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A review by nina_reads_books
Catching Teller Crow by Ezekiel Kwaymullina, Ambelin Kwaymullina
5.0
This is a very unusual YA book but I loved it. I powered through it in a couple of sittings over one day.
Beth Teller is a sixteen year old Indigenous girl who has died in a car accident. Her dad is stricken with grief so Beth has stayed around as a ghost to help him. He is able to see her and speak with her which I thought worked really well as a storytelling device. As a detective he has been sent to investigate a fire which has burnt down a home for wayward children in a small country town. There is a burnt out body and two missing staff.
Together Beth and her dad have to solve the mystery that soon also includes a missing girl case from 20 years ago plus more bodies. They meet a teenage girl called Isobel Catching at the hospital and she has her own story to tell. What is her connection to the fire? What other secrets about this small town does she know?
The story is told in alternating voices – from Beth’s POV and then Isobel’s. Isobel’s chapters are told in verse and her story is strange and dream-like. She describes illusions and strange creatures and it is clear that something terrible has happened to Isobel.
Though this story is about a mystery that needs solving it is also about family, death and the lasting effects of grief. The treatment of Indigenous people in Australia including the forcible removal of children from their families and the indifference faced when Indigenous people go missing were also themes. The authors are an Indigenous sister and brother and the authors note at the end is really interesting as they discuss how Indigenous story telling influenced the way they wrote their story.
Because this is YA there is a fairly light treatment of the themes and some of the more difficult issues raised near the end are not dwelt on which I think makes this a very readable and not too distressing story.
I really enjoyed this book.
Beth Teller is a sixteen year old Indigenous girl who has died in a car accident. Her dad is stricken with grief so Beth has stayed around as a ghost to help him. He is able to see her and speak with her which I thought worked really well as a storytelling device. As a detective he has been sent to investigate a fire which has burnt down a home for wayward children in a small country town. There is a burnt out body and two missing staff.
Together Beth and her dad have to solve the mystery that soon also includes a missing girl case from 20 years ago plus more bodies. They meet a teenage girl called Isobel Catching at the hospital and she has her own story to tell. What is her connection to the fire? What other secrets about this small town does she know?
The story is told in alternating voices – from Beth’s POV and then Isobel’s. Isobel’s chapters are told in verse and her story is strange and dream-like. She describes illusions and strange creatures and it is clear that something terrible has happened to Isobel.
Though this story is about a mystery that needs solving it is also about family, death and the lasting effects of grief. The treatment of Indigenous people in Australia including the forcible removal of children from their families and the indifference faced when Indigenous people go missing were also themes. The authors are an Indigenous sister and brother and the authors note at the end is really interesting as they discuss how Indigenous story telling influenced the way they wrote their story.
Because this is YA there is a fairly light treatment of the themes and some of the more difficult issues raised near the end are not dwelt on which I think makes this a very readable and not too distressing story.
I really enjoyed this book.