Review: Friday Brown by Vikki Wakefield

4 Stars

"They call me Friday. It has been foretold that on Saturday I will drown..."

Friday Brown's mother has frequently told tales of their female ancestors, who each acquired the Brown family curse that tragically all ended their life. Friday and her mother travel from to town in the outback desert as they attempt to elude the family curse, however fate leaves Friday alone after her mother's abrupt death. 

"I am nothing. I feel like nothing. I want my life to matter. What if one day I'm gone and Nobody ever I knew existed."

Seventeen year old Friday makes a decision to continue her past lifestyle of traveling, and meets the lonely boy named Silence at the train station. He introduces her to a group of street kids, who she is able to relate to and become dependent on. It is on the other hand the charismatic Arden - the group leader who will challenge Friday more than she would she like. 

Friday Brown came nothing close to what I envisaged, especially the end which had left me stunned. The book was split into two parts. I view the first part as being fundamental in providing the reader simply with the backgrounds of each of the the street kids. The second parts unravels each character and shows their true nature and growth, or how some of the characters have come to disintegrate as a human, and the transformation of all the characters can evidently be displayed by the change of setting in the book, from the city in part 1 to a ghostown in the outback in part 2. 



^^Okay, I suppose that wasn't really review but more of analysis of the story. The novel comprised of simple little meanings found throughout the story, that it was attempting to convey, for instance a significant one I noticed was: "Appearance can be deceiving." I particularly loved how the book pointed out that lies told by the people we trust come to make us vitally who we are. 

The characters as mentioned before, show more of their true nature in the second half of the book. The street kids are presented as lost and completely alone on their own, but with the guide of each other they are able to live almost happily. They each had a troubled life that has brought them together. Friday comes to describe them as being identical to the "lost boys" in Peter Pan. Friday forms a deeply strong and beautiful bond with Silence - the boy who found her all alone in the train station. 

Friday Brown finds comfort with the street kids when she struggles to belong anywhere else. Her character is fiercely loyal and intellectual, but is at the same time heavily flawed, with her lack of confidence and her to inability to shrug of her past in order for self-realization to finally happen. 

The romance isn't substantial part of the book. It actually only makes a very tiny fragment of the story. So be warned, don't expect teen angst or even much romance. 

I did give this book four stars instead of five, due to how gloomy the ending left me. It was a perfect ending, but I could not find myself to love it. I do highly recommend Friday Brown of course!

“Maybe that was the thing about beginnings - they always seemed better than middles or endings. And if only I ever had beginnings and my past was so perfect, then the future would never measure up. I didn't want to live like that.”