Review: Coming of Age story
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 23, 2014
Every parent's fears are realized in Evans's latest story in the Spiralling Trilogy.Teen gal pals Tabbie and Stephanie have been joined at the hip in friendship until Stephanie's family moves north. Stephanie is miserable and makes sure her friends know it. Tabbie misses her friend, and cooks up a plot to get Stephanie back down to the big city. Meanwhile, Tabbie's other friend Janet is also losing a battle with her own personal demons, and to top it off, once Stephanie does come to stay and go to school with Tabbie, nothing works out.Evans has done an excellent job getting in the heads of her teen characters—the angst, joy, naiveté; that time between dependency and young womanhood is brought to life with all the emotion and peer pressure and longings. There are some clues to the girls' problems, and Evans shows readers how easy it is to miss or choose to overlook those troubles. Tabbie was very fortunate to have good role models for parents, which I appreciated as a reader.Spiralling out of the Shadow is book two, but also stands well alone. Tabbie narrates in first person; the writing is lovely, and readers will enjoy an impromptu visit to Australia. Well done. I think early teens and their parents will find a lot to think about and talk over from this series. Part of the proceeds go towards Soul Centre, a group providing programs for girls and women who have experienced life upheavals.