What we think of… The Good Daughter

Vital stats…

Author: Honey Brown
Publisher: Penguin Books
Format: Paperback
RRP: AUD $32.95

My rating

What it’s about…

Life is hard in the biting heat and dirt of small town Kiona, a gritty (fictional) Australian country town where people aren’t always what they seem.

It’s the 1980s and sexual harassment is just known as “conversation”. Here, 16-year-old Rebecca Toyer lives with her absentee truckie step-dad, too much responsibility and a relentless barrage of unwarranted rumours that she’s always up for it.

But when wealthy Mrs Kincaid, the artist mother of Rebecca’s sometime crush Zach, goes missing in suspicious circumstances, Rebecca and Zach are dragged into an adult world. A world where good intentions are as brittle as good reputations, and trust is swiftly lost, and painfully earned.

What we think…

This is a powerful book – raw and true.

The plot is simple, like the landscape it is set in, and the writing is fittingly spare. Honey Brown doesn’t waste words, and nor do her characters. And in this edgy drama, played out under the harsh sun of country Australia, where men don’t cry and women handle the pressure, that’s just as it should be.

Photo by Leon Rice-Whetton — Honey Brown’s story has a strong sense of place, but this is no Tourism Australia advert. This is “fair dinkum” Australia.

Brown’s creations are earthy, flawed; human. You care about what happens to them, and you find yourself wanting better things for Rebecca and Zach, in spite of – or perhaps because of – their failings.

The novel has an intensity that can be put down to two things: Brown’s potently visual written style, and the compression of time and space in her story.

The Good Daughter is set in a small town, and the action takes place over two short weeks. The result is a melting pot of character and plot which threatens to boil over at any moment.

The small town setting also gives the novel a real authenticity. Brown’s experience of rural Australia is extensive and it gives her work a tangible sense of place.

This is no Tourism Australia advertisement. This is “fair dinkum” Oz. It’s sweat and dirt and the image of a rusted tin shed hidden by brambles. It’s the ominous freedom of the Australian bush.

It’s in the way the characters speak; their pride. The words they choose, and the things they don’t say.

While Honey Brown has said she doesn’t write to an agenda, she’s not afraid to deal with real issues either. The Good Daughter is not a light read. It explores themes like sexual bullying, marital conflict, corruption, violence; even mental illness. Some of the novel’s scenes are confronting, but this is what gives the story its integrity.

From style to character to plot, The Good Daughter is a gripping, potent exploration of the coming of age, beautifully told and bound to stay with you long after you’ve turned the final page.