Description
Dylan and her adored French mother dream of one day sailing across the ocean to France. Paris, Dylan imagines, is a place where her black skin won't make her stand out, a place where she might feel she belongs.
But when she loses her mother in a freak accident, Dylan finds herself on a very different journey - a road trip across outback Australia in the care of her mother's grieving boyfriend, Pat. As they travel through remote towns further and further from the water that Dylan longs for, she and Pat form an unlikely bond. One that will be broken when he leaves her with the family she has never known.
Metal Fish, Falling Snow is a warm, funny and highly original portrait of a young girl's search for identity and her struggle to deal with grief. Through families lost and found, this own-voices story celebrates the resilience of the human heart and our need to know who we truly are.
Review
Metal Fish, Falling Snow is a journey of discovery and a search for identity for fourteen-year-old Dylan.
Dylan has always dreamed of going to France with her French mother. But her mother’s sudden death means that is a journey they will not take together.
Filled with grief, Dylan still dreams of making the journey to Paris anyway. Unfortunately, for the time being, Dylan is on a trip of a different kind - across the outback of Australia with her mother’s grieving, pokie-addicted boyfriend, Pat. They are going to meet Dylan’s family - her relatives through her Guyanese-born father, who walked out forever ago. But although they might be family, Dylan knows nothing of these people, or what it will be like when she gets there.
Dylan has a gift of seeing things in her world, with visions of what happened in the past, and her gift helps her to slowly find her place - through friendship with her cousin Joni, her connections to her family, and even to Pat, who is trying to get his life together.
A story of self-discovery, identity, loss, grief, family and finding your place in the world, with an incredibly engaging and unique main character in Dylan, you cannot help but get swept up in her journey. A wonderful debut novel from Cath Moore, this is a great read that will particularly appeal to girls 14 years and older.
Reviewed by Rob
