Review: Friday Brown by Vikki Wakefield

Release Date: August 22 |  Publisher: Hot Key Books
Source: Hot Key Books | Format: Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) / Paperback. | Pages: 320 | Goodreads | Book Depository | 

Blurb: ‘I am Friday Brown. I buried my mother. My grandfather buried a swimming pool. A boy who can’t speak has adopted me. A girl kissed me. I broke and entered. Now I’m fantasising about a guy who’s a victim of crime and I am the criminal. I’m going nowhere and every minute I’m not moving, I’m being tail-gated by a curse that may or may not be real. They call me Friday. It has been foretold that on a Saturday I will drown…’

Friday, 17, flees memories of her mother, grandad, and the family curse. She joins Silence in a street gang led by beautiful charismatic Arden, and escapes to a ghost town in the outback. In Murungal Creek, the town of never leaving, Friday faces the ghosts of her past. Sometimes you have to stay to finish what you started, and before you can find out who you are, you have to become someone you never meant to be.

Review:  

A quick thank you to Hot Key Books for sending me this book.  The cover of this book is amazing. I don't think the picture does it justice as the cover is so much more beautiful in real life. 

This book was so enjoyable. When I read the first page, and then the first chapter, I enjoyed it so much that I stayed in the position and read 120 pages in the one sitting. Vikki Wakefield certainly has a way with words. Her writing has a magnificent flow to it which brings the reader on a journey through memories and present day happenings. I thought the memories and stories of the past in the book were very well written and made the reader feel closer to Friday. 

Vikki's writing style is very poetic and descriptive. She uses lots of metaphors and descriptive phrases that bring the reader on a journey of the senses. I really enjoyed the setting of the novel, as it is the first novel I've read that is set in Australia. The setting of the novel is very vivid. Wakefield brings the reader from the dangerous streets to the scorching and wild brush of the outback. The contrasting settings bring out very different sides to out characters and I though this was interesting. 

The characters of the novel were incredible. Each character had a quirk or interesting habit or backstory that added a little bit of something extra to the story. A lot of the characters of the book are quite flawed but this makes them endearing, three dimensional and very realistic. The protagonist of the story, Friday, was a very interesting character. She is tough, intelligent, lonely and loyal. She was a great character and I loved her narration of the story. Other characters in the book were very memorable such as the rest of the gang: Arden, Silence, Bree, Joe, Darcy, Carrie and AiAi. These characters were all individual and I enjoyed reading about the dynamics within the group and Fridays relationships with them. 

Arden was an amazing antagonist. I loved how we, along with Friday, viewed her with this sort of blind admiration at the start of the book but began to see through the cracks in her "perfect" facade and see the manipulative and black hearted side beneath. I enjoyed her interactions with Friday in the book, although she did scare me a little. 

Silence was also one of my favourite characters in the book. His backstory was so sad and he was a very compassionate, caring and funny individual. I thought he was a very original and unique character. I loved his relationship with Friday, and I hope I'm not the only one, but Friday & Silence were my OTP and favourite couple of the book. 

The plot of the book was really well written. I read this book in less than 24 hours and enjoyed every single plot twist and turn. Wakefield created a plot that moved at just the right pace and gripped the reader. I enjoyed the way the "curse" was always in the back of our minds as we read the book. I felt the "Brown Curse" really added an element of suspense to the novel. I also felt that the book described life on the streets in a very realistic way. There will always be people similar to Arden who want to prey on the weak and the people who have no where else to go and no one to turn to. The plot of this book was so captivating, I could not stop reading. 

Overall this book was amazing. I highly recommend it for contemporary lovers and fans of Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli. The book makes you question just how much others shape us and what are we without them? This book was one of the best books I've read in a long time and definitely one of the most perfect endings.Definitely a though provoking read that will keep you up all night to finish.  I can't encourage you enough to please pick up this book as you will not regret it ! 

Rating: 

Five Star Novel 

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Quote: 

"Maybe that was the thing about beginnings - they always seemed better than middles or endings. And if only I ever had beginnings and my past was so perfect, then the future would never measure up. I didn't want to live like that"