I’m a huge fan of verse novels for their economical but impactful use of language. And the good ones always swiftly capture readers’ attention, placing them right in the action, non-stop page-turning guaranteed.
Jason Gent’s debut does exactly that. Over the course of a year, we follow five teens in their final year of high school, each entrenched in the world of the Australian Rules football draft. Through first-person POV introspections and dialogue, we read about Elias, Zac, Fletcher, Dane and Beth: their career dreams and insecurities, heartbreaks and triumphs.
Cleverly structured, each section is a season, containing a single chapter for each character – with Zac and Fletcher presented as a friendship unit. Challenges are faced, and their motivations and attitudes towards their sporting careers and education are convincingly portrayed.
I was genuinely invested in their outcomes; and a short, final ‘non season’ chapter provides a quick but satisfying look into the next stage of their post-high school lives. Prior knowledge of the Australian Football League setting is not needed to understand this compelling book, making it accessible to all readers. High interest themes such as family, friendship, relationships, grief, school pressures and creative passions all form part of the individual narratives. And by its very nature, the verse novel layout – with spare text and white space – makes it appealing even to those who are reluctant to read a traditional text-heavy novel. There are many reasons to like this coming-of-age book, and this reviewer was all-in for the emotional build-up, and inhaled it.
Reviewed by Alida Galati
Age Guide 13+
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jason Gent is a Meanjin based writer. He studied Professional Writing and Editing at RMIT. During this time Jason had a short play performed by RMIT Union Arts, and helped to create a small press label, Rant, which released two anthologies. He has had a number of short stories published in Australian literary and poetry magazines. Jason is a member of Write Links. In 2021, Jason was shortlisted for the Glendower Awards for an Emerging Queensland Writer as part of the Queensland Literary Awards, for his YA verse novel, On The Exhale.
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