Ghost of a chance
Christopher Bantick’s review of The Ghost’s Child, the new novel by Sonya Hartnett is now online at The Age.
He’s mostly impressed but the review revisits to some extent the canard of is-she-is-or-is-she-aint writing YA. The Ghost’s Child, IMHO, is a book that many teenage readers will adore. Perhaps the ‘question’ is not where Hartnett is at, but where YA in Australia is at. The boundaries proposed by the CBCA Older Readers category don’t really reflect what YA is or can be. The world is moving on. And to some extent, the CBCA’s classroom-friendly view draws us into to a rather silly debate of what books for teenagers ought to be. In The Ghost’s Child the boundaries of time, space and language are fluid.
To assume that teenagers can’t recognise or respond to the emotions at the heart of this beautiful book underestimates both the reader and the writer. What teenager hasn’t faced or doesn’t fear rejection? If you want powerful emotion wrapped in vivid language, then you will want this novel.
