Living in Murder Gully, a small Murray-Darling river town, are Talia and Johnny. These 16- and 17-year-old high school students narrate short, alternating first-person point of view chapters, which occur across two timelines. Johnny’s begins in January 2024, when he first interacts with Talia; and Talia’s story starts in March 2025, six-weeks pregnant and newly single after Johnny has left her.
The first and final two chapters of Forever & Ever set in February 2026 cleverly draw the two swiftly paced narratives together. As their friendship grows and romantic relationship blooms, the challenges they face are explicitly shown. Both stories are introspection-filled with authentic contemporary language, the lens trained not only on themselves, but often more broadly as well. This is especially so of Johnny and his lived experience of being Barkindji (First Nations). Through him, Talia’s eyes are opened to the very real racist pressures that Blak people endure. Long held prejudices that the townsfolk display, and secrets that are uncovered, reinforce double standards and lies. Interwoven are many mature issues and themes: grief, depression, violence and alcoholism. The weight of family expectations, inter-racial dating, teen pregnancy, abortion, postpartum depression, self-harm and suicide-ideation.
This debut Australian coming-of-age love story is packed with emotion, confronts many conversation-starter topics, but ultimately leaves its main characters, and its readers, with a hopeful conclusion.
Though I was sometimes frustrated with the decisions and rationalising that Talia and Johnny made along the way, I had to remind myself that they are learning to grow up fast and deal with the world the hard way. Thankfully, support from their friends will help navigate their paths.
Reviewed by Alida Galati
Age Guide 14+
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Allanah Hunt is a proud queer Barkindji and Malyangapa woman, and a lecturer at the University of Queensland.
Her short stories have been shortlisted for various awards. Forever & Ever is her first novel. Allanah lives in Brisbane.
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