Status Updates From Only Killers and Thieves (B...

So far a conventional novel about growing up on the frontier - Australia in this case - and young people confronting tragedy, violence and racism. Well written but I am waiting for something to sparkle.

Absolutely being beaten up by this book

It's impressive how much I already care only a quarter of the way in. I'm prepared for heartbreak. Feels like it's on its way

Love anything written about Australia and this book has been great. However, I cannot read the entire book because I know there will be slaughter and I cannot do that anymore. Nightmares

3

Of all the authors trying to recreate the Judge, he's doing an adequate job.

A chorus of voices echoing around the walls and spilling out of the little house. Aglow in the darkness. Alone on the plains. [pg 157]

DNF at 50%. I knew where the story was going and I couldn’t stomach it.

Paul is one fine writer that keeps his readers glued to every page. Won me over with DUST OFF THE BONES. Austrailia comes right to do your door step. Impeccable prose.

This book is heavy...

Tommy found out that Sullivan was really the one that killed his parents so Tommy killed Sullivan. Noone didn't really react much and told Tommy to go somewhere else, and if he ever came back he would kill him. Tommy found Arthur and they went and lived on the same land in different houses and made a living for themselves.

Sullivan tells the boys they technically don't own the land their parents had, but he says he'll make a deal to let them work for him and pay off their debt.

Everyone had a big dinner because while they were gone, they missed Christmas and new years.

They arrived back at Sullivan's house and Tommy took a bath. Mary had died while they were one. Tommy started having flashbacks of what happened.

The group finished what they had sought out to do. They committed a massacre on the Native tribe. At the start of the story, Billy and Tommy appeared to be the good guys, but Billy slowly turned evil, and now so did Tommy. The protagonists of the story have become the bad guys. The way the scene of the massacre was written was in a poem style, which made it seem even more inhuman and gruesome.

Once Tommy realized what they were about to do, he woke Billy up and tried to convince him to leave and go back home. Noone was secretly awake and listening, and told him he would tie them to a tree and burn them slowly if they tried to leave.

As the group continued, they came across the whole tribe of the Kurrong natives and camped right outside their village. Everyone started cleaning their guns and preparing and Tommy finally realized that they didn't care about avenging his family, they were only here to kill the Native people.

Noone told Billy and Tommy that the last native man left alive had killed their family. Both knew that this was not true, but billy agreed to kill him. Tommy refused, but after Billy missed and hit the man in the shoulder, Tommy decided to do it instead.

In the night, Locke killed the Native man that had speared him. No one seemed to care that the man was dead and everyone just acted normal.

The story is starting to deal with more heavy ideas such as racism, murder, and sexual assault. The overall feeling of the book reminds me of to kill a mockingbird, but even more heavy.

Noone got down from his horse and shot one of the Native men in the face, and two dogs. He captured the rest of the native people and took them prisoner. Tommy was horrified, but did nothing. He started to realize that his own brother was just as racist as Noone and the others, as he did not care at all when Noone had just killed a Native man for no reason.

The group continued searching for the people that killed bill and tommy's family (even though they don't even know who did it.) They found a group of foot prints and tracked down a group of natives. They planned on questioning the group. (Some of them just wanted to cause violence towards the natives because they're racist.) They circled them and drew their weapons, and one of the native threw a spear.

The group continued west and took a break at a waterhole they found.

The group continued west and took a break at a waterhole they found.

The sandstorm passed over and afterward the group found a dying kangaroo and joey. One of the men killed it right in front of tommy, which startled him and he froze for a while. That night they ate the kangaroo and the next day they continued heading west.

The group continued west with nothing in sight but a flat dry plain. They came across a house and a sandstorm came along. They stayed in the house for the duration of the sandstorm.

Tommy and billy are traveling west with sullivan to try to get revenge on whoever killed tommy and billys parents. They believe it was joseph.

It finally rained, and Billy and Tommy went to go swimming in a waterhole. Their father says he will build an irrigation system and they could grow crops.