Golden Boys

Starred review from January 11, 2016
When the affluent Jensons move into town, it’s difficult for the neighborhood children to see past the allure of the fancy toys, bikes, and aboveground pool that sons Colt and Bastian have. Syd Kiley, his brother Declan, and their friends Avery and Garrick befriend the new boys, while Syd’s oldest sister, Freya, takes a shine to Mr. Jenson, idolizing this more attractive counterpart to her own drunken father and chaotic family. It’s clear that unhappiness simmers beneath the surface in this neighborhood, with everyone believing that “the things they don’t want are all they have.” But similarities exist between these disparate individuals, and as Hartnett’s narrative methodically unfolds, lurking secrets reveal themselves, with many children paying the price for their parents’ failings. Writing in an Australian vernacular and alternating among the perspectives of Colt, Freya, and Syd, Hartnett (Butterfly) skillfully weaves metaphors and foreshadowing into her affecting prose, such as Freya’s view of the world as a castle to explore, and her darker vision of a haunting yellow-eyed monster. Hartnett’s examination of different forms of physical, emotional, and psychological abuse is an unsettling, often brutal must-read. Ages 14–up.

Starred review from March 1, 2016

Gr 10 Up-There is something unsavory about Colt's father, and readers will feel that right away. Teenage Colt is one of two principal interior narrators and the new kid on the block. His father, Rex, is a dentist and flaunts his wealth by buying a pool and cool toys for the neighborhood boys. Through Colt's eyes, readers see revulsion and awareness of his father's ploys but not much concrete evidence of his father's guilt. The work is written in a timeless gothic tone with rich symbolism and figurative language. The other narrator, Freya, the eldest of six children of an alcoholic printer, is losing faith in God and looking for a hero. Freya's father is a wife beater, and she and Declan, the oldest boy, take the brunt of the responsibility, as does Colt, when Rex proves that he is not the hero she imagines. What is remarkable about this novel is the way in which every character is developed through shifting points of view, such as through the neighborhood bully, Garrick, and neglected waif Avery. The book is a portrait of a working-class neighborhood. Readers will muse over all the relationships in order to ascertain why violence is so often misdirected with the worst offenders remaining unscathed. VERDICT An absorbing read for mature teens, ready to face the ugly truth of scapegoating to maintain social cohesion, however broken.-Sara Lissa Paulson, City-As-School High School, New York City

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 15, 2016
The arrival of two wealthy boys to a working-class neighborhood brings the strained intensity present in both theirs and another home to a boil in this latest from Hartnett, first published in 2014 for adults in her native Australia. Twelve-year-old Colt and 10-year-old Bastian are showered with the newest and best of everything by their dentist father, but his generosity is laced with a poisonous solicitude, and he eventually causes strife among their new neighbors. At the same time, 12-year-old Freya is the oldest in a large family and is resentful of her cramped, meager circumstances. She's recently begun to realize her parents' marriage is deeply troubled and struggles to find support in coping with her father's alcoholism and violence. Hartnett sets this tale in an unspecified time before mobile phones and computers, the neighborhood evidently largely white. The language is mesmerizing, her phrases exquisitely crafted, particularly when describing rot and waste, where they take on an almost gothic style: "It's an unlovely, ramshackle place, thrumming with insects, thorny with blackberry and thistle." The menacing dynamics present in so many of the relationships are persistently disquieting but also authentic, and a tone of dread pervades, though in the end, events are understated. Sophisticated teen readers will be wowed by this gorgeous, tension-filled novel, but its more natural audience may be adults. (Fiction. 13 & up)

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Starred review from January 1, 2016
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Rex and Tabby Jenson and their sons, Colt and Bastian, arrive in Freya Kiley's Australian neighborhood with little fanfare, but their presence sends fissures throughout their modest community. Rex showers his boys with gifts, but Colt feels nothing but resentment for their piles of toys. Their bounty, however, is a beacon for the other neighborhood boys, and soon Declan and Syd, Freya's brothers, along with oafish bully Garrick and willowy Avery, can't help but lurk in the Jensons' yard, while Freya finds herself seeking advice from Rex about her parents' volatile marriage. Rex is an effusive host, quick with a joke and eager to please, but it's not long before it becomes clear that Rex's generosity and sunny disposition are a shroud for something dangerously narcissistic, if not outright sinister. Hartnett spins her tale with stunning subtlety, building tension in tiny doses with measured sentences and potent metaphors. Rex's keening voice is the frustrated sound of a night-hunting animal or accused prince, while Freya's father's anger is a quicksandy pit. With the exception of Freya's father's drunken rages, the action is surprisingly mundane, nothing more than a bike ride, a conversation over tea, or scuffle between boys, but Hartnett teases so much from those minuscule moments that they spill over with a low-level, snowballing thrum of imminent violence and heartbreaking significance. Astoundingly brilliant.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2016
Colt's dentist father, Rex, appears to be a loving parent who gives his boys only the best. But Colt knows that, with Rex, "there's always some small cruelty." When the children in their new neighborhood become enamored with Rex, Colt wonders if Rex's wrongness is something only he sees. A mature, quiet, and intense story in which children suffer consequences for adult wickedness.

(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

May 15, 2014
Golden Boys is not a departure for Sonya Hartnett, but it’s a continuation of her craft that shows why she is one of Australia’s best writers, for adults as well as older teenagers. It’s in a similar vein to Of a Boy (2002) and Butterfly (2009). As in those earlier novels, adults are in most cases not to be trusted and can’t be relied upon to provide appropriate guidance for children in turmoil. The children who are the main characters in this novel are predominantly from two families: the Kileys, a family with too many children and not enough money; and the Jensons, a much richer family that has mysteriously moved to a down-at-heel neighbourhood. Rex Jenson seems very affable as he encourages Freya, Declan and Syd, the three eldest of the Kiley clan, to come to his house and associate with his two sons, Colt and Bastian. Each of the families has its problems, and two other neighbourhood boys get drawn into the events that unfold. The novel doesn’t go where the reader necessarily expects it to, and Hartnett does a wonderful job of depicting the sometimes brutal world of childhood that runs parallel to, and occasionally intersects with, the world of adults.

Blair Mahoney teaches English, literature and philosophy at Melbourne High School