Tidelines by Susan Sasson is an interesting coming of age debut novel that is extremely well written with some incredibly poignant phrases that give great depth to the story. Set in Sydney and the northern beaches of New South Wales, Australia in the early 2000s we find Grub in her early 20s reflecting on her childhood and her relationship with her extremely talented brother Elijah. His disappearance triggers her reflections and emotions with her seeking reasons for things going wrong.

A literary read that requires a slow and reflective approach.

Recommended read.


This review is based on a complimentary copy from Affirm Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

#Tidelines #NetGalley

Rating: 4.5/5.

“I was still here, but had large parts of myself missing, shifting voids the wind could blow through.”

What a beautiful debut novel! Wow.

Tidelines is a coming of age literary fiction novel, we are given insight into the memories and perspectives of ‘Grub’ who is now in her mid-twenties. Grub reflects on her childhood and adolescence in Sydney with her brother Elijah, which is filled with swimming and surfing and good memories. Later, Elijah disappears and Grub tries to piece together where it all went wrong and who to assign blame to.

This was so poignant and beautifully written, I was drawn in by the stunning imagery. Grub’s childhood rings so true to growing up in the early 2000’s in coastal Australia, from the beaches and sherbet lollipops to the war cries at the swimming carnival. This truly is a love letter to Australian summers and beaches. The book gets extremely heavy and emotional towards the disappearance of Elijah, and I needed to stop to breathe. It centres on themes of complicated grief and the uncertainty of not knowing, unconditional love and family repair, and self-discovery.

EXCERPT: 'Do you ever see your dad?' I asked/ The words fell out of my mouth before I had a chance to catch them. Zed was wearing canvas shoes. There was a hole where his right toe was wearing through.
'Nah.' His mouth was full of grey smoke, then he exhaled. 'He walked out on us when I was six.'
'Do you know where he is?'
Zed shook his head. 'Not really. You wouldn't understand,' he said, for a moment speaking to me as if I was a child. 'Your family is so nice. One day you will.'
'Will what?' I asked.
Zed flicked the butt of his cigarette onto the footpath, where it rolled up against the wall of the milkbar, a trail of smoke still piping out of it.
'Lose something you love.'
He got up and walked inside to meet Elijah.
There was a certainty in the way he spoke that made me feel as though he knew something about my life that I didn't.

ABOUT 'TIDELINES': It's Sydney in the early 2000s, and Grub is spending the summer with her universally-adored older brother, Elijah, and his magnetic but troubled best friend, Zed. Their days are filled with surfing, swimming and hanging out; life couldn't be better.

But years later, Elijah disappears and Grub's family unravels. At first, Grub blames Zed: he was the one who derailed Elijah from a bright future in the arts. But as Grub looks back at those dreamy summer days, the sanctuary of her certainty crumbles. Was Zed really responsible for her brother's disappearance? Was anyone?

Tidelines is a tender coming-of-age novel about growing up in the face of unimaginable loss. It examines the stories we subconsciously write for ourselves, and what remains later, when we have the courage to tear them apart.

MY THOUGHTS: Tidelines reads more like a memoir than a novel. The random memories, especially at the beginning, reinforce this. It is a novel raw with grief. Of a young woman battling to keep afloat even before her brother disappears.

This is a sad book but one written with great beauty; the writing stark and succinct at times, and at others melodic. Sasson takes us on a journey from childhood joy to the depths of despair as lives go wrong; detour down unplanned tracks full of potholes and dead ends. But there are also moments of light to be found in those depths of despair; hope to cling to.

Tidelines is not an easy read. It is raw and brutal, beautiful and sad, devastating and hopeful. If you have ever picked at a loose thread and had the garment unravel; that depicts Grub's life. It is testament to her strength of character that she is eventually able to pick up the threads and fashion them into something new. The journey from one point to the other is a tough one as she learns to forgive not only others but herself.

This is an amazing debut novel.

⭐⭐⭐⭐.2

#Tidelines #NetGalley

THE AUTHOR: Sarah Sasson is an Australian physician-writer living on Gadigal land in Sydney.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Affirm Press via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of Tidelines by Sarah Sasson for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

This is a coming of age book. Our narrator (who is, I think 24) is trying to work out what she wants to do with her life, who and how she wants to be. It is, as we are warned from the very first page, a sad book. It's also emotional and beautiful. In the best possible ways it reminded me of Nadine Cohen's [book:Everyone and Everything|175729372] . Not because they are derivative, but because they are both stories of young women growing up in Sydney with complicated families. Both have a focus on water - such a Sydney thing, in Melbourne we don't all swim at amazing sea-pools. I wonder how much of this book is based on the author's own childhood.. I recommend Tidelines, it is moving and honest.

Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for giving me an E-Arc in exchange for an honest review.

What a stunning new release!

Heartbreakingly good. 💔

A beautiful and reflective novel.

This is a gorgeous coming of age novel about growing up in Sydney in the early 2000s when freedom is hanging out at the beach and surfing. with an adored older and enigmatic brother, Elijah and his risk-taking, friend, Zed who dangerously lives on the edge.

There are themes of familial love, music as language, career success and failure, drug addiction, imperfect parents, misogyny, infidelity, a missing brother, loss, grief and an awakening of what it is to be human. Oh, it has everything!


You know a books is great when you become emotionally attached to the characters and want to immerse yourself in its pages.

What a privilege to read this - it will stay with me for a while.

I predict big things for this one!

Thanks to @netgalley and @sarahsassonwrites for the ARC.

Tidelines by Sarah Sasson is an eerily poignant read as it opens after a tragedy then goes back into the past, beguiling readers with the story of siblings; knowing that all does not end well, but intrigued as to how we get there.

As someone who grew up with a high-achieving older brother I could very much relate to young 'Grub' here. Elijah is admired and respected by his peers and adults, including their parents. He's athletic and a talented musician - deemed for greatness. Grub lives in his shadow and conscious of that, but at the same time, not jealous or envious (rather, proud... but at the same time aware of the flaws others might not see).

The arrival of Zed changes everything for Grub’s family. He and Elijah become inseparable, initially sidelining Grub but then they open up their friendship and the three become allies of sorts. It's interesting however as a reader - on the outside looking in - to see how Elijah knows he's doing stuff he shouldn’t and though going in that direction himself, wants to protect his young sister from following in his footsteps. And I enjoyed the dichotomy of retaining that role of responsible big brother while trying to strip himself of the golden-child persona foisted upon him by others.

The story opens in 2001 when Zed arrives in their lives. Grub is 14 and Elijah 17 and finishing school. We then jump forward to 2010 and it's interesting to see the changes in Grub and Elijah over the intervening nine years. Elijah's not pursued opportunities presented (and earned). And of course the unanswered question underpinning this book is whether he instinctively rebelled against that life, or was led astray. And that's ultimately the question Grub asks herself. Is it Zed's fault or would Elijah’s would-be trajectory involved crashing and burning anyway. Of course, on that note, we’re reminded that what ‘success’ or ‘living’ might look like to some, might make little sense to others.

'My brother had become an erratic protagonist in a story with the wrong ending. I was scrambling behind him, clutching at a narrative, trying to assign meaning where there was none.' 86% through ebook

Also of interest is the way in which Grub blames her parents for not intervening or 'saving' her brother. Did they not see the golden child becoming tarnished? Were they in denial about the direction his life was taking? I suspect there are turning points we see back in late 2001 as Elijah’s finishing school, but even then their authority over him was limited, and even less so, years later when he's in his 20s.

I appreciated that Sasson also touches on addiction and mental illness, as well as dementia and note her own medical research / scientific background ensured references to adult Grub's work was detailed in an effortless way.

In some ways this is a study of characters - who we think we are, who we actually are, who we become, and how and why we get there.

'Something inside me moved its wings then, small and bright. I wondered how much of my identity, of my fibre, was tied up in storytelling. If I were a ragdoll, stories would be my stitches and stuffing. Holding me together, padding me out. Tales of things I had done, or those that grew and evolved outside of the truth.' 92% through ebook

But Sasson's writing is the standout here for me. Her beautiful prose do the story of Grub and Elijah justice taking readers along, traversing love, anger, fear, guilt, regret, grief, loss and disappointment.

'I told him about Elijah, how I used to be a sister.' 98% (*sobs*)

4.5 stars

Sarah Sasson’s debut novel, ‘Tidelines’, focuses on the Donohue family, through the eyes of its youngest member, Grub. Told in first-person narrative, Grub takes us from the early 2000s, through to 2012 as she recounts how her family was impacted by the actions of her idolised older brother, Elijah, and asks who, if anyone, is to blame.
The novel tackles the issue of mental health in a head-on manner, with writing that is crisp and emotional enough to draw the reader into the anxiety and dread that our main character feels. At other times, we feel nostalgia for the Halcyon days of childhood, even if it’s a depiction of a childhood we never experienced ourselves.
It’s a supreme strength of the novel that, while I wouldn’t call it slow burning, it eases through the moments of our characters lives, and draws us into them. Sasson crafts a neat trail of breadcrumbs for the discerning reader to follow as well – this gives the impact of the audience knowing more than the narrator. We are left not to determine what will happen, rather when it will happen and what the fallout will be.
The characters are clear and true. Grub and Elijah’s parents are defined almost exclusively by their passions – music for the mother, birdwatching for the father – and their differing styles of parenting both encourage and stifle their children at various intervals. As the novel progresses, it raises questions for Grub in particular who wonder if this parent had done that, or if the other had done something else, would things have been different.
The reader too finds themselves asking the same thing of various moments.
Grub is a compelling narrator – we are given a taste of her life from childhood to struggling (and recovering) adult, and it feels firmly authentic. All of the characters do, right down to the people Grub lists as she passes them in the street.
The same can be said for Elijah whose boyish charms in his youth present someone that we want to spend time with; we understand the desire to spend time in his stratosphere. The changes in his personality are dealt with subtly and gradually – it’s not suddenly rammed into a few pages that he has changed overnight because that’s not how it happens.
At times, Grub feels like Harper Lee’s Scout, recalling Jem’s heroics and actions; at others, she feels like Ky in Tracey Lien’s ‘All That’s Left Unsaid’, as she desperately tries to solve the puzzle that is Elijah.
The author has brought all of her professional experience to bear on the scientific and medical aspects of the novel – though perhaps a little too scientific in explaining Grub’s research profession, even though the symbolism of it is smart. But the other questions around mental health are dealt with in a non-sensational manner – with the story and atmosphere she has carved out, it would feel like a disservice to have taken that particular route with it.
The seeming catalyst for Elijah’s change is Zed, with whom the novel’s central duo strike up a friendship after a chance encounter at the beach. The friendship between the two older boys serves to stir up feelings of alienation within Grub, who is also going through teenage issues of her own. Again, these are addressed in a very real, honest way that overshadows the generic nature of them.
Zed is a character that we don’t learn an awful lot about, mainly because Grub doesn’t learn an awful lot about him – what we know, we know more from his omissions than anything that he says.
But perhaps that is the point that the novel wishes to convey – we all have choices and we are the ones who make them. While others may influence or advise, the decision remains in our own hands. It is something that Grub learns as well, albeit in far different circumstances.
Perhaps to know more about Zed would filter our understanding of this, draw us away from that idea, help to perpetuate a stereotype even.
I do think that the opening scene is left hanging for far too long; it bookends the novel and I did find myself wondering, as the finish line rapidly approached, if the author would return to it. I felt that maybe she should have returned to it more often, as a way of anchoring the different sections of the novel and as a way of ratcheting up some tension as to what may be about to unfold.
I think it would have served as an interesting anchor between the present and the past of the novel, further emphasising the impact of one on the other.
That said, I would highly recommend ‘Tidelines’ to anyone who wants to read a well-crafted and authentic story of a family as they deal with the best and worst that life can throw at them.
Thank you to Affirm Press for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.