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Darkwater
A beautifully atmospheric mystery about family, politics and murder in an idyllic Sydney suburbAmanda Clarke is dead. Her body was found floating facedown by the riverbank, and no one knows what happened. As rumours fly and fear grows, it seems that everyone suspects Lyndon, one of Amanda's friends. He's known for his temper, his cruelty and his criminal family - and now the police want to talk to him. It's the end of summer, 1973, the heat is enough to melt asphalt and a sleepy riverside suburb is losing some of its innocence. Fifteen-year-old Winter went to the same school and hung out in the same places as Amanda. As she finds herself alone in trying to defend Lyndon, Winter learns that you can never really know someone - and the answers she has been looking for are closer than she has ever wanted to believe.
164 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 1, 2010
6 people are currently reading
681 people want to read
About the author
Georgia Blain
27 books69 followersGeorgia Blain has published novels for adults and young adults, essays, short stories, and a memoir. Her first novel was the bestselling Closed for Winter, which was made into a feature film. She was shortlisted for numerous awards including the NSW and SA Premiers' Literary Awards, and the Nita B. Kibble Award for her memoir Births Deaths Marriages. Georgia's works include The Secret Lives of Men, Too Close to Home, and the YA novel Darkwater. In 2016, in addition to Between a Wolf and a Dog, Georgia also published the YA novel Special. She lived in Sydney, where she worked full-time as a writer.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
February 22, 2013
Darkwater is a languid, atmospheric novel about murder and coming of age in 1970s Australia. It draws much of its strength from Blain’s use of setting; she paints an authentic and vivid picture of life in that time: summer days swollen with heat, the tick of ceiling fans through the interminable school hours, front doors left open and unlocked, skateboarding and joints under the underpass.
It’s an accurate rendering of a different time, and Blain’s attention to detail is notable, though I do wonder why she chose to place the story at this point in history. Possibly because it mirrors Winter’s own position on the cusp of innocence and naivety to something more self-aware. Germaine Greer’s The Female Eunuch makes an appearance, along with environmental activism and local politics muddied with money, markers of a community undergoing change and churning with unrest. Or maybe it’s the less sophisticated approach to crime investigation that lends itself to the story, perhaps a contemporary setting would have significantly curtailed the process, preventing the mystery of Amanda Clarke’s death from drawing out like languorous summer evenings.
In Darkwater, Winter chronicles how the discovery of Amanda’s body impacts her small, suburban world. Winter is an observer, recording the reactions and changes she notices around her as the community attempts to come to terms with the tragedy. Younger than Amanda’s core group of friends, Winter is on the periphery of things, writing down what scraps of information she can glean, attempting to piece together a picture of what really lead to Amanda’s body floating in the river.
None of the characters feel particularly close, as if by setting the story some time ago, a distance with the reader has been preserved. Even Winter, who narrates in first person, feels somewhat aloof at times. Perhaps this was the point, to keep the focus firmly on the shocking event that rocks the community – but Amanda is also a shadowy figure. We’re given second-hand glimpses of her through other characters, but we never become close to her. We see her through the lens of envy, lust, adoration or frustration. We’re given insight into a home life that is substantially less charmed than it outwardly appears. Yet she isn’t a dynamic character in the story; she’s a figure, a symbol, a catalyst for the ripples that spread out through her hometown.
The central mystery itself – in all honesty – I didn’t find terribly compelling. While the question of who killed Amanda hangs over the story, I thought its most powerful scenes were those depicting the small moments between Winter and her friends, Sonia and Cassie. In these, Blain captures the awkwardness of adolescence, the fumbling of the characters as they navigate their way through crushes, drugs, sex and death. It’s handled frankly and with a distinct lack of melodrama – Blain presents these events as realities of life, not as fodder to shock.
The resolution of the mystery felt a little like it fell back on convenient plot points – the seeds of who the perpetrator is and how it will be revealed are planted fairly obviously. That said, I get the impression that the crime itself is not strictly the point of the story, but rather its effects on those surrounding it. Blain shows how the insidious creep of prejudice and paranoia drives people apart, how suspicion and grief unravel relationships and families.
Blain’s writing has a slightly lulling quality about it, or maybe it was the lethargy of the setting seeping through. The pacing is sedate, focused on character development more than action, but there’s a note of disquiet that keeps the story engaging. The technique of opening the majority of the chapters with a “Fact” or “Theory” from Winter’s notebook initially seemed intriguing, but it did grow tedious after a while.
Darkwater is a quiet story, steeped in mood and atmosphere. While the pacing and logic of the plot are not without flaws, it’s an candid depiction of one girl’s coming of age in a time of tragedy and social change.
It’s an accurate rendering of a different time, and Blain’s attention to detail is notable, though I do wonder why she chose to place the story at this point in history. Possibly because it mirrors Winter’s own position on the cusp of innocence and naivety to something more self-aware. Germaine Greer’s The Female Eunuch makes an appearance, along with environmental activism and local politics muddied with money, markers of a community undergoing change and churning with unrest. Or maybe it’s the less sophisticated approach to crime investigation that lends itself to the story, perhaps a contemporary setting would have significantly curtailed the process, preventing the mystery of Amanda Clarke’s death from drawing out like languorous summer evenings.
In Darkwater, Winter chronicles how the discovery of Amanda’s body impacts her small, suburban world. Winter is an observer, recording the reactions and changes she notices around her as the community attempts to come to terms with the tragedy. Younger than Amanda’s core group of friends, Winter is on the periphery of things, writing down what scraps of information she can glean, attempting to piece together a picture of what really lead to Amanda’s body floating in the river.
None of the characters feel particularly close, as if by setting the story some time ago, a distance with the reader has been preserved. Even Winter, who narrates in first person, feels somewhat aloof at times. Perhaps this was the point, to keep the focus firmly on the shocking event that rocks the community – but Amanda is also a shadowy figure. We’re given second-hand glimpses of her through other characters, but we never become close to her. We see her through the lens of envy, lust, adoration or frustration. We’re given insight into a home life that is substantially less charmed than it outwardly appears. Yet she isn’t a dynamic character in the story; she’s a figure, a symbol, a catalyst for the ripples that spread out through her hometown.
The central mystery itself – in all honesty – I didn’t find terribly compelling. While the question of who killed Amanda hangs over the story, I thought its most powerful scenes were those depicting the small moments between Winter and her friends, Sonia and Cassie. In these, Blain captures the awkwardness of adolescence, the fumbling of the characters as they navigate their way through crushes, drugs, sex and death. It’s handled frankly and with a distinct lack of melodrama – Blain presents these events as realities of life, not as fodder to shock.
The resolution of the mystery felt a little like it fell back on convenient plot points – the seeds of who the perpetrator is and how it will be revealed are planted fairly obviously. That said, I get the impression that the crime itself is not strictly the point of the story, but rather its effects on those surrounding it. Blain shows how the insidious creep of prejudice and paranoia drives people apart, how suspicion and grief unravel relationships and families.
Blain’s writing has a slightly lulling quality about it, or maybe it was the lethargy of the setting seeping through. The pacing is sedate, focused on character development more than action, but there’s a note of disquiet that keeps the story engaging. The technique of opening the majority of the chapters with a “Fact” or “Theory” from Winter’s notebook initially seemed intriguing, but it did grow tedious after a while.
Darkwater is a quiet story, steeped in mood and atmosphere. While the pacing and logic of the plot are not without flaws, it’s an candid depiction of one girl’s coming of age in a time of tragedy and social change.
August 20, 2025
Ngl fams, this book is dreadful. I bought it at the lane cove library book culling event a couple years back for maybe 3 dollars and I still want my money back. It's a YA novel so at first I thought the clumsy writing style was just a feature of the genre, but as it went on I realised that the youth of the world deserve better than this. It's a real shame since it's set in Sydney around the lane cove river, so I wanted to like it. But the protagonist is annoying, she learns to skateboard throughout the book for apparently no literary reason, and she's weirdly fixated on the gladesville bridge, which appears more times than some of the poorly fleshed-out characters. I looked up the author to see what her deal is and it turns out she died young from a brain tumour so that sucks but it does not lift the rating from 2 stars.
April 28, 2015
I read this only last night and forgive me if I seemingly cannot remember anything. So, I stopped reading a book I really want to read to read this.
It was, to my utmost surprise, startling good. I can't even remember why I picked this book up, but the emotions drawn out by Winter, and the conflict she feels, it felt real. It was all very brief, but I liked this briefness. God, I'm not explaining it well. Put it this way, if something can confuse me this much, it must be good right?
Who am I kidding? Lol, the writing was good. The plot was well thought out. Winter was a relatively convincing character. And the other characters were colourful. I liked the mystery. And most of all, I liked that while there was something about crushes in there, Winter, is alone by the end, she deals with it and well, the other guy, I think it's good, for once that a story doesn't end with him you know, falling for the girl, and ditching ... other people. (Lol, not going to spoil it.)
Anyway, since I am obviously not making sense, although that doesn't make sense either since it's 10 in the morning and I should well and truly be awake by now, I will just stop here. Maybe this whacky senseless review will convince someone that this was a wicked awesome book to read, or maybe it won't, bah I just read and review! haha
Oh, P.s, I just remembered I should probably include a little bit about what the novel is actually about. Darkwater is about a girl found drowned in the river. Her death rocks the world (okay, not the whole world but Winter's world). It turns out that the apparent suicide is not a suicide at all. Who would want to kill the girl in the water?
It was, to my utmost surprise, startling good. I can't even remember why I picked this book up, but the emotions drawn out by Winter, and the conflict she feels, it felt real. It was all very brief, but I liked this briefness. God, I'm not explaining it well. Put it this way, if something can confuse me this much, it must be good right?
Who am I kidding? Lol, the writing was good. The plot was well thought out. Winter was a relatively convincing character. And the other characters were colourful. I liked the mystery. And most of all, I liked that while there was something about crushes in there, Winter, is alone by the end, she deals with it and well, the other guy, I think it's good, for once that a story doesn't end with him you know, falling for the girl, and ditching ... other people. (Lol, not going to spoil it.)
Anyway, since I am obviously not making sense, although that doesn't make sense either since it's 10 in the morning and I should well and truly be awake by now, I will just stop here. Maybe this whacky senseless review will convince someone that this was a wicked awesome book to read, or maybe it won't, bah I just read and review! haha
Oh, P.s, I just remembered I should probably include a little bit about what the novel is actually about. Darkwater is about a girl found drowned in the river. Her death rocks the world (okay, not the whole world but Winter's world). It turns out that the apparent suicide is not a suicide at all. Who would want to kill the girl in the water?
June 5, 2020
Georgia Blain was a wonderful writer, her voice is certainly missed. This was her one venture into YA fiction, narrated by Sydney high schooler Winter, who is an admirable lead, especially in learning to skateboard as a female high schooler. The story is often sad and dark, but always enthralling.
Ironically I read this at the same time as 'One of Us is Lying', where the mystery of the death by drowning of a classmate turns into a murder investigation. I have been looking to find this book for a while and was fortunate to have my local library buy it on ebook after I requested it. Wonderful service. I highly recommend this, I loved it, but not always easy to read.
Ironically I read this at the same time as 'One of Us is Lying', where the mystery of the death by drowning of a classmate turns into a murder investigation. I have been looking to find this book for a while and was fortunate to have my local library buy it on ebook after I requested it. Wonderful service. I highly recommend this, I loved it, but not always easy to read.
May 29, 2019
Nicely understated for a YA mystery: it's Australia in the early 70s, a girl is dead, and the protagonist grows increasingly convinced that the police (not to mention the community) are targeting their suspect for class reasons rather than because he actually did it.
There are quite a few subplots at play, and they intersect in ways I didn't always see coming, which I appreciate. Plus: romance of the mild, realistic type rather than 'we're in high school and we love each other madly and we're gonna be together forever'. I probably could have used Winter being a bit more active a character in places, but mostly I just appreciate how much the book grounds itself in time and place rather than in dramatics.
There are quite a few subplots at play, and they intersect in ways I didn't always see coming, which I appreciate. Plus: romance of the mild, realistic type rather than 'we're in high school and we love each other madly and we're gonna be together forever'. I probably could have used Winter being a bit more active a character in places, but mostly I just appreciate how much the book grounds itself in time and place rather than in dramatics.
August 10, 2024
Content warnings: murder, death, grief, alcohol abuse
This started out well but then it was just plain dry. Like, the 1970s Australian setting worked well, as did the summer feel. But after the early stages, it felt like the death kind of floated around in the background. Like the story was equal parts a teenage girl who wanted to learn how to skateboard and that same teenage girl investigating a death. It just...didn't quite gel together for me.
Add in a really abrupt conclusion to both the story AND the case and this was sort of aggressively fine while also being absolutely and completely forgettable.
This started out well but then it was just plain dry. Like, the 1970s Australian setting worked well, as did the summer feel. But after the early stages, it felt like the death kind of floated around in the background. Like the story was equal parts a teenage girl who wanted to learn how to skateboard and that same teenage girl investigating a death. It just...didn't quite gel together for me.
Add in a really abrupt conclusion to both the story AND the case and this was sort of aggressively fine while also being absolutely and completely forgettable.
August 13, 2023
Incredibly boring and slow to read. Winter is a passive narrator and she only seems to have facts and theories like everybody else in the novel so its not engaging. When the mystery is finally solved it is not even a bit clever or interesting. The subplots don't really add anything and as soon as the Bradley character was introduced I knew he had witnessed something. Because there are no real clues and all we have to rely on is what other people have said it is hard to even say this is a mystery book. It worse than mediocre and I do not recommend anyone read it as it is a waste of time.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 12, 2020
Georgia Blain's Sydney is sharply real to me. This novel has stayed with me, residing at the edge of my consciousness. Potent, stark.
May 22, 2024
I’ve had this one sitting in my TBR pile for years and I’m on a mission to seek out those books and finally read them. So glad I got there.
I really enjoyed the characters in this book, not a single stereotype in sight. It was fresh and interesting and I loved joining Winter through her exploration of growing up and the shifting of her world views and understandings.
I think this would be an excellent introduction for any young readers who want to try out a ‘murder mystery’ without any risk of gore or gratuitous violence.
I really enjoyed the characters in this book, not a single stereotype in sight. It was fresh and interesting and I loved joining Winter through her exploration of growing up and the shifting of her world views and understandings.
I think this would be an excellent introduction for any young readers who want to try out a ‘murder mystery’ without any risk of gore or gratuitous violence.
March 30, 2019
I'm not in the YA category by many decades but I read this out of interest because of the author and the Sydney setting and found it an engaging read. However, given than I'm not the target audience, my opinion won't matter that much but for the record, I enjoyed the feisty young lead and the descriptions of Sydney Harbour and the narrative journey.
February 1, 2018
An easy, engaging read.
March 26, 2018
A good book, interesting storyline, that kept me wanting to find out more.
Aimed at older teenagers. In saying that a good read just the same
Aimed at older teenagers. In saying that a good read just the same
June 5, 2023
i remember reading this while i was in middle school, feeling so awed by it after i was done, and i thought about it for months on end
August 22, 2024
Blain was a wonderful subtle writer and there are glimpses in this who dunnit. However the switch to a murder mystery was clunky and there was too much he said she said with an obvious ending.
January 4, 2025
I know it was a YA book but found this very simplistic. Was disappointed having read some wonderful books of hers.
5/10
5/10
October 1, 2023
Read in one afternoon.
July 21, 2017
Your typical 'who-dunnit' plot, but what added the extra star on this read for me was the empathy and the guts of the main character.
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December 20, 2012I thought Darkwater would be an intense mystery and while there are mystery parts the main focus isn’t on clues and the investigation but on Winter and the events surrounding Amanda’s mysterious death.
I quite enjoyed Darkwater and I managed to read it in a day because the pages tend to read quite fast and the story is pretty engrossing. I was able to guess who had played a part in Amanda’s death although the why wasn’t what I had thought it would be.
I felt that there was one part of the story that was just sort of tacked on and I felt like it was just shoved in there for the sake of being a part of the investigation on Amanda.
The characters were all quite interesting and I enjoyed reading from Winter’s perspective. I found it sort of fitting that someone who wasn’t too close to Amanda, nor too distant from her was the narrator. It meant that the judgements on people and what they had done was closer to neutral than anything else. I liked that.
I liked Nicky too, he just seemed like a really cool guy and I found the parts of the book with him in them to be really interesting. I liked Lyndon too, I just really felt like I could sympathise with him.
The book is set in the 70’s and this is usually a turn off for me but reading through Darkwater it honestly didn’t bother me so much. I thought it was a nice difference.
Overall, I thought that Darkwater was an interesting read. It wasn’t perfect but it was entertaining and good for an afternoon sitting when it’s too hot to do anything else.
I quite enjoyed Darkwater and I managed to read it in a day because the pages tend to read quite fast and the story is pretty engrossing. I was able to guess who had played a part in Amanda’s death although the why wasn’t what I had thought it would be.
I felt that there was one part of the story that was just sort of tacked on and I felt like it was just shoved in there for the sake of being a part of the investigation on Amanda.
The characters were all quite interesting and I enjoyed reading from Winter’s perspective. I found it sort of fitting that someone who wasn’t too close to Amanda, nor too distant from her was the narrator. It meant that the judgements on people and what they had done was closer to neutral than anything else. I liked that.
I liked Nicky too, he just seemed like a really cool guy and I found the parts of the book with him in them to be really interesting. I liked Lyndon too, I just really felt like I could sympathise with him.
The book is set in the 70’s and this is usually a turn off for me but reading through Darkwater it honestly didn’t bother me so much. I thought it was a nice difference.
Overall, I thought that Darkwater was an interesting read. It wasn’t perfect but it was entertaining and good for an afternoon sitting when it’s too hot to do anything else.
December 4, 2018
I thought this was a really compelling mystery. I like that I couldn’t guess who the killer was. I thought it was well written.
July 5, 2011
the character in this novel who interested me was the main character Winter because the novel was written in her view but i could still not understand her and i could not figure out her emotions.
The setting in the story was weird because the some particular characters who played a big part in this text were where their friend died so why would they be there, that part was hard to understand.
I think i just keep on reading this because it was a mystery book and i wanted to know who killed who.
I would not recommend this book because the characters are hard to understand because of lack of detail and because once you got the story it was a bit of a let down.
The setting in the story was weird because the some particular characters who played a big part in this text were where their friend died so why would they be there, that part was hard to understand.
I think i just keep on reading this because it was a mystery book and i wanted to know who killed who.
I would not recommend this book because the characters are hard to understand because of lack of detail and because once you got the story it was a bit of a let down.
March 2, 2011
This isn't what I expected. First, I wasn't aware that it was YA even though the main character is a teenager. Secondly, I thought this would be a meatier mystery. After all, a girl has died under suspicious circumstances and the local bad-boy is the prime suspect. Despite Blain's skill the tension just didn't build the way it should have. Nevertheless, this should please many: the characterisation is good--even if MC Winter is just a tad too perfect--and the crime's perpetrator is well concealed. A bit of heart-thumping terror would have been a welcome addition.
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September 25, 2012My main problem with this novel was that I didn't really understand why the author chose to tell the story from Winter's point of view. I guess I didn't really understand what Winter had to do with this Amanda girl being found dead. Sure her brother had a somewhat close tie to her but it just didn't work for me in this aspect. It lost a fair bit of the impact of the death by watering it down to being in Winter's POV, I think.
July 3, 2016
When Amanda Clarke is found dead near the riverbank of a small Sydney town in 1973, rumours of how her death occur start flying. 'Darkwater' follows fifteen-year old Winter's journey as she tries to find out what really happened to Amanda. However, whilst there are lots of red herrings throughout the book the author does not give any clues to allow the reader to guess who the perpetrator really was. I also found the characters under-developed and the book lacking any real intrigue.
August 9, 2011
Darkwater is an incredibly suspenseful and captivating story. Winter is left terrified by the murder of a school girl. She no longer feels safe in her own town. Neither does her friends. Determined to find Amanda’s killer, Winter and her friends begin to join the pieces together, to get justice, for Amanda, and for her family.
September 29, 2011
Having gone to high school during the 70s there was a real 'ring of truth' about this book for me. The way the characters interacted and the self-consciousness of teen years was really convincingly portrayed. I really liked the writing and found the mystery and tension built really well. Enjoyable read!
July 24, 2016
I really enjoyed the story and liked the pace and development until the end. The story was progressing and when it was revealed who killed Amanda the story came to a quick conclusion and an abrupt end. I didn't want a lot more of the end, the length was great, it just would have been nice if the reveal could have been better developed.
January 30, 2014
It was good, not great. Some plot points kinda came out of nowhere, with no link to anything else and not much explanation or follow up. This didn't detract too much from the story however, just kinda threw me a little as I was trying to figure out what they meant. And turns out - nothing. Oh well.
An easy read.
An easy read.
September 27, 2014
I was forced to read this novel, first term at school. What I wasn't forced to do was read it so quickly in less than 3 days. I loved the suspense in the novel and the plot. I am a big fan of mysteries and I assure you this book one. I very much enjoyed the plot twist am so glad I was 'forced' to read it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews