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A review by aim_mee223
Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton
4.0
Boy Swallows Universe is an amazing debut novel that definitely exceeded my expectations. It centres around Eli Bell who resides in 85' Brisbane. This book is a coming of age story, exploring a young boy caught up in the heroin drug trade. It's a series of incidents that contributes to a larger story. Boy Swallows Universe is a multifaceted narrative that is so complex and hard to really summarise what it really is about.
It's hard to know where to start. I absolutely loved this coming of age, part magical realism story. There were many aspects of this book that were so heartwarming and oh so sad. Slim's character, in particular, was so powerful. The ambiguity of his conviction was really heart clenching.
"'But don't you want to know people to know the truth?'
... 'can I ask you a question. kid?'
... 'Do you think I killed him?'" (p.47)
Slim asking these questions to Eli is just so moving. Despite whether or not Slim was responsible or not, it just got me thinking about how people would see you, especially if you were innocent and people would ask you including those close to you. And how could you really live your life with people knowing about you, and suppose you were guilty but you changed your life around. Not that you'd have to prove yourself to anyone, but people would always see you at your worst, right? There are so many scenes that made me think and made me pause.
I thought the book was well done, exploring difficult and complex thematics including a possibly dead stepfather (which Eli didn't really give much thought to which was a little disappointing, and maybe it was from the shock), an imprisoned mother, a depressed and anxiety affected father, and Eli himself growing up. For a debut, it was really good. There were some issues including how chapters would jump and wouldn't continually flow which made the book a little messy and created small gaps in the plot. And the phrases Gus would repeatedly say "Your end is a dead blue wren" and "Caitlin spies". These predictions didn't really add anything to the story. I mean, it was mysterious but it was unnecessary and the reveal was a little disappointing. Trent Dalton was making it as though the ending was the central point in the book, that everything was leading up to that point. And sure, it was a vital aspect of the book, but I just thought that it undermined everything else to a degree. The romance also was not expected and weird as f. I thought it was also unnecessary and was most likely included to make the novel seem like it finished with a nice, clean ending. But for the most part, I absolutely enjoyed reading this novel, and I can't wait for Dalton to write more novels.
Spoiler
It's hard to know where to start. I absolutely loved this coming of age, part magical realism story. There were many aspects of this book that were so heartwarming and oh so sad. Slim's character, in particular, was so powerful. The ambiguity of his conviction was really heart clenching.
"'But don't you want to know people to know the truth?'
... 'can I ask you a question. kid?'
... 'Do you think I killed him?'" (p.47)
Slim asking these questions to Eli is just so moving. Despite whether or not Slim was responsible or not, it just got me thinking about how people would see you, especially if you were innocent and people would ask you including those close to you. And how could you really live your life with people knowing about you, and suppose you were guilty but you changed your life around. Not that you'd have to prove yourself to anyone, but people would always see you at your worst, right? There are so many scenes that made me think and made me pause.
I thought the book was well done, exploring difficult and complex thematics including a possibly dead stepfather (which Eli didn't really give much thought to which was a little disappointing, and maybe it was from the shock), an imprisoned mother, a depressed and anxiety affected father, and Eli himself growing up. For a debut, it was really good. There were some issues including how chapters would jump and wouldn't continually flow which made the book a little messy and created small gaps in the plot. And the phrases Gus would repeatedly say "Your end is a dead blue wren" and "Caitlin spies". These predictions didn't really add anything to the story. I mean, it was mysterious but it was unnecessary and the reveal was a little disappointing. Trent Dalton was making it as though the ending was the central point in the book, that everything was leading up to that point. And sure, it was a vital aspect of the book, but I just thought that it undermined everything else to a degree. The romance also was not expected and weird as f. I thought it was also unnecessary and was most likely included to make the novel seem like it finished with a nice, clean ending. But for the most part, I absolutely enjoyed reading this novel, and I can't wait for Dalton to write more novels.