FIRE IN THE SEA
By Myke Bartlett
Text Publishing
Fire in the Sea, Myke Bartlett’s assured young adult debut, scooped last year’s Text prize for the category, and it’s not difficult to see why it stood out.
Set in his home town of Perth, both the sense of place and his believably spunky cast of teen heroes are convincing. It wastes no time getting started.
An eerie, Jaws-like near-miss in the deep waters of Cottesloe Beach is immediately followed by a terrifying twin monster strike on a strange old man.
His startled, half-mumbled warning sparks an exciting quest that plunges Bartlett’s protagonists, led by orphaned teenager Sadie, into a surreal and at times terrifying world of mythical gods and monsters.
Sadie, who struggles to rein in her feisty ways, is the linchpin, while her unexpected inheritance of a spooky old house brings the mysterious Jake to her door, a young man who appears to carry the weight of centuries on his shoulders.
A fast-paced and rambunctious novel, at times gruesomely frightening, it draws the reader on a mighty adventure.
