When Aaron gets a job at a funeral home, he surprisingly takes to it. But there are dark secrets hidden in Aaron’s subconscious.
He experiences d...
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Nov 04, 2011
Shirley
rated it: 
I got off to a bad start with Scot Gardner's writing by reading Happy As Larry first, when I should have started off by reading this novel instead! I love the cover of The Dead I Know and I love the dark premise of a teen boy undertaking an apprenticeship as a Funeral Director. We meet Aaron as he is being interviewed, accepted by his new boss John Barton and beginning his transformation with a haircut and new clothing - and I took to the quiet, tall and dark, sparsely worded boy straight away.
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Jun 24, 2011
Wildbriar
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There was the unknown, the dark, the cold and the emptiness to contend with out there, but those concepts are all relative. Cold compared to what? A dead hand? Dark compared to what? Unblinking eyes? At times the ocean seemed full beside my emptiness. At times it was the one knowable thing in my world.
That paragraph to me somehow sums up the entire book in a few short sentences, but what is great about this story is that there are many passages that do that. It's like reading a More...
May 20, 2011
Larissa
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Aaron Rowe has just started his first day at his new job as a funeral director. He is grateful for the job in more ways then one, primarily because it gets him out of going to school but the bonus is he'll get payed. There are some obvious draw backs to the position, though it is not the dead bodies as one would expect, it is the living that are left behind and their grief that has stirred something in Aaron.
It has been years since Aaron has had trouble sleeping, but now the nightmares More...
It has been years since Aaron has had trouble sleeping, but now the nightmares More...
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May 19, 2011
Readingjay
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Scot Gardner never flinches from reality, which is precisely why I like his writing so much. 'The dead I know' is extremely graphic in places and is therefore best suited to mature readers as it deals honestly with death and the essential services surrounding it.
Aaron is on a trial work placement in a funeral parlour. In the first few pages we get a sense of his troubled background: there is a slight accent on the few occasions speaks and he has never shaken hands with anyone before J More...
Aaron is on a trial work placement in a funeral parlour. In the first few pages we get a sense of his troubled background: there is a slight accent on the few occasions speaks and he has never shaken hands with anyone before J More...
Jan 23, 2012
Michele
rated it:
Wow, I really enjoyed this book, what a fabulous new voice, with a unique and surprising tale. It was hard to remind myself that this was intended as a Teen Novel. Despite the lead character being one, I never felt that I wasn't reading a serious adult novel. As someone who herself applied to work as a coronary assistant at the age of 16 and was turned away due to my age, I was fascinated with Aaron's ability to face the dead, and his feelings around them. This book was quite different to wh
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May 19, 2011
Jess - The Tales Compendium
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The Dead I Know begins with a lot of mystery surrounding our main character Aaron. He has shown up for his first day working at a funeral parlour looking worse for wear and with an antisocial attitude. We don't know a lot about him except that he's a bit of a loner, lives in a caravan park with Mam, who we assume to be his mother, and that she has some kind of mental illness. Because of Mam's apparent illness, Aaron has to play the role of the parent the majority of the time and since it is just
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Jun 27, 2011
Anthony
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Loved this. I've read a few of Scot Gardner's books across the years, and have always enjoyed them, but with 'The Dead I Know' he's really achieved - in my humble opinion - a new level of craftsmanship in his writing.
It's a gripping read, and a very confronting one. His protagonist, Aaron, is a sleepwalker with an amnesic approach to his personal history and who, having left school early, has just taken up a junior position at the local undertakers. In dealing with the dead, he's deal More...
It's a gripping read, and a very confronting one. His protagonist, Aaron, is a sleepwalker with an amnesic approach to his personal history and who, having left school early, has just taken up a junior position at the local undertakers. In dealing with the dead, he's deal More...
Aug 06, 2011
Helen
rated it: 
woah. I just read two Scot Gardner's today and I think my head may have been slightly knocked off course.
This is not a book I would normally pick up but i devoured this (and his Happy as Larry) on a reccie from a friend. This one totally blew me away. We are dumped head first in the very strange place that is Aaron's head, with very few clues and very little really for the reader to hang on to. And yet he is such a sympathetic and compelling character, whose very lack of words draws you i More...
This is not a book I would normally pick up but i devoured this (and his Happy as Larry) on a reccie from a friend. This one totally blew me away. We are dumped head first in the very strange place that is Aaron's head, with very few clues and very little really for the reader to hang on to. And yet he is such a sympathetic and compelling character, whose very lack of words draws you i More...
Jul 17, 2011
Skye
rated it:
This review is also posted on my blog, In The Good Books.
I had no idea what to think of The Dead I Know before -- or even as -- I started. All I knew is that it was a recent Aussie release, and that was good enough for me. Though, by the end, I was pleasantly surprised.
There's a lot of mystery shrouding Aaron in the beginning. He's stoic, and initially doesn't give much away through either his dialogue or first-person narration. We understand him better once we get a look More...
I had no idea what to think of The Dead I Know before -- or even as -- I started. All I knew is that it was a recent Aussie release, and that was good enough for me. Though, by the end, I was pleasantly surprised.
There's a lot of mystery shrouding Aaron in the beginning. He's stoic, and initially doesn't give much away through either his dialogue or first-person narration. We understand him better once we get a look More...
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Jun 12, 2011
Marj
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"What is life without a memory? Is it death? Sometimes memory was death - slow and painful, eating away at your insides, reeking of decay. Losing your memory would save you from that; wipe your slate clean. But the good would be swept aside with the bad. All the fine things to build a life on would be lost, leaving you just one thing - that moment. No dreams and no history. The ultimate expression of living in the now." p. 147 -148
Not since Evelyn Waugh's 'The Loved One' have More...
Not since Evelyn Waugh's 'The Loved One' have More...
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Oct 09, 2011
Tara
rated it:
My full The Dead I Know review can be found at Agrippina Legit.
I picked this book off the library shelf because of the glowing recommendation from John Marsden on its front cover. He didn't let me down.
The Dead I Know is an excellent book. It's always such a refreshing surprise to pick up a novel aimed at the young adult market and find something that combines good writing talent with a story that goes beyond the usual fluffy fare. I enjoy that as much as the next p More...
Jun 15, 2011
Nic
rated it:
Favourite Quote: There was the unknown, the dark, the cold and the emptiness to contend with out there, but those concepts are all relative. Cold compared to what? A dead hand? Dark compared to what? Unblinking eyes? At times the ocean seemed full beside my emptiness. At times it was the one knowable thing in my world.
The Dead I Know is a story that comes together like pieces of a puzzle. It is dark, mysterious and refreshingly different read.
This story is so differen More...
The Dead I Know is a story that comes together like pieces of a puzzle. It is dark, mysterious and refreshingly different read.
This story is so differen More...
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Jun 10, 2011
Kirsty
rated it:
Brilliant. This book is beautifully written, fantastically structured and utterly compelling. I couldn't put it down. Scot Gardner's writing just keeps getting better and better.
A recent spate of YA novels with intensely unpleasant teenage male protagonists had made me almost wary of picking up yet another novel about a seventeen year old male but Gardner's protagonist Aaron Rowe is a compassionate, honourable, complex and deeply endearing character.
A recent spate of YA novels with intensely unpleasant teenage male protagonists had made me almost wary of picking up yet another novel about a seventeen year old male but Gardner's protagonist Aaron Rowe is a compassionate, honourable, complex and deeply endearing character.
Nov 16, 2011
emslibbooks
rated it:
Amazing writing. Not for young students - dealing with death, funeral parlours, suicides, nightmares and sleepwalking. It is incredible how the narrator, Aaron, survives at all. The beginning lulls you into thinking this is another novel about a student who is always in trouble - but this time there is so much more to it. You won't be able to put it down - and it will pull at your heart as well as your mind.
May 23, 2011
Ann
rated it:
Fabulous so far. Unfortunately I had to put it down to go to work, but I'm hanging out for the end of the day so I can finish it. Does anyone know if boys like reading books like this. It has a 17 year old boy protagonist, but all I see is the girls reading it. I also loved Happy as Larry, but once again only girls reading it.
Next day. Finished as well ass it started. I do love Scot Gardner's novels
Next day. Finished as well ass it started. I do love Scot Gardner's novels
Feb 24, 2011
Pam
rated it:
Aaron, 17, is good at hiding his feelings and he is also hiding his Mam who mind is sliding into dementia.
But all this changes when he gets a job with a funeral director and has to deal with death and his past.
Aaron's method of coping, nightmares and sleepwalking, add there own unique problems.
A suspenseful read and wonderful storytelling.
But all this changes when he gets a job with a funeral director and has to deal with death and his past.
Aaron's method of coping, nightmares and sleepwalking, add there own unique problems.
A suspenseful read and wonderful storytelling.
Oct 05, 2011
St Clare's Library
rated it:
Absoultely brilliant book. It is a very real, confronting but totally engaging story of Aaron, a teenager with a troubled past who leaves school for a job opportunity in a funeral parlour. This unlikely experience leads him to kindness, friendship and acceptance, and forces him to confront confused memories from his past which haunt his dreams, to see if he can move beyond them or not. This is currently Ms Hollis's joint favourite library book along with 'The Absolutely True Story of a Part-
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May 22, 2011
Aaron Rowe walks in his sleep. He has dreams he can't explain, and memories he can't recover. Death doesn't scare him - his new job with a funeral director may even be his salvation. But if he doesn't discover the truth about his hidden past soon, he may fall asleep one night and never wake up.
Dec 26, 2011
Rose
rated it:
I find this book a bit over rated. I mean, no doubt i liked it, but i don't think it had a very strong story-line. I did love how everything came together though. I loved the characters not that we had a very in-depth look at them though for most of the book.
Jan 22, 2012
MissStan
rated it:
A very strange setting for a young adult book. It is not morbid at all. Death is dealt with honestly.
Sep 29, 2011
Rachel
rated it:
Like nothing Ive ever read. So exciting but in a weird way as some parts I wanted to skip but they just made the story better! Incredible.
Jun 27, 2011
Nova
rated it:
Wonderfully written story for teens +; great characters; and a positive ending. Must read more of his books!!!
Jun 06, 2011
James
rated it:
Dark, gritty and disturbing. This book really held me from start to finish. A great read.
Nov 27, 2011
Christine
rated it:
This gritty yet sensitive tale of a troubled boy apprenticed to a kindly undertaker reminded me of words attributed to Virginia Woolf: 'Someone must die so that others may appreciate life more fully'. The confronting aspects of death and flashes of gallows humour are leavened with respect and an innate decency that make 'The Dead I know' a celebration of life in the face of death. Four-and-a-half stars for readers 15+.
Feb 20, 2012
Feb 18, 2012
