Colt Jenson, 12, and his family are unusual new arrivals in a working-class Australian neighborhood. Colt’s dad, whom Colt despises for reasons that aren’t wholly clear initially, is a dentist. Colt and his little brother have tons of cool toys and gear and their dad is friendly and welcoming to their new friends, encouraging them to hang out. Twelve-year-old Freya’s dad is a printer whose arrival home each evening is a taut time as everyone in her family tries to determine how much he’s drunk and how dangerous his mood will be. Freya, the oldest of six, finds herself confiding in Mr. Jenson, who offers a kind, sympathetic, non-judgmental ear. So when Freya’s brother Declan says Mr. Jenson is “weird” and won’t let their younger brother go over to Colt’s alone, Freya is furious at what he’s clearly implying. But readers know what Colt means: Mr. Jenson’s friendliness feels wrong. It’s too physical, too much. Colt knows, too, because it’s happened before: his dad entices his friends. The trauma and tension are palpable in a novel brutally honest, right down to the ways in which adults look away from uncomfortable truths. This uneasy read is exquisitely written. The complexity of these characters, both children and adults, is something to behold in a novel originally published for adults in Australia. (Age 14 and older)

With masterful nuance and vividly drawn characters, Sonya Hartnett’s novel visits a suburban neighborhood where psychological menace lurks below the surface.

Colt Jenson and his younger brother, Bastian, have moved to a new, working-class suburb. The Jensons are different. Their father, Rex, showers them with gifts — toys, bikes, all that glitters most — and makes them the envy of the neighborhood. To the local kids, the Jensons are a family out of a movie, and Rex a hero — successful, attentive, attractive, always there to lend a hand. But to Colt he's an impossible figure: unbearable, suffocating. Has Colt got Rex wrong, or has he seen something in his father that will destroy their fragile new lives? This brilliant and unflinching novel reveals internationally acclaimed author Sonya Hartnett at her most intriguing and psychologically complex.