Alyssa Brugman’s latest novel concerns troubled teen Mackenzie, the daughter of drug-damaged parents who has been sent to Wilderness Camp-which involves spending 24 hours alone in the Australian bush-in a last-ditch attempt to set her straight. The first thing I noticed about this book was its cover quotes: one on the front from Maureen McCarthy and one on the back from Melina Marchetta. While Solo will appeal to teen readers of the two MMs, in many ways this is a very different type of novel. Narrated by Mackenzie, who, as readers will learn, cannot always be trusted to tell the truth, it dips in and out of ‘episodes’ in Mackenzie’s troubled past- her mother’s drug use and her father’s shady business dealings-providing clues for her own increasingly antisocial behaviour. This is an ambitious novel that offers a gritty portrait of life as an abused and abandoned teen, although it falls apart towards the end when Mackenzie is forced to confront the darkest demon of her past-the Red Man-in an overly dramatic scene that provides, just a little too neatly, the last clue in the ‘puzzle’ of Mackenzie’s life.

Andrea Hanke is assistant editor of Bookseller+Publisher

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