with mates and having a convo.  I really felt like I got to know each character and understood them right to the core.

James also shows a real knowledge when it comes to the character's jobs.  Both the hospital and abattoir jobs, I could really picture those characters carrying out their work and with the description it makes the whole scenes within the book really come alive.

The story itself is both kind of harsh and heartfelt.  Charlie and Maxine have a lot to deal with but they really do shine towards the end of the book.  I can't forget Roger.  For someone with nearly full time responsibility for his Father-in-Law, he shows a saint's amount of patience and has proven to be a wise and down to earth character.  And Bill,  well a bit of a nut job lol but he plays his part in the book!

I do recommend reading this book.  While chapter one for me was a little difficult, stick with it because it is an awesome story.  And I mean come on, how can you go past the title.  Pulling Down the Stars!

Fave Line:   -  I completely loved the songs and creativity from Charlie's music!