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molmcintosh's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
tomstbr's review against another edition
4.0
Not entirely sold. I mean, it has great writing, strong Aussie vernacular, it really draws you in, and there are beautiful landscape descriptions. The main character of Jaxie is someone you completely sympathise with, and someone I won't be forgetting any time soon. The tension and conflict were really well set up and it kept me on the edge wanting answers. But the whole Catholic priest thing was tiresome/uninspired, and I'm not sure what the point to it all was. Something about salvation, I think.
gordonmacrae's review against another edition
3.0
Good story, quite hard to follow the vernacular at first. About masculinity and men being lost. Not as dystopian as Cormac, which it has been compared to.
paulsnelling's review against another edition
4.0
Running from abuse Jaxie’s journey across the harsh Australian saltlands brings some peace in an unlikely friendship, a reckoning and the chance of salvation. Jaxie grows.
e11en's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Domestic abuse
Minor: Ableism
nicjohnston's review against another edition
4.0
I’d heard a lot about the Shepherd’s Hut; generally authors who I respect listing it among their favourite books of recent years. It certainly didn’t disappoint. It took a little to get into the language and the rhythm but once I’d got going I barely stopped. Thoroughly recommended.
willaryreads's review
dark
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
mzstarr's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
essjay1's review against another edition
5.0
Brilliant on many levels, but most of all, this is a great story. We are right by Jaxie’s side from the opening sentence, dragged out into the parched red dirt of the West Australian outback.
This is one of those rare books that you finish and just flip straight back to Chapter 1 for another go. And that opening chapter - good enough the first time, perfect the second.
Winton has always had a gift for language that draws you in and he seems to get better with every book. I love that he doesn’t shy away from the unpolished, less beautiful things in life, that he gives voice to characters who most people will never encounter, or even believe exist. He understands isolation, and sees strength of character where others are too scared to look, or perhaps too narrow minded.
I like that Winton rarely tries to tell his readers what to think - he simply gives us Jaxie with all his 15 yr old angst and wisdom, and old Fintan with his Irish philosophy and deep secrets, and let’s us figure it out for ourselves. There is plenty of symbolism to discuss like the goat on the gamble or the salt pan mirage, plenty of commentary to be made around themes of toxic masculinity, domestic violence to name two, and ethical quandaries to deliberate.
Or we can just think about that tricky dance between hope and hopelessness that both men perform. I’ll leave you with a quote:
“You could burn a skyscraper down with what’s in me.”
This is one of those rare books that you finish and just flip straight back to Chapter 1 for another go. And that opening chapter - good enough the first time, perfect the second.
Winton has always had a gift for language that draws you in and he seems to get better with every book. I love that he doesn’t shy away from the unpolished, less beautiful things in life, that he gives voice to characters who most people will never encounter, or even believe exist. He understands isolation, and sees strength of character where others are too scared to look, or perhaps too narrow minded.
I like that Winton rarely tries to tell his readers what to think - he simply gives us Jaxie with all his 15 yr old angst and wisdom, and old Fintan with his Irish philosophy and deep secrets, and let’s us figure it out for ourselves. There is plenty of symbolism to discuss like the goat on the gamble or the salt pan mirage, plenty of commentary to be made around themes of toxic masculinity, domestic violence to name two, and ethical quandaries to deliberate.
Or we can just think about that tricky dance between hope and hopelessness that both men perform. I’ll leave you with a quote:
“You could burn a skyscraper down with what’s in me.”
krasf's review against another edition
4.0
Whenever I read a young character in a Winton novel, I wonder if that's really how they talk. I can cop the swearing, it strikes me as authentic, bit I can't help but feel like some of the slang is a little off. I love it all any way.
It didn't make me like the central character, teenager Jaxie Clackton any less. Although there are plenty of sections in this book that made me recoil. Clackton finds his abusive father dead not long after his mother dies of cancer. He skips town, afraid that he'll be the prime suspect I. His father's death.
When he stumbles across disgraced priest Fintan Macguillas, doing his own penance in a hut in the middle of nowhere. And so comes the exploration of salvation, the nature and presence of God, and sin. The exchanges between the old Irish priest and the young runaway are as eloquent as they can be blunt, retold through Jaxie's memories. But they are stretches of prose that I wished would go on forever.
It didn't make me like the central character, teenager Jaxie Clackton any less. Although there are plenty of sections in this book that made me recoil. Clackton finds his abusive father dead not long after his mother dies of cancer. He skips town, afraid that he'll be the prime suspect I. His father's death.
When he stumbles across disgraced priest Fintan Macguillas, doing his own penance in a hut in the middle of nowhere. And so comes the exploration of salvation, the nature and presence of God, and sin. The exchanges between the old Irish priest and the young runaway are as eloquent as they can be blunt, retold through Jaxie's memories. But they are stretches of prose that I wished would go on forever.