Eliza Henry Jones’ P is for Pearl is a sweet piece of summer escapism. Set in a quiet beach town in Tasmania, complete with romance and hints of mystery, it’s an easy way to pass the time over the summer holidays, sitting out in the sun with a drink in hand.
The reader is dropped into the life of Gwendolyn Pearson, who is just getting comfortable in her new step family. While the arrival of two new neighbors and the scent of romance pushes things forward, much of the novel is devoted to unraveling Gwen’s past while she uncovers family secrets.
The mystery feels a little forced at points, with Gwen going about her life as usual until a passage of her diary appears on the page and reveals that all is not right in her world. The reader knows that something dark and tragic has happened, so it’s hard to be engaged in average teenage antics while they wait for more clues.
Before all of the pieces start to fall together, the characters feel very archetypal, filling the niches Henry Jones needed for the narrative. Then the dam breaks, and we finally get to see how these characters were affected by tragedy. As Gwen struggles to accept the truth about her mother, she has some real conflict with the people around her, and the story is filled with life.
The re-assemblage of a family after a loss is a complex situation, and Henry Jones provides plenty of potential with a stepmother and brother, a new half-sibling and a withdrawn dad. Tension and reconciliation are an important part of the recovery process, and it would have been nice to see this earlier in the novel.
P is for Pearl is about identity, in a subtle way. While the core focus is the mystery of Gwen’s mother, it’s also about finding herself outside of her person she shaped herself to be to please her mother. It’s a novel about grief, but also about the never-ending changes we make as people.
Melina Marchetta’s coming-of-age novel is a refreshingly mature young adult adventure that captures the feeling on the crux of growing up and watching all that was familiar with the world shift into something new. On the Jellicoe Road transports the reader to a world caught between the dreams of childhood and the horrors of reality, …
With the arrival of the new Netflix series, now is a perfect time to sink your teeth into Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. This series is unique and one of my favourites; Snicket’s narration is satirical, morbid and hilarious all at once, and although he will warn you many times that the books …
In the first book of a fantastic new middle-grade series ‘Tilly and the Boookwanderers‘ we follow Matilda ‘Tilly’ Pages, an eleven-year-old book lover who is cared for by her loving grandfather and grandmother in the five-storey London bookshop Pages & Co. Tilly has lived with her grandparents for as long as she could remember, since …
Ellie Marney’s new novel takes the grass-roots feeling of a tight-knit country town, and throws in an explosive mixture of cult ideologies, peer pressure and moral dilemmas. Set in a small town in rural Victoria, White Night tells the story of a status quo shaken by one secretive community, and a boy and a girl [...]
Scythe is a dystopian young adult novel by Neal Shusterman, and it tells the tale of a futuristic society in which all forms of death have been eradicated, and the only way a human can die is by being ‘gleaned’, a word which is synonymous with murder. However, only a few selection of trained individuals–known …
Small Spaces by Sarah Epstein is a fast-paced psychological thriller with a distinct Australian flavour. One for those with a morbid curiosity, this novel is rife with dark themes and mind games, leaving you itching to uncover all of its secrets. Tash Carmody is confronted with her past when the ghosts of her childhood reappear …
Book Review – P is for Pearl by Eliza Henry Jones
The reader is dropped into the life of Gwendolyn Pearson, who is just getting comfortable in her new step family. While the arrival of two new neighbors and the scent of romance pushes things forward, much of the novel is devoted to unraveling Gwen’s past while she uncovers family secrets.
The mystery feels a little forced at points, with Gwen going about her life as usual until a passage of her diary appears on the page and reveals that all is not right in her world. The reader knows that something dark and tragic has happened, so it’s hard to be engaged in average teenage antics while they wait for more clues.
Before all of the pieces start to fall together, the characters feel very archetypal, filling the niches Henry Jones needed for the narrative. Then the dam breaks, and we finally get to see how these characters were affected by tragedy. As Gwen struggles to accept the truth about her mother, she has some real conflict with the people around her, and the story is filled with life.
The re-assemblage of a family after a loss is a complex situation, and Henry Jones provides plenty of potential with a stepmother and brother, a new half-sibling and a withdrawn dad. Tension and reconciliation are an important part of the recovery process, and it would have been nice to see this earlier in the novel.
P is for Pearl is about identity, in a subtle way. While the core focus is the mystery of Gwen’s mother, it’s also about finding herself outside of her person she shaped herself to be to please her mother. It’s a novel about grief, but also about the never-ending changes we make as people.
Related Posts
Book Review – On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
Melina Marchetta’s coming-of-age novel is a refreshingly mature young adult adventure that captures the feeling on the crux of growing up and watching all that was familiar with the world shift into something new. On the Jellicoe Road transports the reader to a world caught between the dreams of childhood and the horrors of reality, …
Book Review – A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
With the arrival of the new Netflix series, now is a perfect time to sink your teeth into Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. This series is unique and one of my favourites; Snicket’s narration is satirical, morbid and hilarious all at once, and although he will warn you many times that the books …
Book Review – Tilly and the Bookwanderers by Anna James
In the first book of a fantastic new middle-grade series ‘Tilly and the Boookwanderers‘ we follow Matilda ‘Tilly’ Pages, an eleven-year-old book lover who is cared for by her loving grandfather and grandmother in the five-storey London bookshop Pages & Co. Tilly has lived with her grandparents for as long as she could remember, since …
Book Review – White Night by Ellie Marney
Book Review – Scythe by Neal Shusterman
Scythe is a dystopian young adult novel by Neal Shusterman, and it tells the tale of a futuristic society in which all forms of death have been eradicated, and the only way a human can die is by being ‘gleaned’, a word which is synonymous with murder. However, only a few selection of trained individuals–known …
Book Review – Small Spaces by Sarah Epstein
Small Spaces by Sarah Epstein is a fast-paced psychological thriller with a distinct Australian flavour. One for those with a morbid curiosity, this novel is rife with dark themes and mind games, leaving you itching to uncover all of its secrets. Tash Carmody is confronted with her past when the ghosts of her childhood reappear …