When One of Us Hurts by Monica Vuu is a debut novel set in a remote coastal town in Northern Tasmania.
The story of the death of a baby and a teenage boy who were killed at the Port Brighton lighthouse on the same night was alternately told by two narrators, an odd teenage girl called Livvy and by an older woman, Marie, an outsider. Port Brighton locals didn't like or trust outsiders, but Marie, now an asylum inmate, had once been Livvy's step-mother.
The story began with Livvy trying to protect her stepbrother, Johnny, whose best friend Sebastian died at the lighthouse. When a reporter arrived in Port Brighton to investigate Sebastian and Baby Frankie's death, Livvy set out to ensure that the reporter left town without finding out the truth about their deaths.
The plot was complicated, made more so because I didn't realise until late in the story that Livvy and Marie's narrations were on different timelines.
There were also elements of the plot that were too far-fetched for me, such as all of the children in the town being home-schooled, supposedly because the townspeople were so close-knit and didn't like to mix with outsiders.
I also struggled with the characters and their motivations. None of the characters were likeable. The town and the people who lived there were horrible. Their secrets were nasty.
This story wasn't at all to my liking.
I purchased When One of Us Hurts at The Book Bird in Geelong.
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