Snake Bite

Reviewed By  Janet Mawdesley       August 31, 2013

 

Author  Christie Thompson

Distributor:     
ISBN:                 9789-1-74331-686-3
Publisher:         Allen & Unwin
Release Date:    

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Jez is a portrait of urban lost in that she is crossing all the lines; lines she knows are there but really couldn’t care less about.

Snake Bite a new dimension in YA literature that is well worth taking on board and reading. The storyline is about growing up, finding your place in life, confronting the many issues that need dealing with and mostly about finding your way back to family.

Snake Bite is funny, confrontational, raw and deep. A coming of age novel in a world where there appears to be no boundaries.

The language is totally street cant, the kid is your out of control urban teenager trying to find the meaning of just about everything that is life, the story line is toxic, in that it gets under your skin, the issues those of the everyday teenager, challenging.

Snake Bite a new dimension in YA literature that is well worth taking on board and reading. The storyline is about growing up, finding your place in life, confronting the many issues that need dealing with and mostly about finding your way back to family.

Jez is a portrait of urban lost in that she is crossing all the lines; lines she knows are there but really couldn’t care less about. Her Mum works all hours and usually drinks too much until she either get maudlin or passes out.

They live in a small hotbox of a government rental in the outer suburb of Canberra:  Jez’s best friend is an emo kid called Lukey. Jez’s is bored and finds the greatest high is getting another piercing and perhaps she should look at getting a tattoo, let alone finding the next pill.

As the endlessly hot summer crawls on Jez discovers she has “feelings” for Lukey she has never had before but doesn’t know what, if anything to do about it. Lukey obviously doesn’t seem to have the same “feelings” for Jez.

But when Laura moves into town from Melbourne she, Jez and Lukey become a threesome for a time until Lukey obviously has the hots for Laura and does something about it, placing serious strain on Jez and Lukey’s friendship.

The problem is as far as Jez can see her life is at a standstill, nothing seems to be happening and when Lukey tells her he plans to head out of town eventually she has to take a look at joining him on the road.

Other problems become an issue when her neighbour’s brother comes home for Christmas and Jez discovers there is something rather sexy about the bad boy image he portrays; perhaps he could be the one to get rid of her virginity. Under the tutelage of his stripper sister Casey, Jez discovers that first sex is not all it is made out to be. She realises she is a kid with no direction.

 When her Mum takes up with a friends from the Club Jez has to take a new look at not just her Mum and the circumstances that landed then in the dump they live in, but life in general. Slowly, ever-so slowly she comes to the realisation that life is about so much more than Tats, drugs, wild living and running away.

Snake Bite is funny, confrontational, raw and deep in every respect going straight to the heart of so many of the issues faced by teens as they head towards growing up. You could say a coming of age novel in a world where there appears to be no boundaries.