netflix_and_lil 's review for:

All Our Shimmering Skies by Trent Dalton
4.0

I'm a sucker for a child and unrelated-adult-forced-into-parental-role survive in the wilderness together. A grittier story then Hunt For The Wilderpeople for sure, but somehow, equally as uplifting? Greta was a standout, deserving recognition as a standout character in the Australian literary canon (and I just really want to play the live-action version of her, sue me Cate Blanchett) and Aubrey Hook was a detestable, terrifying villain.

Everything was heightened, bordering (or tumbling over) into magical realism at times. The characters were larger than life and the story was grandiose. It's a dense narrative, and the repetition of 'blank, Molly, blank' didn't have the effect I think was hoped after the tenth time it was used. That personal preference with writing style; I thought it was really effective during the bombing and grave-digging scene, but after a while it felt like a cop-out for expending on Molly's thought process. The expansive descriptions of the Australian bushlands were mwah... it's well established I'm a sucker for personification of an environment. It's deceptively short for how much you feel you are reading about. It's the kind of story I want to see in multiple mediums, like the stage and screen, and I'm hoping Dalton's blossoming popularity will open this avenue.