Everything Beautiful - Softcover

Simmone Howell

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0330424637 ISBN 13: 9780330424639

Publisher: Pan Australia, 2008

Synopsis

I believe in Chloe and chocolate.
I believe the best part is always before.
I believe that most girls are shifty and most guys are dumb.
I believe the more you spill, the less you are.
I don't believe in life after death or diuretics or happy endings.
I don't believe anything good can come from this.

Riley Rose doesn't want to be at Spirit Ranch Holiday Camp. Riley wants to be partying with her best friend Chloe at the beautiful Ben Sebatini's house. She has a plan to get away from the jumpsuit-wearing counsellors, the feel-good mantras, do-gooder campers and the monotonous schedule of team-building exercises and outdoor activities.

But is everything at the Spirit Ranch as it appears? What secrets are waiting for discovery in the abandoned Fraser house? And why doesn't anyone want to talk about the accident that landed the mysterious Dylan in a wheelchair last year?

About this title

About the Author

SIMMONE HOWELL's short fiction has been published in journals and anthologies, and her short script, Pity 24, won the 2004 Australian Writer's Guild Award. The film has played festivals from Australia to the United States. Simmone has a BA in literature from Deakin University. She lives in Melbourne, Australia, with her husband and their young son, and reads pulp fiction, watches ex-rental videos, listens to hillbilly music, and writes. Notes from the Teenage Underground was her first novel.

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up—In this thoughtful Australian novel, a troubled 16-year-old girl finds love and meaning in unexpected places. Riley Rose—rebellious, promiscuous, and deeply unhappy after the death of her mother—is dumped at an isolated Christian camp for a week so that her father and stepmother can go on vacation. Overweight, wisecracking Riley expects to hate everyone at Spirit Ranch. Instead, she bonds with some of her bunkmates and falls for Dylan, a paraplegic fellow camper. What could be a clichéd situation—the bond between two outcasts—is instead touching and believable. There are some camp bullies, of course, but even the villains prove to have redeeming qualities. Riley is an appealingly flawed main character, tough-talking and funny at the same time. She hangs on to her skepticism but allows some tenderness to penetrate her armor. That she could change so profoundly in a single week sometimes stretches credibility, and the slow pace might deter less determined readers. Overall, however, this novel will appeal to sensitive teens who will root for Riley and the other camp underdogs.—Miranda Doyle, San Francisco Public Library
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Edition details

• Publisher: Pan Australia
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0330424637
• ISBN 13: 9780330424639
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 252