The Windy Season by Sam Carmody
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I really enjoyed this eerie and confronting coming of age. With a limited plot it was down to the characters to draw you in and be interesting and they certainly were. Every character had their own distinct voice and all were a little withdrawn, sullen and down trodden. Much like the town the novel is centred round.
The main character, Paul, is at a confused time in his life, neither boy nor man. He is an introvert and often finds his own thoughts confronting and alarming.
” There was a weight to those thoughts that he struggled to resist. When they poured in they stayed there, setting hard around his brain like tar, gripping every thought, weighing down each sensation.”
It is easy to empathise with Paul as he struggles with the disappearance of his brother and a need to express his feelings to distant parents.
” At night the three of them would sit around the dinner table in silence, which was not so strange. They had never been big talkers.”
” But even if he had the words he knew his father wouldn’t have wanted to hear them. It was just the way he was. Maybe it was the way he was, too.”
The reader gets a close up look at the characters’ inner thoughts and fears with themes of family, life, love, self doubt and the far reaching effects of drugs.
Carmody’s writing is emotive, sombre and dark and may even be a little depressing to some as the reader watches a town and its people struggle to live each day.
The Windy Season is an amazing debut novel and I’m looking forward to reading more from Sam Carmody.
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