Yellow by Megan Jacobson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sunshine and Surf after the Storm
Yellow, Megan Jacobsen’s first novel, has been shortlisted for the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Book of the Year for Older Readers – the secondary category. Whilst fantasy is still a very popular genre for teenagers, the popularity of writers such as John Green and Rainbow Rowell has seen a resurgence of the realistic young adult novel in which problems of peer groups, family relationships, sexuality and coming of age are central. Set in an Australian coastal town, Yellow is the story of fourteen-year-old Kirra as she grapples with bullying at school, family breakdown and her mother’s alcoholism. It combines an ultimately compelling realistic teen story with a supernatural element. The title comes from the colour of Kirra’s eyes and hence her father’s nickname for her but she is anything but yellow proving resilient and resourceful in overcoming the problems she faces.

The first thing you notice about Yellow is the striking cover. Covers are extremely important
in attracting teenage readers. Whilst an adult might overlook unimaginative cover design on an intriguing title, young adults are visually driven and a first novel without a reputation behind it will struggle to be picked up without an arresting cover.
The novel opens with Kirra being summoned for a session of the “Circle”. It is told in first person narrative form so the reader feels very close to her feeling of panic as her “friends” give her a dressing down for all her transgressions. It’s all very Mean Girls but doesn’t ring true, especially the references to the Spice Girls and Video Hits which date the novel right away. The characters are caricatures of high school girl bullies and the whole thing feels a bit derivative including the cynical observer/outsider who watches the whole thing and the reader knows is going to become a significant friend who Kirra will have some kind of upset with before reconciliation.
In chapter two Kirra’s surfer father is introduced: the laidback, line of least resistance, ineffectual father who has left Kirra’s mother for his pregnant girlfriend. Jacobson’s picture of the girlfriend, mouth pursed ‘like a cat’s bum’, vividly creates the character.

The adults seem more real than the teenagers and in chapter three the story really takes off when Kirra accidentally kills the girlfriend’s dog and answers the phone in a vandalized phone box. There is a boy at the other end who is apparently dead. He wants to find his killer, Kirra wants her family back together and they agree to help each other.
The phone box is an obvious plot device which isn’t convincing enough for me to suspend disbelief but the rest of the story gains a momentum that makes you want to read on. The suspense of Kirra’s attempts to find out about Boogie’s death and her determination to dry out her mother are compelling and original and the coastal community is drawn so vividly that this should find a readership amongst fans of realistic fiction that deals with problems. The waves come in sets. A series of ten, maybe fifteen eight-footers break at the outer edge of the distant reef, gaining power as they barrel across the coral shallows, and then crashing hard like a tackled footballer, all force and spittle and fury, followed by a lull. (Jacobson, 2016, p. 79)
This book has an authentic Australian voice and setting whether it’s the beach or the side of the road banana and avocado stalls with their honesty payment systems or the summer lightning storms. Kirra learns about her inner strength and the novel ends with an upbeat message of hope for expanded horizons beyond that of a small country town.

View all my reviews