Fab and Bem are BFF and live in a small town. Fab is the awkward one and Bem the cool and more Strong one.
After a suicide in the town their lives are change forever.

The part one is Ben's POV about Fab, his mother and father and himself as dealing with his hormones.
The days are between Fab been bullied and Ben been afraid of Ronnie the new neighbour.
Ronnie was really creep and yes he was a child but could have him done something to stop that?

Part two is Fab's Pov and things are not good because Fab has no perspective in life,his mother is a dead walking woman, Fab drinks too much and he has not seen his best friend in years.


I really liked the book but a lot of information was not show to us, like who was the gang? Was Fab's father part on it? Have Ben's mother dicovered what happened?? What was the relationship between Ronnie and Bem after that fateful afternoon??
Fab is going to be released??
What re the things that Ben knew??
I have more questions than resoutions.

A sad story,actually that we don't want to happen with anyone.

There really are some terrific Aussie writers out there, and award winning Mark Brandi is a welcome addition, with this, his debut novel, short in length but big in its impact. Its a book of light and shadows, tuning into the lives of two best friends at specific times in their lives. 11 year olds Ben and Fab, are living in a small town in Victoria in 1989, we then catch up with Fab's life decades later after the momentous events that happened when he was a young, still stuck in the same town whilst Ben left. It begins in the present with the discovery of a well secured green wheelie bin in the river, the contents of which is to unavoidably raise the spectre of the past for Fab and Ben. The narrative is delivered from the perspective of Ben in the early years and then Fab in the later years that culminate in the trial.

Brandi atmospherically evokes the period of the late 1980s beautifully, charting the culture, the TV shows of the time, and the prevalent attitudes of that time, like the perception of women and girls. Ben is disturbed when a 14 year old girl, Daisy Wolfe, a neighbour, hangs herself on the clothes washing line. Daisy had been a good friend to him, although rumours and banter about her abound that make him distinctly uncomfortable. It is a time when parents allowed their children to run free and wild, especially in the summer, and the boys are obsessed by sex and hankering after unobtainable women and girls, excited by girlie mags, whilst camping and yabbying. It is far from a idyllic childhood with its bullying, racism, and brutality in the home. A new neighbour arrives on the scene, taking over and renting the Wolfe's home. The new man, Ronnie, attracts the boys attention, as they weave imagined tales of who he is, a spy perhaps. The tone gets progressively more chilling and menacing as Ben finds himself encouraged by his parents to do paid work in and around Ronnie's home, something he is less than comfortable with. The circumstances around the events that occur are left opaque, but we are left in no doubt about the gravity of the abuse that takes place, and the repercussions on the lives of Ben and Fab.

This is not your ordinary crime novel, Brandi is far more interested in character, capturing a particular historical era, the minutae of small town life, the gossip, the judgements, what happens behind closed doors, the limited horizons, and the lack of parental awareness about what could be happening to their kids, it just would not cross their minds that they might be endangered in any way. The rampant and blatant sexism is hard to stomach, particularly when it is applied to young girls, as is the everyday normalisation of the racism of the time. The characterisation of the young boys is done with skill in this coming of age story, their friendship is depicted beautifully in the trials and tribulations each of them face, their loyalty to each other is a thing to behold, despite coming from different backgrounds. This would have been a 5 star read for me, but for the dissatisfaction I felt over the trial and how it progresses. This is a bleakly disturbing piece of crime fiction but I found it never less than compelling. Many thanks to Legend Press for an ARC.

This is a book with a difficult subject at its heart which I think has been handled excellently by the author. A story about two boys living fairly ordinary lives turned darker with the arrival of a new neighbour. The first part is told from the perspective of one of the boys and the second half deals with the aftermath of events, this narrated by the other boy.
My only criticism would be it felt as though the ending was wrapped up a little too quickly, however aside from that great writing.

Kids busy growing up in a small town, when suddenly everything is changed by a stranger moving in next door. Mark Brandi gives us a very compelling, but rather dark story of lives turned upside down.