Monday 19 September 2016 / No comments

Review: The Flywheel (with spoilers!)



The Blurb:


Seventeen-year-old Delilah’s crazy life is about to get crazier. Ever since her father took off overseas, she’s been struggling to run the family’s cafe - The Flywheel - without him and survive high school. But after a misjudged crush on one of the cool girls, she’s become the school punchline as well.With all that’s on her plate she barely has time for her favourite distraction - spying on the beautiful Rosa, who dances flamenco at the tapas bar across the road. Only her best friend Charlie knows how she feels about Rosa, but he has romantic problems of his own. When his plan to win an older woman’s heart goes horribly wrong, Del is the only one who can help Charlie stay out of jail.All this leaves Del grappling with some seriously curly questions. Is it okay to break the law to help a friend? How can a girl tell another girl she likes her without it ending in humiliation and heartbreak? And - the big one - is it ever truly possible to dance in public without falling over?

By Erin Gough. Published by Hardie Grant Egmont.


The Book:

This book is a fantastic example of how to write a queer YA book without making it all about being queer, or coming out. From the first page, Del has accepted her queerness, and is not ashamed of it or closeted; she does avoid talking about it some times, but it doesn't appear to be because of shame. There's also that awkward moment of being drunk and fooling around with a friend, a moment that made the book so much real and relatable. 


The Thoughts:

The book follows the trials and tribulations of seventeen-year-old Delilah's life. Bullied for her sexuality, left to run a failing cafe by her father and having problems at school, this book follows Delilah's problems at home, at the cafe, with her crush and her inability to dance in public.

The easiest way to explain how I feel about this is my tweet upon finishing it.

Reading the buildup for the relationship between Del and Rosa was bittersweet. Del's observations, feelings, observations were right on point, and it sent me back to my high school days. The longing and tension was basically jumping off the page, authentic and believable.

Although Del is out, this book has a lot to say about coming out. With two other characters at various levels of closetedness, one deals with it by spreading lies and rumours, and the other tries to find ways to slowly acclimate her family to the idea. With my own memories of coming out, and knowing the fear that it produces, I can understand both of these characters — and that's terrifying. I can, on some level, understand why one of the characters deflects her queerness, denies it, and I can see how it would be the easiest and safest option. It makes me glad that I didn't choose to go down that path, it makes me be thankful for my family, and it makes me feel sorry for those people who have to do that to ensure their safety.

The friendship between Del and Charlie is beautiful. They had to navigate their own friendship troubles, but for me, friendships that show their flaws are the most believable on the page. Charlie was an interesting character, beautifully crafted and written. My personal head canon is that he goes to TAFE and becomes a chef. 

The only draw back is that, at times, it was a bit hard to believe that Del's father had just left her with the cafe — of course, it is a bit more complicated than this, but there were moments where I could not suspend belief. This being said, the (absent) relationship between Del and parents was interesting: the mother seemed to have little-to-know interest in her daughter, and her father was largely away, although tangible in the book.


The Verdict:

This is the kind of book I wish I had had when I was a teenager, with positive queer lady characters and supportive families, with a plot that doesn't revolve around coming out.

 Five Stars.
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