The Australian Connection

by Paul Stewart

Genres: School

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[joffiii · Rating 1 out of 5]

(this was an assignment i wrote over a year ago, in summary this book is trash written for people who are learning english) The style is sometimes very objective and the narrator doesn’t give us a view inside the people’s minds often. We know the most about Alex through his personal diary entries which are in fact sometimes very short and often about his actions rather his feelings. I quickly lost the connection to Alex and I think that the plot sometimes seemed a little bit random and not well planned. Some parts of the plot went by very quickly and I got lost at the point when the band becomes famous because it seemed very surreal. I liked the idea of the story, it seemed very promising but now that I’ve read the whole book I’d say that the most important parts of the plot are very predictable.I feel like the author tried to create a tension and some complications with the band but everything went by so quickly. They sometimes were only informative descriptions instead of real emotions which made me feel a kind of indifference about the characters. The racism subject was unused potential in my opinion. It would have been interesting to get to know a little bit more about why the two band members became so radical. But the main character only said one sentence about in the whole book. I believe that it would have been better for the story if the author would have focused more on fewer events instead of creating such an unbelievably diverse plot. Like the killing of the cow or Alex and Tom being trapped on the island. I mean only this event would have been enough to fill a whole book itself. The ending was so fast and abrupt that I was really disappointed by it. I therefore wouldn’t recommend this book at all. My final statement is that the story has potential but the book was way to short to make an enjoyable reading experience out of it.

[teodoralazara · Rating 1 out of 5]

The biggest flaw of this book is that it’s really short and because of that the entire plot feels rushed. Also, I feel like the book is trying to tell way to many plots for its length like once it’s about a father-son relationship, then about the protagonists love interest, then about all the adventures in Australia and then about a band. The author should have settled on one of them.

[Lilly · Rating 1 out of 5]

I mean you could really feel that it was a book that you had to read for school :/
The storyline was so chaotic and i guess they didnt want a thick book but it couldve been better if they didnt jump to another situation after two sentences. I really dont know what else to say, there was nothing special about the way it was written. Overall it was probably one of the worst books i have ever read. Sorry not sorry :/

[Leni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wir haben das Buch kn der Schule gelesen und ich fand es garnicht so schlecht

[Anna-Charlotte · Rating 1 out of 5]

Awful. Extreme boring and not even a good plot or anything in it.

[livestreamsuicide · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was so bad, because it was way too short trying to fit a billion storylines into one. Either, you make a GOOD, FLESHED OUT story about daddy issues (where you can include a few Australia adventures for better plot) OR you make a love story with the band. Both don't work, especially not for 10 chapters. The daddy issues stuff could've worked so well, the dad was an asshat, if the author actually cared. But there were like 5 sentences about daddy issues, that weren't fleshed out at all, that's it.
The love story could've worked even better. Finding love in a person and her band, struggling with both, the fear of one day having to be long distance, that could've been SOOOO GOOD. But this whole book was totally rushed and random.

[Leonie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book for English learners. As such it does a good job at showing different sides of Australia and having interesting plot points for teenagers whilst being quite short.
Yes the story is very condensed, maybe even rushed - but what do you expect from a book that is 57 pages?

[Chiara · Rating 3 out of 5]

it's an easy read. just wished they focused more on the father-son plot.
you can tell this is meant to be read at schools because it's really short and sorta rushed¿ I like the transitions, though. I've never seen books do transitions this way, which might be because I don't read much, but, eh.

[Hana · Rating 1 out of 5]

🤡

[Real Alien · Rating 1 out of 5]

We had to read this back in school and it was such a terrible experience that I waited until I was 18 so I could make an Amazon account for my first action to be to write a 1-star-review.