Catching Teller Crow by Ambelin Kwaymullina and Ezekiel Kwaymullina

Catching Teller Crow by Ambelin Kwaymullina and Ezekiel Kwaymullina is a very thoughtful and deliberate YA novel. It tells the story of three girls, Catching, Beth Teller, and Crow and deals with some brutal issues. However, the worst parts of the story and told with symbolism and only partly explained plainly, so I suspect younger readers could read the book without having to deal with the specifics of those parts.

Nothing's been the same for Beth Teller since she died. Her dad, a detective, is the only one who can see and hear her - and he's drowning in grief. But now they have a mystery to solve together. Who is Isobel Catching, and what's her connection to the fire that killed a man? What happened to the people who haven't been seen since the fire? As Beth unravels the mystery, she finds a shocking story lurking beneath the surface of a small town, and a friendship that lasts beyond one life and into another. 

Most of the story is told from the point of view of Beth, a ghost of a girl who recently died in a car accident. She spends her time following around her father, the only person who can now see and hear her. Her father, aside from not coping well with her death, is a detective and is working on a case involving an orphanage burning down and some connected adults being missing. Beth rags along helping him and providing a sounding board. The pivotal moment comes with they interview a witness, Catching, and the book starts having sections from her point of view.

I don’t want to spoil anything, but some aspects of the story were predictable. However, this was more than made up for by the unique way in which the story was told. Beth wasn’t a ghost seeking vengeance for her death and Catching told her story very symbolically. Catching’s version of her story was true, but so was the decoded version Beth’s dad later summarised. While this was a story about horrible things, Beth’s dad always made sure to protect his daughter from what he could (like not letting her see dead bodies), even though she was already dead. On the other hand, Beth and the reader aren’t shielded from discussions of racism and the Stolen Generations, just the more immediate crimes.

This is quite a short book and that meant it moved very quickly through the story. I read it in only two sittings (with a few pages grabbed at other times). I expect the length makes it more accessible to its intended YA audience, especially younger readers and those that might be daunted by thick books. I liked Catching Teller Crow. It was an enjoyable read (without being “fun”) and the story was expertly told in a creative way. I highly recommend it to YA readers who don’t mind a bit of realistic darkness in their books. I also wouldn’t hesitate to give it to most teens; in fact, I can imagine finding it on a high school reading list.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: 2018, Allen & Unwin
Series: No
Format read: Paperback (gasp!)
Source: Purchased from Dymocks

#ReadShortStories, that are intersectional, as the year draws to a close (211-215)

For all that this post is going up in the new year, this are the last short stories I read in 2018. That brings my short story total up to 215 stories, which I'll go into more detail (and stats) in a dedicated roundup post. In the meantime, these stories all come from Meet Me at the Intersection, an anthology edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina. So far, it's been a lot more contemporary/realist and less spec fic than I usually read.

Dear Mate by Kyle Lynch — A distressing story, in some ways, about a young person who wants a job but has little idea how to get one. Although I didn’t realise how young he was until near the end, which did make it a bit less distressing. Source: Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina

Embers by Ezekiel Kwaymullina — A sad, short poem about dyslexia. Source: Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina

Harry Potter and the Disappearing Pages by Olivia Muscat — An essay/memoir about the author going blind at the start of high school and the frustrations of being disabled in modern society. Source: Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina

Fragments by Mimi Lee — The story of a young Chinese Australian dealing with her grandfather’s death and a difficult family situation. This was an interesting read but in some ways (the mental illness ways more than the grief ways) felt like it ily scratched the surface. I wouldn’t have minded it being longer but I can see why it made sense to leave it where it was. Source: Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina

Stars in our Eyes by Jessica Walton — A wonderful story about geeky teens and adults that made me laugh. Certainly the most fun story so far. Source: Meet Me at the Intersection edited by Rebecca Lim and Ambelin Kwaymullina