I had moths in my chest. A thousand of them drumming with their insistent wings, thumping inside my heart. It was like the feeling of something struggling to get out, to fly free… Love is like that.
When divorce rips Ruby Moon’s family apart and tragedy traps her twin, Sally, in a cocoon from which she might never escape, Ruby learns that love is never simple.
One Long Thread is aptly named. The plot moves much like a line of stitching, looping scenes that played with time until the whole eventually tightens and straightens out. There are no sharp edges, no linear characters, only this slow looping action that curves forward until it is the start again.
Jeffrey writes beautifully. There’s no way around that. She has a smooth and languid style; her ability to play with all these different threads and bring them together is a pleasure to the reader. How is it that the life of a silkworm, fashion, divorce and religious cult all work together in Jeffrey’s pattern?
The only time I wasn’t completely immersed in Jeffrey’s world was during the love interest scenes. It wasn’t that her writing changed (aka didn’t remain absolutely beautiful) or it didn’t fit into the rhythm of the plot. It was that I couldn’t get over the initial premise (Barry was in love with Ruby’s twin sister, Sally, who was lying unconscious in a hospital bed). I had reservations that this particular thread was sufficiently seamlessly woven into the larger tapestry of the novel.
But this is a minor concern in an otherwise sublime novel! Every teenager will identify with the way Ruby feels and deals with her loneliness, isolation and awkwardness. There’s so much of that family pain that we all feel at one time or another.
I would put the novel at a 15+ age group, less because of the content and more because of the fluidity of the plot and the sophistication with which emotions are dealt with by the author.
1. Adaptations Galore: Neil Gaiman and Patrick Ness
A Rose for the Anzac Boys by Jackie French
Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden
Every year at Mount Washington High School, an anonymous list is posted detailing the prettiest and ugliest girl in every year. For each of the eight girls on the list – it can be the making, or breaking of them. In Siobhan Vivian’s The List each of the chosen girls has a story to tell and their reactions may not be what you expect.
In this book, seen by many as a step towards a more adult world than the popular Looking for Alibrandi and Saving Francesca, Melina Marchetta explores the world of Taylor Markham, who, at 17 has little memory of either parent since she was dumped by the side of the road, and has been raised to be a responsible school captain. But Taylor’s real preoccupation is with a phony war game played against local ‘townies’ and cadets. This time, the war is about to get emotionally messy, and Taylor must also come to terms with her past, told in a series of flashbacks by her guardian, Hannah.
The cover really says it all: this is a book about the all-absorbing subject of how to lose your virginity effortlessly and romantically, and by doing so, move irrevocably from the world of the socially pathetic to the cool life.
1. Hunger Games Assorted. 
Forget Me Not by Sue Lawson
