Before we kick off with another TBR Friday, allow me to remind you that Fiction in 50 for March opens on Monday, with the prompt…

To participate, just create a piece of poetry or prose in fewer than 51 words and link it up or post it in the comments of the Fi50 post on Monday.  For more detailed instructions and future prompts, just click here.

This month’s TBR Friday suffered a bit of a false start.  I started off the month with The Elegance of the Hedgehog, from my list of titles that I wanted to get through this year, but made the decision to put it aside after getting about halfway through.  While I did enjoy parts of it, I felt that it required too much attention for me to really appreciate just at the moment.  So I rifled around through my other options and came up with Tigers on the Beach, an OzYA title from one of my favourite authors, Doug MacLeod.

Ten Second Synopsis:

Adam’s grandfather has recently passed away. His parents are struggling to drum up tourists to rent the family’s holiday cabins.  His brother is doing nefarious things with beetles.  And his grandmother has taken to shouting at possums and upsetting the guests.  With all this going on, it’s a wonder Adam manages to find a girlfriend at all. As first love blooms between Adam and Sam, life goes on in Samsara and Adam must try and save his parents business, fend off overzealous real estate agent, stop his brother from causing toilet-related chaos and generally grieve for his grandfather all while trying to figure out some very peculiar jokes.

Time on the TBR Shelf:

Since about May 2014

Acquired:

As a prize in a giveaway from Behind the Pages blog

Reason I haven’t read it yet:

I knew I would probably enjoy it given the author, so I was holding it back until I needed a surefire enjoyable read.

Best Bits:

• The humour is as dry as a dead dingo’s proverbial. This is MacLeod’s style and I was happy to fall back into it in this book.
• OzYA by established Australian authors often has a certain atmosphere about it. It’s laconic and matter-of-fact and it is present in this book
• The themes of grief are explored thoroughly and sensitively here, behind a façade of comedic happenings
• Adam and Sam are well-drawn as believable teenagers, with mood swings, urges and embarrassing stories abounding
• Adam’s grandmother is an absolute cracker of a character. I love her snarky attitude toward Adam’s younger brother.
• Some absolutely hilarious “dad”-type jokes. The one about the goldfish still has me giggling days later.

Less Impressive Bits:

• As with many contemporary books, it can be difficult to see what the point of the story is while you are reading it. The ending rectifies this beautifully in this particular case, but I do find that books about everyday events can lag a bit while I’m reading them.

 

On reflection, was this worth buying?

Seeing as I won this one, the point is moot.  However, it has reminded me how much I enjoy MacLeod’s work and so I will once again try and seek out a copy of The Clockwork Forest to buy.

Where to now for this tome?

It will sit on the permanent shelf for the time being.

This is another chink off the Mount TBR  Reading Challenge hosted by My Reader’s Block.

I’m also submitting it towards my Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge, hosted by Escape with Dollycas:

You can check out my progress for that challenge here.

Until next time,

Bruce