Title: Bluebottle
Author: Belinda Castles
Published: May 23rd 2018
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Pages: 256
Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Australian
RRP: $29.99
Rating: 4 stars
On a sweltering day in a cliff-top beach shack, Jack and Lou Bright grow suspicious about the behaviour of their charismatic, unpredictable father, Charlie. A girl they know has disappeared, and as the day unfolds, Jack’s eruptions of panic, Lou’s sultry rebellions and their little sister Phoebe’s attention-seeking push the family towards revelation.
Twenty years later, the Bright children have remained close to the cliff edges, russet sand and moody ocean of their childhood. Behind the beautiful surfaces of their daily lives lies the difficult landscape of their past, always threatening to break through. And then, one night in late summer, they return to the house on the cliff…
Gripping and evocative, Bluebottle is a story of a family bound by an inescapable past, from the award-winning author of The River Baptists and Hannah and Emil.
My review:
Belinda Castles, the 2006 Australian/Vogel prize recipient for The River Baptists, has released a brand new novel, Bluebottle. A coastal cliff side home, a family under the mounting weight of secrets and a convergence between the past with the present defines this intense novel.
Twenty years ago, siblings Jack, Lou and Phoebe cast doubt on the strange behaviour of their father one hot Christmas holiday. The Bright family have recently acquired a cliff top beach abode, but ever since the family made this new shack their home, their father’s behaviour has become increasingly erratic. When a local girl the Bright children are acquainted with goes missing, the family is pushed in different directions and is placed under a great deal of stress. Bluebottle moves forward to twenty years in the future, the Bright children have grown up, but still remain close to the beachside family home. Eventually the past that has remain hidden for almost two decades comes to the surface and the ramifications touch the inhabitants of the cliff house.
With a visually stunning Tim Winton style cover (think Breath) Bluebottle is a model Australian literary celebration. Bluebottle is defined by measured prose, bold characters and a rich setting. This is not my first experience of Belinda Castles’ writing, I read her previous novel Hannah & Emil when it released. I was reminded of how her writing style is sparse, pulled back and almost naked, so what remains is a reticent piece of literature.
Once I settled into the narrative, I uncovered a story defined by a central mystery, with psychological undertones and a collision between the past and the present. Family dynamics play a significant role in Bluebottle, both in the past and present day storylines. Readers will find it hard not to feel fully involved in the sense of confusion, emotional pain and high drama of this novel presents. As the book is compiled with a past/present switch style narrative, as well as a change over between the character voices of the Bright family, the reader feels fully invested in the events of the cliff top shack.
Castles takes characterisation in her stride and provides the reader with an intense sketch of a broken family unit. Castles teases out the emotions and inner thoughts of each family member of the Bright family, so what we as the reader are left with is character set which are both ardent and authentic. Castles ensures there are plenty of layers to uncover when approaching her characters. Gradually, as the book progresses through the past and present, we work to build an understanding of how each protagonist operates and how events that occur in the novel outline who they are to become. Castles has a great ability to draw these aspects out of her cast list.
Castles is skilled in bringing a strong sense of place before the reader’s eyes in Bluebottle. The rich Australian coastal landscape, the swirling sea, the salt air and the ocean scrub almost makes the locale a character in its own right, it definitely plays a big role in this novel. The tension is thick and the sense of place undeniable in the capable hands of Castles. I could picture the waterways, the cliff tops and feel the beach sand between my toes. Through her refined craft Castles allows us to almost touch the blue bottle jellyfish described in such minute detail in this novel. For me, the setting descriptions were the parts to grab a hold of and relish, the sense of landscape displayed in Bluebottle is quite remarkable.
What keeps the pages running in this novel is the mystery around the disappearance of local girl Monica and her connection to Charlie, as well as the links to his off guard behaviour. What I was able to glean most from Bluebottle was how this event, some twenty years ago, clearly moulded the Bright children for years to come. Castles shows us how the reverberations continued to be felt, despite the time that had passed. Clearly, our past can define us and it is the secrets from our childhood that we bring to our adult mindset.
Bluebottle is an evocative Australian mystery novel that delves deep into dynamics of a family haunted by events of the past. Bluebottle sees the individual members of the Bright family reconcile the past with the present, underpinned by the commanding force of the natural coastal landscape, with a startling result. Bluebottle is a beguiling read from Belinda Castles.
Bluebottle was published on 23rd May 2018 by Allen & Unwin. Details on how to purchase the book can be found here.
*I wish to thank Allen & Unwin for providing me with a free copy of this book for review purposes.
Bluebottle is book #64 of the Australian Women Writers Challenge
