By Vikki Wakefield, published by Hot Key Books.
Goodreads synopsis: ‘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…’
Seventeen-year-old Friday Brown is on the run—running to escape memories of her mother and of the family curse. And of a grandfather who’d like her to stay. She’s lost, alone and afraid.
Silence, a street kid, finds Friday and she joins him in a gang led by beautiful, charismatic Arden. When Silence is involved in a crime, the gang escapes to a ghost town in the outback. In Murungal Creek, the town of never leaving, Friday must face the ghosts of her past. She will learn that sometimes you have to stay to finish what you started—and often, before you can find out who you are, you have to become someone you were never meant to be.
My review: Friday Brown was such a brilliant book! As soon as I started it, I go so engrossed in the unique story. At the beginning, with the superstitious mother, it felt a bit like If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch. Of course, if was so different, but in a good way. By the ending of the prologue tears had already sprung to me eyes (This book is SAD. Do not read it if you get as emotional over books as me. Or you will cry. At multiple points.)- that’s how powerful the authors words are.
The whole plot was totally unpredictable. I had no idea what the story was about, honestly, when I picked it up- and the whole thing was so unpredictable that I never knew what was around the next corner. After Friday leaves her grandfather’s home, she runs away and is picked up by a ragtag gang of homeless teenagers like her. But things start going terribly wrong when one character turns sour. I really wasn’t expecting the event that happened about two thirds of the way in! In total, the plot covered some really sad and really shocking issues, through an exhilarating and, at points, terrifying story.
Friday Brown was such a brilliant character. I loved her from the beginning, right when she lost everything and had the courage to set out into the Australian city by herself. I really enjoyed the way that she met Silence and his fellow gang, because not only did that open up her chances of survival, but that crucial night also came back to her at the end for a different, and clever reason. She was a really likeable person, and realistic too. Her background was pretty much all shown in the prologue, which was great, so I knew all about her, why she had that name, and even about her ancestors, before the story had even begun! I think that the decisions she made in the book were really great, and full of courage, especially towards the ending.
Overall, Friday Brown was such a brilliant read. The character were all great, the plot well written, and the story sad. This story will move you to tears, pull you in, make you gasp in shock, thanks to such brilliant, detailed and fluent writing by an amazing author. I really recommend it to Young Adults, and Adults too, if you’re looking for an emotional, yet also uplifting read. Watch out John Green- you have a contemporary fiction contender here, who’s bound to win awards too for this masterpiece! There was only one aspect of the book that I didn’t like, which I’ve put below.
**KINDA SPOILERISH ALERT**
My only problem with this book was that she never got in touch with her dad! I thought that he might come in at the end, to make the ending even happier than it already was. I mean, the reason she set out alone was to go and find him- and I still don’t understand why she didn’t make a bigger effort to go and find him. So her primary goal was never fulfilled. Which I didn’t like. But I don’t suppose it really matters- I guess the dad-less plot shows how goals and lives can change in an instant.
My Goodreads Rating: 4.5/5!
I received a copy of Friday Brown from the publisher, in exchange for a review. In no way at all did this affect my thoughts.
Goodreads synopsis: The impossible was just the beginning. Now in their second year as superhuman government weapons-in-training at the Pentagonal Spire, Tom Raines and his friends are mid-level cadets in the elite combat corps known as the Intrasolar Forces. But as training intensifies and a moment arrives that could make or break his entire career, Tom’s loyalties are again put to the test.
Although it doesn’t really sound the same as the last two titles, Divergent and Insurgent, it still looks amazing. I enjoyed Divergent so much, and it’s a close contender with The Hunger Games, my favourite series. Insurgent I really liked, but I think it could have been a bit less wild. It’s quite frantic in my opinion compared to the first book of the series. However, I really really really want to see how the trilogy ends, though I really don’t want it to finish. I love Tris and Four too much! And the future Chicago setting is so cool… I just wanna live there, in Dauntless.
Yay!! I actually thought that the fifth installment of the TMI series, City of Lost Souls, was the last one. And then Lucy@ Queen of Contemporary told me it wasn’t. So YAAAAY. More Jace! More Clary! More MAGNUS!! I only discovered The Mortal Instruments when I heard the movie was coming out, and there was a voucher to get City of Bones. I’m so happy I found that voucher. Because then I found that book. And then I found all of the other books after it. And then I read them all and fell in love with them. As well as Allegiant, TMI is in my top-three-favourite-series. And it’s no wonder why. They’re just so brilliant. Note this cover is NOT the final cover, obviously.
This book is not as well known as the two above mentioned. But, it’s previous installment absolutely blew me away. The Wells Bequest is a companion, but not a sequel. It’s set before The Grimm Legacy and focuses on a different aspect of the building, not to do with fairy tales this time. It’d take me a while to explain the whole concept, so 
I’m in a very happy mood now. I’ve just realised, reading Goodreads, that THIS COMES OUT TOMORROW. I can’t even wait twenty four hours, though! Siobhan Curham is, hands down, my favourite UKYA author this year. Finding Cherokee Brown I loved so much- and I enjoyed Siobhan’s other book, Dear Dylan, just as much. They’re both contemporary books, based around teenage girls living in a normal world, but it seems Siobhan’s sailing (geddit? Because it’s called Shipwrecked?!) into new territory with a book based around a dance crew that find themselves on a shipwrecked cruise boat on an island, where tension is rising. Sounds so brilliant, and I can’t wait to read it!
Goodreads synopsis: At first, Jamie isn’t too worried about the bad dreams he’s been having since coming to his aunt’s house. Most people awoken in the middle of the night to find their house burning down would probably have nightmares, too. But instead of fire, he keeps dreaming of a “horrible, scary old woman,” relentlessly coming after him for some awful, inexplicable purpose. Even though he’s come to Aunt Jane’s to recover from the fire’s aftermath, he doesn’t want to bother her or his cousin Alison with his silly fears. He can see that they are very busy with their village’s community service project–cleaning off an age-old carving on the side of hill that overlooks the town. But when the carving turns out to be a peculiar primordial figure instead of the “crown” that the people of Crownshill expected to see, and Jamie uncovers evidence of an ancient witchcraft trial in local history papers, he is swept into a centuries-old mystery to which he unwittingly has the key. Who is the old crone chasing him, and what does she want? Jamie will have to endure an experience worse than fire to find out.
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