I read this book as a kid, it stuck with me and I just revisited it as an adult out of nostalgia.
The writing is good and evocative of atmosphere. I'm British but I felt I could easily envisage the setting in 1980s Australia and the slang wasn't a problem for me; I knew what the words meant from context.
I liked the fact that the characters were flawed. Angie is glamorous and fun, but she isn't perfect - she isn't always nice to Seymour; they have rows and sometimes she tells him to go away and leave her alone. I don't feel that the book
glamourises drug-taking.
I would, however, like to have had a tiny bit more back story of how Angie came to start taking drugs. We get an impression of a creative, artistic spirit caged in by a middle class but boring family. We are also told that she isn't as clever as her siblings and perhaps feels that her parents don't care about her that much. I don't think all people who take drugs have a 'troubled' childhood, far from it, but it's still not fully clear why she got into them, I think - she's clearly not stupid and does have talent in arts and crafts even if she isn't as scholarly as her sister and brother. It also seems that her parents do genuinely care about her. But perhaps more back story would take too long and is not that relevant in a book aimed at younger readers.
I thought the character of Lynne, Angie's sister, didn't really come alive for me even after she starts to express more emotion, but that's a matter of personal opinion.
In general I really like this book. There isn't a huge amount of plot but it's very evocative of feelings and I think succeeds in getting across an anti-drugs message in a way that's not preachy and acknowledges a lot of complexities.
Came Back to Show You I Could Fly
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Ursula
A good sound story for youngsters
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 January 2013Verified Purchase