Mad Arm Of The Y

by David McRobbie

The mad arm of the Y was Harry's idea.

One arm was the boring goody-goody road, the other was exciting and dead iffy.

'Which one for you, Brian?' he said.

And that's when all the trouble began.

Here is a story that will take hold of you and not let you go.

378 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

David McRobbie is a full-time writer and lives in Brisbane. David is the author of Flying with Granny, Prices, and Mandragora, which was short-listed for the 1992 Children's Book Council of the Year Award for Older Readers. David's most recent titles, Schemes, Wages of Wayne, This Book is Haunted and Timelock were published in 1993.

Reviews

[Sarah (is clearing her shelves) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have no idea what this was. I don't think McRobbie knew what he was trying to write. There were so many different ideas and themes in this book that it became so ludicrously convoluted as to almost be funny. It was also really depressing and featured an awful female main character who quite literally ruined a perfectly nice man's life and ended up causing his and another woman's deaths. The ending was very abrupt, so much so I thought the final pages might have been torn out (my edition was an ex-library copy, so it wasn't a totally unlikely scenario), and left the reader with no real conclusion. I have enjoyed a couple of McRobbie's other books (Mandragora and See How They Run), but this was so different from anything else of his I've read that it's hard to believe it's the same author. I don't even know where to shelve this. The male main character starts out as a child and then ages up to a 19-year-old and spends most of the book at that age, the female character is already 19 when we meet her, and by the end of the book she and the guy are both nearing 40, but this doesn't read like any YA I've ever read before and the characters feel too stupid and immature for an adult book. I reserve my one stars for books with truly terrible editing, writing, or problematic themes that are shown as fine or even desirable - begrudgingly I admit that this didn't have any of those issues, so I'm giving it two stars even though my enjoyment was only at a one-star level. This was the last of McRobbie's books that I owned from my teenage years, so I don't think I'll ever be in a position to read another of his books - not something I'm bothered about, in fact I wish I'd read them a decade ago as they've been taking up precious shelf space that could have gone to much better books.

[Elizabeth Newton]

A story of two people - completely separate - with absolutely nothing to do with each other, but they begin to make some mad choices and everything goes haywire. McRobbie makes these characters so likable - especially Brian Worthington, for me, and the moment things start to go bad I feel so sad and annoyed and disappointed because Brian is such a nice guy! I am not sure whether our main characters Brian and Teresa will ever meet up or whether the author is going to keep them separate - but boy do I hope that they meet up! And then... they do and for some reason, I'm so excited! This is really where the story begins - nearly half way through the book. Not that the first half is boring - on the contrary!

I really enjoyed this book and found it quite a page turner. Easy to read and I was eager to find out how it all turns out at the end. It's sad, funny, exciting, disappointing and suspenseful - all at once. McRobbie has created some great characters - ones that you love and ones that you hate. People who you end up really caring about! An interesting story and an enjoyable read.

[Briar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was simply fantastic. McRobbie brings you on a journey of madness that ends in a stunning conclusion.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in high school. I don't even really remember the plot. I just remember feeling like this story was very compelling. It probably is, particularly so for a teenager.