Clancy of the Undertow (Christopher Currie, Text)

Clancy of Clancy of the Undertow lives in a small and small-minded town outside of Toowoomba in Queensland. She wrestles with the dilemma of just wanting to be accepted by her peers while not being willing to sink to the level it would take. She is also struggling to come to terms with the fact that she likes girls. Her father, recently injured while at work and suffering from depression, has been involved in a car accident that ended in the death of two local teens. In a gossip-starved small town, all this is almost too much for Clancy to handle on her own. Clancy of the Undertow is a beautiful story. It’s about the pressure that depression can have on a family, how it can slowly push everyone apart so a family becomes five familiar strangers living in a house together, each clinging onto their own problems. It’s about the special kind of relationship you can only have with siblings—the people who know you better than anyone else ever could. And it’s about the importance of fitting in or, failing that, finding someone to not fit in with. This book is fantastic for young adults aged 14 and up.

Dani Solomon is a bookseller at Readings Carlton

Category: Reviews