![]() It’s a complicated coming of age, sometimes dark, sometimes hilarious, because Kat has a keen eye for the comic and ironic. Their sexuality begins to bloom in a world of “bad girls,” “goody-goodies” and predatory males with no such thing as sex education or birth control. In her own childhood world, Kat is fascinated by the exotic kids “from away,” but her efforts to fit in make her take responsibility for her defiant friend. Neighbours threaten, party, gossip, grieve, do what they must to survive and isolate the local witch while paying a great deal of attention to omens themselves. ![]() Her father struggles to support the family, but his trawler has to come ashore to drop him off because of his drinking. Her mother joins in on a community effort to drive one neighbour out of town and tries to give Kat the dreams she had as a young girl while she herself is descending into mental illness. These are satisfying stories, and each can stand alone, but they come together in the voice of Kat as she tries to figure out the adults around her, including her own parents. ![]() She builds up each scene with layer after layer of detail until you can see, hear, smell and feel what it’s like to grow up on the wrong side of the tracks in a small Cape Breton town. ![]() These are satisfying stories, a Marla Dominey knows how to write. ![]()
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