Kill the Possum

James Moloney (author)

Penguin, Australia: 2008; 275pp

ISBN: 9780143004202

Genre: realistic fiction

Issues: abuse, bullying, communication, depression, domestic violence, family, friendship, grief, power, victimisation

Note: extension concepts

CBCA Shortlist, 2009: Book of the Year, Older Readers

Dylan Kane is a fairly ordinary teenage boy, brighter than most, trying to deal with ordinary-teenage-boy things - like dating the girl he likes. All that changes when he sees what Kirsty and her family have to endure: a subtly abusive ex-stepfather who uses words rather than blows to injure.

In his naivety, Dylan believes it must be possible to seek shelter and justice from the law. He soon realises that there is no law against such bullies - assuming you can find anyone to believe you in the first place. There are no bruises, no cuts, no broken bones - just words. The worst kind of manipulation and bullying. The untouchable kind.

Dylan watches Kirsty's family fall apart - her brother suicidal, her mother close to nervous breakdown and Kirsty herself trying to live a ‘normal' life despite the burden of care for her family and her own horrific memories. Dylan is enraged - at the monstrous cruelty, at the obliviousness of society to such abusers, at himself for doing nothing.

So with Kirsty's brother, Tim, he makes a plan. A plan that will make the monster stop.

Emotional and psychological abuse is rarely recognised by our society. It is never talked about by those who endure it because it's so very difficult to explain, being ‘death by a thousand cuts' and the main weapon the tongue. Moloney makes it very clear that the children's adage, ‘sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never harm me' is very far from true: that words break hearts and spirits, which may never heal.

Unlikely to be a popular novel, this is, nevertheless, a book that should be in every library as it recognises the invisible amongst us and may help sufferers - children and adults alike - to speak out about what is happening to them.

Warning: death of main female character, use of guns