Deep Dive

The Deep by Kyle Perry

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Unputdownable. This book only took me a week to read because I had to work every day. If I’d been able to devote the time I reckon I would have consumed this in 2 days! Kyle Perry had a stunning debut novel in The Bluffs, but this….THIS easily surpasses it. From the harsh but beautiful coastal setting, to the riveting and diverse characters and the twisting and turning plot – this is the novel of a writer really hitting his straps.
Set in the south-Tasman town of Shacktown, The Deep draws us into the seedy and violent world of the Dempseys; a crime family consisting of matriarch Ivy, and brothers Mackenzie (Mackeral) and Davey. They work in drug trade in partnership with a mysterious figure known only as the Dread Pirate Blackbeard. Everything is moving along nicely (as nicely as illegal pursuits can) – and then Forest, a boy long thought dead, turns up coughing and sputtering from the ocean.
Where has the boy been for 8 years? What happened the night he went missing? Where are the others who were with him? What does this mean for the Dempseys?
The Deep has a steady, building pace and Perry’s plot twists made me gasp out loud at times, especially as the book neared its conclusion. It also has a lot to say about what it means to “be a man”. The timely theme of toxic masculinity is an interesting thread through the novel and it’s fair to say Perry leaves the read in no doubt about the devastating impact it has on men and those close to them (and even not close to them).
I cannot recommend this novel highly enough. I urge you to get your hands on it as soon as it’s published on July 20th. You won’t be sorry.

(reviewer supplied with an ARC by publisher in professional capacity as a librarian).



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Gripping debut novel

All I Ever Wanted by Vikki Wakefield
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Mim is almost seventeen. She lives with her mother in a suburb that is harsh, gritty and makes her feel trapped. She has set herself rules to live by – in the hope that she will one day escape. Only one problem. She’s starting to break her rules.

Nine days from her seventeenth birthday, Mim’s life takes a turn she didn’t expect. She is breaking lots of her rules, not just one or two, and it is looking like she will be stuck in her dead-end suburb, turning out exactly like her drug-dealing mother. In Mim’s eyes that is a fate worse than death. As she struggles to escape an out-of-control situation, Mim begins to realise that maybe she belongs in her home town more than she realises. That those people – her Mum and all the rest of them, are HER people. This debut novel from Vicki Wakefield is a gripping read about identity, belonging and finding your place in the world.
For ages 14 and up.