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Tantony

3.67 of 5 stars 3.67 · rating details · 15 ratings · 5 reviews

Fermion Quirk's twin brother, Boson, is dead. These last few months he'd spent most of his time with the birds; he said they were angels and brought him his visions. Most of Carrick says the boy was a monster, but a few say he was a saint-in-the-making. The townspeople all look at Fermion now, and wait and wonder if she will go mad like her brother. Pa will talk about anyt...more

Paperback, 221 pages

Published May 1st 2011 by Black Dog Books

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2011 Aussie YA releases

30th out of 56 books — 175 voters

Ishmael and the Hoops of Steel by Michael Gerard Bauer

CBCA Notables 2012 - Older Readers

3rd out of 22 books — 1 voter

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May 15, 2011 Shirley Marr rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: aussie-ya

Boson Quirk is dead, face down in a bog of stars... I read the first line of this blurb months back and I knew that this was a book I had to read immediately, so as soon as it rocked up on my doorstep I wasted no time in getting stuck in. When you read an entire novel with your heart in your mouth and you get up to page 22 and your eyes are misting over, you can be sure that this is no ordinary story.

Approaching a book by Ananda Braxton-Smith is akin to suddenly find yourself as a small child ag...more Boson Quirk is dead, face down in a bog of stars... I read the first line of this blurb months back and I knew that this was a book I had to read immediately, so as soon as it rocked up on my doorstep I wasted no time in getting stuck in. When you read an entire novel with your heart in your mouth and you get up to page 22 and your eyes are misting over, you can be sure that this is no ordinary story.

Approaching a book by Ananda Braxton-Smith is akin to suddenly find yourself as a small child again and approaching an adult with a book in hand. There are writers and then there are storytellers and Braxton-Smith is the latter in spades. Her writing doesn’t just convey a hypnotic and otherworldly voice unlike any other, it is a language in itself. You know this is not some fantasy/sci-fi/dystopian novel that uses token words to convey a certain token world – this is total immersion. I just want to hold a cup of cocoa, curl up in my doona and have Ananda read on and on.

I could almost drown in what is sometimes just sheer poetic beauty: “She was tipping his head back by the chin to look at him eye-straight. He was smiling like her face was a blossoming meadow and he had all day to spend in it.” I could spend all day picking out the passages that I think are beyond gorgeous.

Tantony is a novel about duality – the main characters are twins Fermion and Boson, one sane and one crazy. It is about the main island where the ‘normal’ people live and another island that appears eerily on the horizon only to disappear again, an island full of ‘monsters’. It is about what is considered right and wrong, what is Goldly and what is monstrous, all painted in Braxton-Smiths strokes of black and white. One moment there is beauty (“He said all purgatories are private places, and you can’t visit folk there.”), the next there is unbridled grimness (“My heart was full of little murders. Just the right size for these two.”), where both fight and struggle with each other to become one . At the heart of it is a story about the duality in each human, fighting mental illness and a life-affirming message that is it not a sin to be different.

I love it. I love how you can go to the middle of the book and find that it is actually two stories in one. I love how characters from Merrow make a cameo appearances. I love the fact that I might see Fermion again. I love how a book this real and organic can be published in this current sterile and plastic publishing environment.

This is an incredible book, rich and dense like mud cake and at times not easy to read, but one to be slowly savoured. This is my voice of the year. It might be an early (and big) call, but this is my Book of The Year. I don’t think I’ll find another one as beautiful, scary, challenging, confronting or as unique. It makes me feel alive. My heart still beats thinking about it. This is a good thing.

PS - Don’t you think the cover is beautiful? You also have to check out the inside artwork – full of birds and bees. Also, despite only making a wisp of a reappearance, I am in love with Scully Slevin.

This review orginally appeared here on my blog Life on Marrs
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Jan 10, 2012 Jami Zehr rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: @JohnMichael

Recommended to Jami by: Stephanie

Shelves: young-adult

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Nov 23, 2011 Larissa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Fermion and Bolson were twins, but despite there sameness they were very different. Though they shared the same face and the same heart, it was Fermion who was older, always in a rush, never believing what she couldn't see and always working for others. Bolson on the other hand always took his time with things, he saw whole worlds were others saw only a drop of water; he believed the birds spoke to him and he worked only towards fulfilling their wishes.

But when Fermion found her brother, the lif...more

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Jun 16, 2011 Samantha-Ellen Bound rated it 4 of 5 stars

What an entirely strange, weird and wonderful book Tantony is. It is hard to describe and explain; it is something you can only appreciate through experience. I really don’t think there is anything like this in the Aussie YA market, and I absolutely love Black Dog Books for publishing something that is really quite a literary oddity – in an amazing way.

Tantony isn’t perfect but its flaws are easy to love, and there is the same mix of gorgeous, unconventional language, quirky endearing characters...more

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Oct 24, 2011 Stephanie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult

Reminiscent of Coetzee’s The Life and Times of Michael K, Tantony is an achingly sincere and hauntingly melancholy exploration of mental illness (or otherness) in the claustrophobic and judgemental environment created by superstition and fear. The setting is utterly believable, the characters true, and the prose is exquisite. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Read the rest of this review here.

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Apr 25, 2013 Simie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Mar 29, 2013 Nafiza marked it as to-read-fantasy

Mar 28, 2013 Priss marked it as to-read

Mar 26, 2013 Sue rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: library, australian-women-writers-challenge

Mar 16, 2013 Ifrah marked it as to-read

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Shelves: aussie, wishlist

Feb 15, 2013 Kelsey marked it as to-read

Jan 28, 2013 Myra (Pieces of Whimsy) marked it as to-read

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Jan 20, 2013 jo mo marked it as to-read

Shelves: aussie-nz-author, young-adult

Jan 06, 2013 Kendra marked it as to-read

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Sep 30, 2012 Lyndsey marked it as to-read-soon

Shelves: aussie-fiction

Sep 15, 2012 Priya (Sweet Picks) marked it as to-read

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Aug 23, 2012 Rebeccadanielle rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult

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About Ananda Braxton-Smith

Ananda Braxton-Smith is a journalist and children’s writer who is passionate about communicating history to young people in new and innovative ways.

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