Reviews

The Great Inland Sea by David Francis

liberrydude's review

4.0

The Great Inland Sea is the outback of New South Wales and it's not a happy or hospitable place. OBTW Day, the principal character, can't swim either so factor that into your metaphorical allusions. Day, as a young boy flees from Australia and a rather traumatic upbringing and escapes to America. He sells his horse to escape his home and ends up training and grooming them in America where he meets his troubled soulmate-Callie. Lots of family secrets in this dysfunctional family. This is a rather haunting and sad book as Day is drawn to a woman who won't acknowledge his love. They chase each other across the USA and Mexico and finally come together in Australia, where it all started. This book reminded me of Mark Haddon's "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time only because of the degree of shock and surprise at some of the dark secrets and behavior of the family. This would make a good movie.

aaron_j136's review against another edition

2.0

'Her fingers were cold and steady, they traced the shapes in my face. It wasn't all that I wanted , but it was more than enough'

There were many things I really enjoyed about this novel, and yet a lot of things brought it down for me- particularly the way sexual assault was addressed. Many aspects of this book seemed lacking in detail to me and I felt at times the way it was told to be all over the place.

I did like the writing though- particularly the descriptions of country. The relationship between Callie and Day was fairly well developed.