Friday Brown

Sep 17, 2012 Noelle rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed

4.5 stars
What makes a person who they are? Is it some magical combination of experiences, memories and family? What happens when those things are stripped away, are proven false or leave you behind? Who are you then? And do you actually have any say in the matter?

Friday Brown has spent her entire life traveling from town to town with her mother Vivienne. Never in one spot long enough to know anyone. Never needing anyone else but her mother to know her. But then Vivienne dies. Left alone with a g...more 4.5 stars
What makes a person who they are? Is it some magical combination of experiences, memories and family? What happens when those things are stripped away, are proven false or leave you behind? Who are you then? And do you actually have any say in the matter?

Friday Brown has spent her entire life traveling from town to town with her mother Vivienne. Never in one spot long enough to know anyone. Never needing anyone else but her mother to know her. But then Vivienne dies. Left alone with a grandfather that's a stranger, Friday is lost. Vivienne not only physically created Friday, she mentally shaped her as well. Vivienne's stories built her up but now the truth is breaking down. Friday doesn't know who she is without Vivienne... but it's time to find out.

Reverting to her nomadic instincts, Friday runs away to the streets and finds herself a part of a new kind of family--broken people fitting their jagged edges together trying to become whole. But is Friday finding herself or merely letting the next charismatic mother figure mold her into someone else? Sometimes it's just easier to allow yourself to be swept away with the current than exhaust yourself struggling to swim against it. And no one knows they are caught in a riptide until it's too late.

Friday Brown has a more subdued style than All I Ever Wanted but the story is just as intense. Wakefield's prose is as beautiful as ever with an exquisite tension thrumming throughout. When the setting switches to an abandoned, isolated town in the Outback, the stress fractures formed by the effort of keeping the family together begin to strain, crumbling apart to chilling results. Friday's journey and portrayal are painfully honest and once again, Wakefield's characters are so vividly drawn their strength reverberates off the page. From devotion to desperation to horror, every emotion rings true.

If I had to describe Vikki Wakefield's novels using one word it would be "fearless". If I could choose two words they'd be "required reading".

I recieved a copy from the publishers for review.
This review originally appeared on Young Adult Anonymous. **GIVEAWAY on the blog!**(less)

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Oct 18, 2012 Reynje rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: australian, books-that-linger, contemp-or-realistic, cover-loving, emotional-napalm, favourites, heartbreak-warning, held-me-captive, read-2012, young-adult, ya-lit, writing-envy

”On the night of my eleventh birthday, Vivienne told me that I was cursed. It was her gift, she said. When she was gone the Brown women’s curse would pass to me and, if I ever knew which way death would come, I could run hard in the other direction.”

Seventeen-year-old Friday Brown is a runner. Her whole life has revolved around escape: moving from town to town with her Mother, never staying too long in one place, abandoning the past and trying to outpace a cursed future. After befriending a str...more

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Dec 14, 2012 Maree rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Maree by: Mandee

Shelves: aussie, ya-contemp, favourites-2012, 2012-read, need-to-reread, favourites-all-time

This book is incredible. Writing this about two months after finishing Friday Brown, these are the only words I seem to be able to form. However, I am going to do my best to write some sort of review because I want the whole world to know that I love this book. In fact, it may even be one of my favourite books of all time. Yes. That was a big statement. Vikki Wakefield has eclipsed all my other favourite authors, the way George Harrison stole my heart with Something, While My Guitar Gently Weeps...more

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May 16, 2013 Cecile rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: aussie-pash, beautiful-writing, cover-love, favorite-stand-alones, made-me-cry

First impression after reading: Short review to come. I just need time to, um, stop crying.

Real review:

There are no words.

Not nearly enough ones, or right ones, anyway.

Mostly because this book left me feeling…empty. Worn out. Sobbing.

Wishing I could say what exactly makes these Aussie YA books so breathtaking.

Failing miserably to do them justice, because I’m just too overwhelmed to make any kind of sense.

Friday Brown was a difficult book to read. It didn’t shy away from harsh realities, and...more

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Oct 09, 2012 jo mo rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: aussie-nz-author, own, 2012, adoptee-or-orphan, dramarama, outsider-underdog-pariah, family, young-adult, 5-stars, mystery, tearjerker, tough-heroine, tugging-at-your-heartstrings, 2012-faves, favourites, cover-swoon, all-time-faves, text-publishing

4.75/5

so much sadness.
tears and snot dripping.
what have you done to me?

(view spoiler)...more

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Dec 06, 2012 Nomes rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, aussie-ya, books-that-linger, crushing-on-the-writing, faves-of-2012, i-own, tissue-box-books, you-broke-my-heart, you-make-me-smile, kindle

Friday Brown is such a gorgeous and heartbreaking reading experience. Vicki Wakefield writes in this sublime way ~ her stories have this almost fairytale, other-worldly quality while at the same time feeling so emotionally real and resonant that it aches like the truth. This story is vivid: sorrowful yet full of love, surreal yet devastatingly believable.

There's this gorgeous blend of adventure and tension. While friendships are being forged and the plot sails ahead into the unknown, there's an...more Friday Brown is such a gorgeous and heartbreaking reading experience. Vicki Wakefield writes in this sublime way ~ her stories have this almost fairytale, other-worldly quality while at the same time feeling so emotionally real and resonant that it aches like the truth. This story is vivid: sorrowful yet full of love, surreal yet devastatingly believable.

There's this gorgeous blend of adventure and tension. While friendships are being forged and the plot sails ahead into the unknown, there's an undercurrent of danger - just enough to create a pool of dread right in the pit of my stomach. Guys, it was only a solid month after finishing this read that I was able to come to terms with it all and conclude that, simply, this sophomore novel is amazing.

Wakefield possess the magic combo: prose to die for, sneaky, smiley humour, characters that come to life and work their way into your heart, and a power-packed climax that leaves you breathless a la Jellicoe Road. In some ways, this book reminds me a smidgen of Jellicoe Road - in the way that sometimes it seems like too much ~ the character's backgrounds, heartache and sorrow upon sorrow mingled with the perfect carving of relationships but like Jellicoe, Friday Brown pulls everything off and more. These characters and this story is brilliant and lingering and will hold fast.

I especially loved all of Fridays' stories passed down from her mum. Ethereal and beautiful and clever and special, all truth mingled with fantasy and hope mingled with regret. Just gorgeous.

I cannot not mention what I truly love about Vicki Wakefield's work: her characters are such brilliant teenagers. She never belittles them, instead gives so much life and energy, it rings with the truth. I think the ultimate YA authors are the ones who believe in just how awesome teenagers are, showcasing their resilience and life and ability to have fun and live in a world not dulled by adult sensibilities.

Vicki Wakefield is an extraordinary talent who would shine in whichever genre she would choose to write in. I am cheering for Aussie teens who can experience books such as this: utterly compelling and life-changing stuff.

If you're into Aussie YA, Vicki Wakefield should be at the top of your list to check out. Two books out and she is right up there with the cool kids at the top.

I truly loved this book (even as it ripped me to shreds and patched me up again) and I am thrilled to recommend it to you all and cannot wait to see what you think :)
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Aug 30, 2012 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: aussie-ya, awesome-title, books-i-own, books-that-linger, broke-my-heart, characters-i-love, lost-sleep-over-this, lovely-covers, need-to-reread, prose-envy, read-in-2012

4.5 stars

WOAH. I need a moment.

___________

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Feb 03, 2013 Keertana rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: aussie, beautiful-prose, books-that-linger, teary-eyed-reads

Rating: 4.25/4.5 Stars

I always find it extraordinarily difficult to read books that receive a great amount of hype. For one, they not only raise my expectations, but when they come about for books whose authors I've never read before, I am placed in a situation where I expect to read a 5 Star novel and compare it to other 5 Star novels, which is simply not fair for the book itself and changes my experience in irrevocable ways. With Friday Brown, I went through a similar situation. Friday Brown u...more

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Sep 03, 2012 Trinity rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: aussie-ya-challenge, contempo-casual, covers-i-love, 2012, young-adult, home-grown-aussie, favourite, hearts-a-mess, intense, lets-hear-it-for-the-boys, poetic-prose, swim-fan, what-the-what, woman-of-awesome, read-in-2012

Characters that matter
Prose that makes me weep
A story that puts my heart in my throat
Loved.

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Aug 30, 2012 Trisha rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: australian-ya, ozya2012, ya-literature, grief-loss, road-trip

Friday Brown, the book, is hard to read. This author doesn't muck around. There's no toffee apples or candy cane at this show.

And Friday Brown, the girl, is hard to pin down. She's drowning in grief and steeped in curses and looking for her place in the world. Looking in a lot of wrong places, I might add.

Both the city and the country landscapes are luminous and real. A sense of place, crucial to all the characters, ensures the narrative is grounded and real.

A book and a girl worthy of revisitin...more

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Apr 24, 2013 Annette rated it 5 of 5 stars

Friday Brown by Vikki Wakefield is a great read that works on continual surprises. Friday is a young girl with different experiences and a different type of mother to the " norm". Her mother has loved and cherished her through her childhood and early teenage years as she journeys for town to town with just her wits. At first, I was quite judgmental of the mother's actions, but came to realize that mothers all love, but do it differently.

Friday experiences the death of her mother and is left wit...more

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Apr 08, 2013 Kishel Ramirez rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2013-read-roll

You're lost.
The only person who can tell you that you are is no other than yourself, same goes that the only one who can tell you that you've been found is you alone.

This is what I've realized in this novel.
Friday Brown has been running away for as long as she can remember. Her existence is built from the stories of her mother who just died. She was told by her mom that she was cursed and that she'll die on a saturday by drowning. But when her mom died, Friday decided to make a life of her ow...more

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Nov 21, 2012 Jillwilson rated it 3 of 5 stars

In trawling the net for reviews of Friday Brown, I stumbled across this gem about ‘Brown Friday’. Not many Australians will be aware that the Friday after Thanksgiving is the busiest day of the year for plumbers. My mind immediately went to the toilet but there are other factors at work too – to discover more, go to The Huffington Post. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11...)

Now down to the novel. I was lent this by a friend who said “This woman can write – but what is it about this book that...more In trawling the net for reviews of Friday Brown, I stumbled across this gem about ‘Brown Friday’. Not many Australians will be aware that the Friday after Thanksgiving is the busiest day of the year for plumbers. My mind immediately went to the toilet but there are other factors at work too – to discover more, go to The Huffington Post. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11...)

Now down to the novel. I was lent this by a friend who said “This woman can write – but what is it about this book that makes it a YA (young adult) novel rather than one for OA (older adults? Why are we calling teenagers young adults anyway?)? It‘s a question I have pondered in the past. This novel is about a 17 year old girl who has run away from the remnants of family in her life. She ends up in a city squat with a dominating girl called Arden and a boy nicknamed Silence. Her name is Friday. The absence of mainstream names seems to be a defining motif in YA novels – it’s as if kids might be unable to identify with a person called Tom or Susan. In instance, some of the names have a resonance with the story but it irritated me.

In an interview, Wakefield said “The themes in Friday Brown came about through the interaction between characters and the momentum of the story. There were ideas that arose as I wrote: What is family? Does character decide destiny? And the duality of human nature—is there good and bad in all of us and is there a seminal point where we have to choose a side? I did base Friday’s character development around a single question: Is Friday the sum of her past and, if her history is based on lies, who is she? I wondered, how far could I pare back her character by taking away her mother, her past, her friend and her identity, and to what extremes would she go to find herself?” (http://www.readings.com.au/news/the-s...)

These are great questions; less fully realised in the book. In the course of the story, Friday comes to be pitted against Arden, who is powerful, violent and manipulative. We don’t quite see enough of Arden to totally understand her power over the small tribe of kids. It is a primal teenager’s world. This is no ‘Lord of the Flies’ – and maybe this comparison illustrates the difference between the two books. I haven’t read Golding’s book for a long time but I remember the language well – it was complex, complicated, rich with adjectives, dense. Sometimes - over-written. It was for adults, but the power of the story made it accessible to teenagers (admittedly those who are good readers). Like Golding, Wakefield effectively evokes landscape and place; her novel is quite visual in the way she captures and describes landscape particularly. But Friday is the only fully realised three-dimensional character in the novel – and we need a few more insights into Arden and the pull she has over the tribe for the story to reach full dramatic power. Occasionally too, the writer simply said too much; one sentence too many in describing a character’s feelings or action. Have faith in strong verbs.

The difference between YA and adult writing is one that I think of most often when I read Sonia Hartnett – a great writer but one whose work is somehow not aimed at adults. I can’t pinpoint what the difference is. Then I think of a novel like Dog Boy – one written in third person (Friday Brown is in first person like a lot of YA writing) that is also about a young person. Hornung makes no concessions for her readers, she does not write down to them, while her characters may be in conflict with the adult world, the story has resonance for adults. I need to think some more about this issue.
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Sep 28, 2012 Steve lovell rated it 4 of 5 stars

My daughter, a pretty good judge both of my tastes and what is excellent in the YA field, praised this offering from an exciting, newish author, stating ‘You’ll enjoy this Dad. I cried at the end.’
The last bit of the statement I greeted with some trepidation (I am male), for, if she did, I surely would too as we share genes. ‘Friday Brown’ is Wakefield’s sophomore effort after her well regarded debut novel, ‘All I Ever Wanted’. In that I thoroughly enjoyed her feisty creation Mim, as well as all...more My daughter, a pretty good judge both of my tastes and what is excellent in the YA field, praised this offering from an exciting, newish author, stating ‘You’ll enjoy this Dad. I cried at the end.’
The last bit of the statement I greeted with some trepidation (I am male), for, if she did, I surely would too as we share genes. ‘Friday Brown’ is Wakefield’s sophomore effort after her well regarded debut novel, ‘All I Ever Wanted’. In that I thoroughly enjoyed her feisty creation Mim, as well as all the other misfits that populated that book – so I was eager to get stuck into this. Whereas her first grabbed me from the get-go, I soon realised I was not taking to this in the same manner, and was struggling to raise the enthusiasm to continue with it. I am pleased in the end I did, changing my mind because of a movie, but more of that later.
‘Friday Brown’ is essentially a three-hander if full of lesser characters. There is another Mim-like female protagonist in the equally resilient Ms Brown. We have a volatile young lady - the leader of a Faginist band of damaged reprobates - in the quite scary Arden, and then there’s possibly Wakefield’s best creation here, the mute Silence. He’s bedeviled by an unstable past, and yearns for something better down the track. I found the opening section, Friday’s escape from her deceased mother and withdrawn, if drawn at all, grandfather, a tad improbable. I struggled with her induction into the aforementioned gang of squatters, and their escapades around what I took to be Melbourne. I couldn’t get involved with the characters – care for them. I was about to toss the book away in frustration and move to the next tome in my stack, but then I went to the movies.
The film in question was ‘Your Sister’s Sister’, an indie and also a three-hander without subsidiaries at all. Two young ladies and a fellow in a cabin in the woods – and no, it wasn’t a horror flick. Two (male + female) were unbeknowingly in love with each other, the other sister having had a one night stand with said guy. Machinations and recriminations follow. I spent the first forty-five minutes or so of the movie squirming and sighing. Why wasn’t I enjoying this? Had it not received many positive reviews? I could have exited at that stage, but never one to waste money, I persevered and gradually, in its last half, the movie took hold of me and I became entranced, wishing I could follow the trajectory of these three on beyond the final credits. Perhaps the same would happen if I continued with ‘Friday Brown’
I cannot say that I became exactly entranced as the book moved to its outback phase where our hardy troupe soon found that their teamwork faltered, and then fractured, in harsh ghost town adversity. It improved enough to hold me, even if some of the ‘escaping’ I thought improbable. What I took to be a continuity problem, involving the roofs of buildings, bugged me, as minor at that may seem. To me the concluding chapters, though, were magic and yes, dear reader, I did weep. Just when I was almost to pronounce that my beautiful daughter had given me a bum steer, I was suddenly ‘into it’.
So how to rate this book? Whereas I feel ‘All I Ever Wanted’ is the superior book, I was disappointed by its conclusion. This one shone and moved me. So, despite the hard graft to the climax, ‘Friday’ does have its merits – and as half stars are not possible on Goodreads, I rounded up. I never do the opposite.
Wakefield is obviously going places in the genre, but is still a smidge off the glittering five star rating for this punter. Her emotive ending does place this book above the average and I’ll avidly continue to read her as long as she continues to produce these finely drawn originals, such as Mim and Silence.
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Sep 28, 2012 Meg rated it 5 of 5 stars

*** review also published at www.thenextreadya.wordpress.com***

Friday Brown – Vikki Wakefield
Published: August 2012
Sourced: ARC from publisher
Rating: 9/10
I thought it was about time I threw in a review of a book by an author from my own country, so this week’s featured title is of one of my favourite recent Australian YA releases by the star author of All I Ever Wanted.
When Friday’s mother dies, it brings an end to their nomadic life of drifting from town to town whenever things get too difficu...more *** review also published at www.thenextreadya.wordpress.com***

Friday Brown – Vikki Wakefield
Published: August 2012
Sourced: ARC from publisher
Rating: 9/10
I thought it was about time I threw in a review of a book by an author from my own country, so this week’s featured title is of one of my favourite recent Australian YA releases by the star author of All I Ever Wanted.
When Friday’s mother dies, it brings an end to their nomadic life of drifting from town to town whenever things get too difficult. Friday quickly discovers that the stagnant life of living with her grandfather doesn’t quite suit her, and that it is very difficult to stop running from your past when running is all you know.
Meeting Silence, the damaged boy with a loyal, loving heart and a horrific past, Friday falls in with a bunch of street kids who are just about as horrible as they are wonderful. Ruling over them all with an iron fist and a sweet smile is the charismatic and dangerous Arden. And even as Friday is drawn further into their strange world, losing her power and feeling desperately out of place as she falls victim to Arden’s machinations, she manages to find something worth staying for. Something worth fighting for, for the first time in her life.
This is one of the most beautiful and terrifying coming-of-age novels to be found in the Aussie YA market. Melina Marchetta’s On the Jellicoe Road meets John Larkin’s The Shadow Girl, and for those of you who don’t worship at the altar of Marchetta, that basically translates as, well, amazing is a criminal understatement. It is horrible and wonderful and very Australian without begin over-the-top and tacky (quite the achievement). Friday is a turbulent, complex character who makes frustrating choices and can appear both incredibly strong and annoyingly weak, which all just manages to make her growth that much more organic.
While the beginning of the novel didn’t capture my interest overmuch (really, homeless teenagers – hasn’t this been done before?), I was quickly drawn in by the fascinating characters and the nail-biting tension of the second half. Vikki Wakefield’s writing is masterful, powered by her talent for capturing a sense of place. Plus, there is a sinister and terrifying family curse. I love a good family curse.
Vikki Wakefield’s second novel is the sort of book that plays around in your mind for days afterwards. It affects your thinking and leaves you feeling unsettled in the way that only the best books can. It is marvellous and complex and utterly, devastatingly beautiful. Friday Brown is a unique addition to the world of Australian YA literature, and one that is bound to become a classic.
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Aug 27, 2012 Rebecca Berto rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Rebecca by: ARC

I was dragged along to Hanging Rock as a kid. Hands flailing, screaming to my parents they'd have to drag me all the way up the mountain. It's famous for the four school girls that went missing in 1900 on a school excursion, but I wasn't going to let that old tale break me.

Once you stand at the top of that rock, you get why people have kept coming back for 112 years. The mystery of the girls disappearing even through extensive searches for years -- it's just the lure. Once you're find your spot...more I was dragged along to Hanging Rock as a kid. Hands flailing, screaming to my parents they'd have to drag me all the way up the mountain. It's famous for the four school girls that went missing in 1900 on a school excursion, but I wasn't going to let that old tale break me.

Once you stand at the top of that rock, you get why people have kept coming back for 112 years. The mystery of the girls disappearing even through extensive searches for years -- it's just the lure. Once you're find your spot in the opening where the land opens up you feel this small. The hills climb over each other to the point they're blue hues, grassy plains are a sea of green, and the huts, picnic tables and cars are specks in the hold that Hanging Rock has over everything around it.

This is Friday Brown in my eyes. It's a story of street kids, who are more than bare-footed, kids without a home, told within the scenery of Australia from the slums to the shocking outback where nature is in control, no matter how hard you fight it.

Vikki Wakefield is an art form. It takes talent plus time plus dedication to write a story like this, that shatters your heart, and sits you at the front seat of a horror movie you can't tear away from. But she's also a rare type of author who has the ability to trap everything that means despair, and lost, and searching, and growing up in a 300-odd page story.

This is the type of book that haunts you after in the best way possible. The cast of street kids that we get to know through this story are different in so many ways, yet they come together as a family because what ties them together is a sense of belonging, and every person needs that whether you have dreams to marry a nice partner and have two children, or you plan to become CEO of a corporation.

I never said it was good or right -- but people form groups out of a need for comfort and safety in all sorts of twisted ways. Cue Arden, who's the head honcho.

Vikki Wakefield tackles the hard subjects in Friday Brown -- stuff like homelessness, abuse and its power, family, fear and loss. In typical Vikki Wakefield style, she manages to throw all the themes that make us human in a gripping campfire-story-like fashion, and makes you wonder how Friday Brown can be something she made up in her head.

This book is moving. Be prepared to feel and have your heart ripped out because this is no light read. It gets you thinking and staying up all night pondering questions you'd never thought of before.

And it's impossible to hate a story that so mirrors how an artist captures a moment/thought/idea on canvas through their eyes. Friday Brown will blow your mind. As an adult, I respect this book so much. It makes me appreciate what I have, and how, simply by luck, I'm not one of those people who've slipped through "society". The characters in this book are the type you realised you already knew only a few pages in.

Recommended -- 5 stars!(less)

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Oct 29, 2012 Sue rated it 5 of 5 stars

Friday Brown believes she is cursed. All the women who have died in her family have done so around or in water. Even her own mother died of pneumonia - her lungs drowned. At seventeen, she is cast out by her grandfather because she reminds him too much of his lost daughter. Friday is on her own on the streets.

She befriends a boy named Silence. He's strange...with a troubled past he doesn't
talk about. Silence lives with a group of squatters headed up by the charismatic, but cruel, Arden. They sur...more

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Sue Friday Brown believes she is cursed. All the women who have died in her family have done so around or in water. Even her own mother died of pneumonia...more
Oct 29, 2012 09:55pm

Jan 13, 2013 Sam rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-favourites, other, realistic-or-contemporary, other-favourites, ultimate-favourites

4.5 stars

Heart-warming, beautifully written and wonderfully Australian. These are characters I will not be forgetting any time soon (view spoiler). A very special story, indeed.

(view spoiler)

(Thank you to the lovely Jasprit for sharing!)

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Sep 09, 2012 Pam Saunders rated it 5 of 5 stars

"On the night of my eleventh birthday, Vivienne told me that I was cursed. It was her gift."

All the Brown women die on a Saturday and somehow their deaths are linked to water. Friday Brown is determined this is not going to happen to her but after her mother's death of cancer (there is a twist) she doesn't stay with her grandfather but runs away. She befriends Silence, the member of a street gang. A small group of children and teens lead by the charismatic but unpredictable Arden. The book then...more

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Apr 07, 2013 Jacinta Butterworth rated it 4 of 5 stars

I loved Vikki Wakefield’s debut novel All I Ever Wanted (which I read in one night) and have been looking forward to her second book ever since. Friday Brown didn’t let me down.

Vikki Wakefield’s descriptions are incredibly evocative — you can tell she cares about every word. Her metaphors and similes are especially vivid — so much so that I was jealous reading them. (There are many ‘I wish I could write like that’ moments in this book!) I really appreciated Vikki Wakefield’s powerful portrayal o...more

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Jan 15, 2013 Marg rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya-reads

This is a tough book, as it is gritty and confronting but well worth the read. Expertly crafted, it tells the story of 17 year old Friday Brown who is doing it tough after the death of her mother. With the burden of the family curse on her shoulders 'they call me Friday, It has been foretold that on a Saturday I will drown.....", she lives rough and befriends Silence, a troubled boy, and the rest of his "family" as they survive on the city streets. However, the story moves to Murungal Creek, a g...more

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Nov 14, 2012 Jonas rated it 3 of 5 stars

Vikki Wakefield's prose is once again sharp and gritty yet strangely beautiful with 'Friday Brown'. If you loved "All I Ever Wanted", you'll find "Friday Brown" to be in a similar vein. If you enjoyed it, go find On the Jellicoe Road - it's not perfectly the same, but they work hand-in-hand for readers looking for teenagers who are honest and a little escapist without too much angst or blood-sucking vampire romance.

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Apr 25, 2013 Rhondda rated it 3 of 5 stars

This story has many fascinating characters and very tangled relationships. Having lost her mother, seventeen-year-old Friday goes on the run and falls in with a band of street children who are led by an unpredictable but charismatic young woman called Arden. She running to escape her memories but throughout the book, Friday remains haunted by the ghost of her recently dead mother, and also the family curse; a history of drowning. Things don’t go well and Friday is lost, alone and afraid.
CBCA 201...more

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May 20, 2013 inga rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: those who enjoyed On The Jellicoe Road or Imaginary Girls

Shelves: arc, ya-realistic-contemporary, grief-loss, love-the-cover, 2013, beautiful-writing, favorites-2013, love-the-title, reviewed, reviewed-2013, reviewed-arc

From the very first sentence, Friday Never Leaving is an absolutely spellbinding, beautifully written book. It is absolutely stunning, and Vikki Wakefield's writing style is among the most gorgeous I've ever read, as it has an enticing, almost magical quality to it.

FNL is very much a character-driven novel and if you are looking for a fast-paced book, Friday Never Leaving is not it. Naturally, the focus is on the book's characters, and though they might be far from perfect, they are certainly un...more From the very first sentence, Friday Never Leaving is an absolutely spellbinding, beautifully written book. It is absolutely stunning, and Vikki Wakefield's writing style is among the most gorgeous I've ever read, as it has an enticing, almost magical quality to it.

FNL is very much a character-driven novel and if you are looking for a fast-paced book, Friday Never Leaving is not it. Naturally, the focus is on the book's characters, and though they might be far from perfect, they are certainly unique, distinct and they draw you in.

Friday, the main character, is alone, lost and feels deserted since she lost her mother some time ago. She's looking for something worth living for, and battling through her grief. Friday is wise beyond her years, and a survivor, yet her whole life she's always been moving, and her mother was the only constant in her life. By losing that constant and the only shred of permanence it brought, Friday is thrown off-track and feels disconnected from others, the world, the estranged grandfather she never knew and knows nothing about but is now forced to live with.

Over the course of the novel, however, Friday is forced to question everything she always considered to be true. Friday not only overcomes the feelings of isolation and confusion, and her grief over the loss of her mother, but she grows into a brave, compassionate woman.
Friday's reminiscing about her life and relationship with her mother were easily my favorite parts of the novel. Her musings about life and living in general are simple and true, yet almost poetic and philosophic at times.

The other characters, a group of forgotten, dysfunctional kids that are disconnected from reality and live in their own universe, are engaging as well, but the character of Silence and his connection with Friday deserve a special mention.
Silence's story is doubtlessly the most tragic one, and watching his and Friday's relationship unfurl, the way Silence reaches for and sticks to Friday, and the way Friday helps Silence, is exquisite, yet heartbreaking.

With Friday Never Leaving, Vikki Wakefield created a wonderful story of nostalgia, mystery, despair, sadness and hope. However, the novel also deals with family and losing the only one you ever had. About wanting and longing for stability, about the disillusionment of life.

The author captured the process of overcoming the loss of a beloved person and healing from that pain skilfully, the bitter-sweet memories, and the yearning for bygone, halcyon days. The way everything reminds you of them; how you see parts of them in others; how you subconsciously look for them; that raw pain that slices through you at the thought of them; how you feel you're unable to cope, and don't think you can ever move on from that pain, that aching in your chest. To a person who recently lost a beloved person, Friday's emotions certainly ring true.

A lot of the time, I'm dissatisfied with the way books end, but Friday Never Leaving ended how it started: wonderful.
I commend Vikki Wakefield for the real and lovely way she can convey raw emotions through the pages of her book, and for creating such flawed, fascinating characters.

Much thanks to Simon&Schuster for providing me with galley of Friday Never Leaving through Edelweiss!(less)

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Nov 23, 2012 Bree T rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: australian, aww2012, issues, young-adult

Liliane aka ‘Friday’ Brown has had an unusual life. Brought up by her mother, they moved from town to town – often in a hurry, owing money, leaving a mess behind. For Friday, life was an old Holden, a few belongings and the next town in the distance and the story of the Brown curse, the fact that each woman died at the hands of water, all on a Saturday. When her mother gets ill, she takes Friday back to the large house her father lives in, the one she ran from many years ago as a teenager. Here,...more Liliane aka ‘Friday’ Brown has had an unusual life. Brought up by her mother, they moved from town to town – often in a hurry, owing money, leaving a mess behind. For Friday, life was an old Holden, a few belongings and the next town in the distance and the story of the Brown curse, the fact that each woman died at the hands of water, all on a Saturday. When her mother gets ill, she takes Friday back to the large house her father lives in, the one she ran from many years ago as a teenager. Here, Friday can have what she could never give her in their life on the road.

But after the loss of her mother, Friday cannot stay in the big house. She originally sets out to find her real father, a man she has never met. All she has is a picture and the possibility of a place he might work. On her first day in the city, she is befriended by Silence, a strange teenage boy who doesn’t speak. He communicates in a series of gestures and mouthings and he takes Friday back to the squat he lives in with a misfit band of other teenage runaways. They are all watched over by the charismatic and slightly sinister Arden, someone that Friday feels like running from and to all at once.

Arden has a dream that involves an abandoned town and them. In Marungal Creek, Friday comes into her own. Her nomadic life with her mother has prepared her for this way of living when no one else has a clue. In Marungal Creek, Friday realises that there isn’t much Arden won’t do in order to keep the family circle nice and close. Friday knows that she should get the hell out of there, in fact she should never have gone along in the first place. And when she leaves, she should take Silence with her. Friday has had enough of games and stories, she spent her whole childhood listening to stories and thinking they were real. She’s learning that you make your own way in life and your own decisions. And it’s time she made hers instead of just rolling along for the ride.

I can thank the fabulous pair of Danielle from Alpha Reader and Mandee from VeganYANerds for the fact that I bought and read this book. Both of them gave it glowing reviews and I share similar tastes to both of them and when they talk something up I usually check it out. This novel is also blurbed by Melina Marchetta, another reason to buy it. It was part of my buying binge at the Melbourne Writers Festival but I finally got it it just the weekend gone and fell into this world.

Friday had one constant in her life and that was her mother. Everything else, towns, other people, etc came and went but always she had Vivienne. When Vivienne dies of a terminal illness, Friday finds herself restless and uneasy in her grandfather’s big house. He is a man she doesn’t know, had never seen before her mother brought her back here and she chooses to go back to the life she knew, one of moving around and searching for something. And this time, she is searching for her father. All she has is an old photograph and a name but it’s the plan for now. The plans are derailed slightly when she meets Silence, a street kid who takes Friday to where he stays right away. For $200 a week, Friday is ‘in’ their little group. She’ll have shelter and evening meals. She’ll have company and apparently the most important of all, she’ll have people to watch her back. And that’s something you need for a life on the street.

This book is stunningly, beautifully written. The bond that springs up between Friday and Silence, the fragile dynamic of the squat and the totalitarian rule of the dreadlocked Arden, who tolerates no dissent and keeps everyone in line with a mixture of inducing fear and inciting loyalty, are all alive on the pages. Arden holds the money and has the ideas. Essentially, the group are still just kids, despite the fact that they’ve been forced to grow up faster than the average teenager. All they want is someone to tell them what to do and to look after them, make them feel safe, like they’ve got somewhere to belong and Arden is able to do that. Friday alternates between being spellbound by her and fearing her. Arden has a way of isolating people so that when she pulls them back in, they feel utterly grateful that someone has accepted them.

Friday’s story is so powerful, the way in which she makes the choice not to take the easy life with her grandfather but to probably do something her mother would have done and go find out the answers to her questions. She gets sucked in to the world of these street kids, despite the fact that she doesn’t belong there, she knows it and they know it. And perhaps because of that, it is she who has the strength and the courage to stand up to Arden out in Marungal Creek.

Friday Brown is one of those books that has characters that stay with you: the sad story of Silence, the strength of Friday, even the strange charisma of Arden. Am I the only one out there who wanted more of the enigmatic Wish? I know that I definitely want more from this author, the way in which she unfolds a story is amazing. I know she has one other novel, her first, called All I Ever Wanted and it’s gone straight to the top of my wishlist. Definitely an author to watch!(less)

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Aug 21, 2012 ALPHAreader rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

Liliane ‘Friday’ Brown is a wanderer. She and her mother, Vivienne, spent Friday’s formidable years bouncing from one outback town to the next, chasing drover men and trying to escape a watery Saturday curse … Friday has been hearing the tales of her drowned women ancestors since she was a child. Brown women always die by drowning, and always on a Saturday. Saturday is the reason Vivienne nicknamed her daughter Friday, it’s why she kept them wandering around the desert outback, and in the end it...more

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Aug 13, 2012 Paula Weston rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult, my-favourites

This is a beautiful, heartbreaking and ultimately life-affirming novel. It made me cry. And when I finished, I just sat and hugged it for a while because I didn't want to let it go.

I loved All I Ever Wanted, and with Friday Brown, Vikki Wakefield has created another collection of complex, fascinating characters in settings that are both familiar and unsettling.

Friday is a devastatingly real narrator. Her fear, loneliness and courage are palpable on the page. She's written in a way that's so pain...more

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Aug 21, 2012 Mandee rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: aussie, ya-lit, text-publishing, for-review, contemporary-fiction, aussieya2012, aww2012, cover-love, i-have-a-copy, august2012release, review-on-the-blog

Friday Brown is the second novel by Australian author Vikki Wakefield. Set in an unnamed city as well as a ghost town called Murungal Creek, the story revolves around Friday Brown and her journey to find her father and herself.

I’d been eagerly awaiting this novel, especially as I loved Vikki’s debut, All I Ever Wanted, and Friday Brown not disappoint. Friday’s lived her life on the road, with her mother, travelling from town to town for as long as she can remember. So when her mother dies, leavi...more Friday Brown is the second novel by Australian author Vikki Wakefield. Set in an unnamed city as well as a ghost town called Murungal Creek, the story revolves around Friday Brown and her journey to find her father and herself.

I’d been eagerly awaiting this novel, especially as I loved Vikki’s debut, All I Ever Wanted, and Friday Brown not disappoint. Friday’s lived her life on the road, with her mother, travelling from town to town for as long as she can remember. So when her mother dies, leaving Friday with a grandfather she doesn’t know, she packs her belongings and runs away to the city in the hopes of finding the father she’s never met. Friday has spent her whole life with her mum, never stopping long enough to make friends, never knowing any other family members. With her mother dead, Friday is understandably lonely and this time she must start over on her own. She’s intelligent, brave, kind and unsure of herself. From the moment she ran away I wanted to protect her and this feeling increased once she reached the city. I also appreciated the change in her confidence once she leaves the city and ends up in the outback, seeing her come into her own and fight her fears was a very moving scene.

I found Silence and the family of street kids to be just as realistic as Friday, each with their own defined personalities and reasons for living together. If anyone needed protecting more than Friday it was Silence, he was such a captivating character and I loved the friendship that blossomed between them. After meeting Arden I was left unsettled and this feeling stayed with me over the course of the story. Part of me couldn’t understand Friday’s need to please her but the fact that she’d just lost her mother and was looking for a role model or someone to impress made complete sense. Arden’s character also raises the issue of whether or not children end up like their parents, even if they’re trying to be different to them.

The setting felt so genuine and Australian to me. At first I was picturing Sydney as the backdrop but as soon as trams were mentioned I switched to imagining Melbourne but really this could have been any major city with business people rushing around and street kids trying to find a way to earn a living. The very first scene involving a camp fire and Friday’s mother, Vivienne, telling the story of the Brown family curse set an eerie tone for the rest of the story as well as painting a vivid image of Friday’s former life with her mother. The curse also added to the unsettled feeling that also caused me to feel anxious as I followed Friday on her journey.

All of the tension building culminated in a scene that I should have seen coming, yet I didn’t. I was left horrified, heartbroken and feeling ill; Vikki’s writing affected me so strongly and I know this story will stay with me for a long time. And even though I was crying as I finished reading I was also left hopeful which is the best possible outcome after reading such a touching story.

I would definitely use Friday Brown up as an example of serious and well-written YA to people who assume YA novels are just chapter books for children and I would feel comfortable recommending this to adults who want to try out some YA but who don’t want to read anything that feels too young.

Friday Brown is a gorgeously written, chilling and compelling tale of a girl trying to find out who she is, where she belongs and the friends and family she makes along the way. I would recommend this to all fans of contemporary YA and Australian novels.

Thank you to the terrific people at Text Publishing for my review copy.(less)

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Sep 17, 2012 Kerri Jones rated it 3 of 5 stars

It took me a while to get into this book and it is definitely a young adult offering. By the time I had finished though I could really see the sense of the book and enjoyed the poetry of the language. It deals with Friday Brown whose mother dies and she becomes a "street kid" taken in by a group led by the charismatic Arden. In some ways it is about anarchy (think Lord of the Flies) and how power looks when it's out of control and what happens to relationships along the way. A good read.

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Jan 15, 2013 Miffy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: adults, australian, family, realism, relationships, ya

Friday, christened Lilianne, lives on the road with her mother, Vivienne. Vivienne is a will-o-the-wisp, breezing into and out of small towns leaving debt and broken hearts in her wake. She doesn't do it to be cruel, it is more that she cannot bear to care, and when you begin to care then it's time to leave. Friday believes every word her mother says: every story, every journey, every reason given for every event. When Vivienne becomes too ill to keep travelling, and they return to the house of...more

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Teen Bloggers: Friday Brown	4	16	May 18, 2013 02:17am
What happened in the end?	2	15	Nov 10, 2012 07:39pm

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