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review: Raw Blue by Kirsty Eagar

Raw Blue by Kirsty Eagar
Published by Catnip



Carly has dropped out of uni to spend her days surfing and her nights working as a cook in a Manly café. Surfing is the one thing she loves doing … and the only thing that helps her stop thinking about what happened two years ago at schoolies week.

And then Carly meets Ryan, a local at the break, fresh out of jail. When Ryan learns the truth, Carly has to decide. Will she let the past bury her? Or can she let go of her anger and shame, and find the courage to be happy?


***

How do I put into words how much I loved Raw Blue? I'm not sure I can do it justice but what follows are all my random thinkings this brilliant book.

Raw Blue centres around the life of Carly a university drop out who lives to surf. She's not close with her family who don't approve of her choices and works the night shifts in a kitchen to earn enough money for rent and bills so she can spend the rest of her time surfing. I loved Carly to bits. Firstly being a bit of an older YA I found that she wasn't quite as naive as some YA protagonists are and it also meant she had that bit of life experience behind her which made her all that more interesting as a character. I actually loved the realism that this book had if nothing else by the fact that this girl went out and did a rubbish job she hated everyday to pay the bills as again you read so many YA books where they seem to have an unlimited fund of cash without ever having to earn it to do whatever they want whenever they want (unless of course they are the poor scholarship student working night and day for a worthwhile cause). As you get to know her Carly you firstly really get how much surfing is part of this girl's soul and also that underneath it all there is something not quite right within Carly that makes her want to shy away from others and be alone. Finding out more about why she had become the girl she was fascinating reading and made me not want to put this book down.


For me this book is really all about getting underneath Carly's skin and finding out why she is the girl she is and the most telling way of seeing this was through her relationship with Ryan. Where do I start with Ryan.... Ryan is in his twenties and I personally loved that she got drawn in by an older man because quite honestly when I was Carly's age I wasn't in the slightest bit interested in men my own age because they still acted like they were kids. Ryan comes along and is kept at a distance by Carly initially despite being sweet and charming. I loved seeing how he slowly wore down her defences to become part of her life (and oh my are those bits hot) but even then he still had to deal with all her intimacy issues and the way she tried to keep him at arms length. Quite honestly I can't think of another YA book where this is done in quite the same way as it's usually all about the insecure boy keeping the girl at arms length.

All in all for me this book is the perfect YA contemporary read. It doesn't have a pacey all action story line but is doesn't need to. The story draws you in for the first page and doesn't let you go until the last as you are drawn completely into Carly's world to the point where you live the waves and the cooking grease with her and end up root for the girl 110%. I loved it and can't recommend it highly enough

Comments

I'm dying to read this after you've said such good things about it!
Unknown said…
I really want to read this one. Fantastic review Kirsty.
I really need to read this one and soon!! Glad you enjoyed it Kirsty!