The Minnow

by Diana Sweeney

Tom survived a devastating flood that claimed the lives of her sister and parents. Now she lives with Bill in his old shed by the lake. But it’s time to move out—Tom is pregnant with Bill’s baby.

Jonah lets her move in with him. Mrs Peck gives her the Fishmaster Super Series tackle box. Nana is full of gentle good advice and useful sayings.

And in her longing for what is lost, Tom talks to fish: Oscar the carp in the pet shop, little Sarah catfish who might be her sister, an unhelpful turtle in a tank at the maternity ward. And the minnow.

The Minnow is a moving and powerful coming of age story with a whimsical element that belies the heartbreaking truth of grief and loss. Tom is a character you will never forget.

Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Fiction, Fantasy, Coming Of Age, Magical Realism, Friendship

256 pages, Paperback

First published May 28, 2014

Reviews

[Shelby *trains flying monkeys* · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well, I thought this was a sucky ass book. You have Tom (aka Holly) who loses her mom, dad and sister in a flood. She moves in with Bill (I never figured out who he was exactly). Well, Bill takes her with him when he goes to bang the neighborhood missus who runs a local store. Then Bill figures out that Tom is a girl and she becomes pregnant by him. *insert rage here*
Nothing happens to him for being a dang pervert. *head-desk*
I never did figure out how old Tom is supposed to be. (ETA: A lovely person told me 14) I knew it said she was in her 9th year at school but her voice comes across much, much younger.
The writing in this book is in the form of those choppy ass sentences that I hate so much, except when I use them. MUahahahaa!
Oh, throw in the fact that Tom speaks to dead people

talks to fish (one of whom she believes is her sister)

and has a pregnancy with what the fetus can tell when something is going to happen and you've got a confusing crap fest of a book.

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

See more reviews at YA Midnight Reads

T'WAS SO BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN *eats words*

Nothing much changes.

You love someone, they die. You miss them. You grow older.

I cannot remember the last time I've read something like The Minnow. Honestly, I'm not even sure if I've ever read anything like The Minnow. Utterly beautiful and magical, The Minnow sucked me in completely, and I'm sure Tom's story won't be leaving my head any time soon.

Tom is a girl. Her real name is Holly but everyone calls her Tom. The reason? You'll just have to find out yourself. Tom, for me, was a fantastic choice of a protagonist. Though odd and strange, she was a very determined girl who I became to love quite early on in the novel. She's only 14-15 years of age and that's just about the age I am so with that addition, I could really feel for her. My only qualm with Tom was how she was always, constantly crying. I can see why she does cry, but I don't like how I became hyper-conscious of it because she was crying so frequently.

Where this book's strongest aspect lays is in the narration. It is poignant, and I ate up every word. The author's use of short sentences was well done and it gave such a fantastic effect. Like Emily @ The Loony Teen Writer said, the writing is just so calming. You literally just fall into the words, because they're so damn perfect and glorious in every way. Don't even let me get started on how gorgeous the imagery is. *sighs* I definitely want to be reading more of this author's works because of the writing. For a change, I think I might love the dialogue more than the prose in this case.

So while I was reading this book, this happened:



 

Let me warn you now, as fantastic smelling this book is, don't smell it until you've finished reading or else you'll be at mercy to spoilers. I got spoiled and I seriously regret it because that ENDING. I cry a million times. ;____;

Another thing that I fell in love with? How weird Tom's conversations were. She talks to fish. Waiiit but that's not all! She talks to her dead relatives like her Papa and her sister Sarah. Aaaaaand.... She talks to The Minnow. Tom, a 14-15 year old girl talks to The Minnow. The Minnow is inside of her, The Minnow is in her stomach. Yep, you didn't read that wrong, Tom, a 14-15 year old girl is pregnant.

HOW AWESOME IS THAT?

Okay that came out wrong. It's not a good thing she's pregnant of course, but I loved how unique that made this book. It made me curious and I wanted to give Tom a big big hug. The Minnow is one of my favourite characters in this novel, Tom and her conversations with the unborn baby are so interesting and left a smile on my face. It was truly something beautiful and compelling, their relationship.

The only thing I had a problem with was the fact that I got confused a number of times. The tense changed without hesitation and I was thrown off balance and confused on what was really happening now and what wasn't. It took me some time to adjust each time. But apart from that, I don't have any other quibbles.

Ineffably beautiful and spellbinding, The Minnow was a richly crafted tale that was filled with diversity and gorgeous writing. I will eat this book for dinner if I could.

~Thank you Text Publishing Australia for sending me this copy!~

[Jeann (Happy Indulgence) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review appears on Happy Indulgence. Check it out for more reviews!

I have just finished reading The Minnow, and I still have no idea what I just read. The Minnow was absolutely beautiful, in the way it presented the story that could have potentially torn us to pieces. But it was so unusual in the way that it was told, it kind of detracted from that grief, trauma and sadness.

Tom is a 15 year old girl who is pregnant, from the result of sexual abuse from an older man. She has lost her parents and sister recently to some floods, but her sister and her grandpa are both very present characters in the story. That’s because Tom sees, hears and interacts with dead people. Don’t try and figure out who is actually physically present and who is not, because it’s all fair game to Tom. She’s also incredibly endearing with the way she uses a word of the day and refers to her dictionary and thesaurus throughout.

Which lead me to think, that Tom is a complex, strong and disturbed girl, especially after everything she’s been through. That thought made me sad, and as I progressed through The Minnow, it stuck with me. For most of the book, we read Tom’s innermost thoughts and the way she relates to the world around her. Throughout the book, she will bring up things that seem to be relatively literal to her, such as a girl Anabel being a mermaid with fish scales on her neck, and being able to talk to turtles and fish. That’s where the whimsical part comes in.

The Minnow is literally Tom’s unborn baby in the book, who has her own voice and speaks to Tom during her pregnancy. In a way, having The Minnow kind of distracted Tom from all of the other problems around her, and symbolised love after loss.

Then comes the confusing part. The book is really hard to follow in linear progression, it will switch randomly from different events through the past and the present. You will be reading one thing, where Tom is in hospital because she’s giving birth, then every new paragraph will be something new. I found the switching around to be confusing and hard to follow, which didn’t help my enjoyment of the book.

There are some absolutely beautiful character relationships here, such as the one with Jonah, Tom’s wonderful, non-judgmental and supportive best friend. He sticks with Tom all the way through her pregnancy with The Minnow, and even takes care of the baby afterwards. And they don’t end up a couple just for caring for each other – as Jonah turns out to be gay. I’m not quite sure why two minors were allowed to live together alone though, which seems to be a massive loophole. The way Tom relates to her Nana in a nursing home, and her dead grandfather or ‘Papa’ is also quite touching.

The Minnow is a beautiful, touching, and unusual book about grief, teenage pregnancy and coping with loss and life. It’s told in a strange whimsical manner that jumps around the past and the present, which is confusing. It’s one of the most unique books I’ve ever read, which isn’t a surprise why it’s won the 2014 Text Prize. I loved the diversity and the beauty within the book, which packs a punch in its short length.

I received this book from Text Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

[Christine Bongers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unique, beguiling and wondrous strange. Meet Tom, adrift at 14, and pregnant to Bill, a menacing charmer more than twice her age. Tom talks to the dead and her unborn child, the Minnow,as she and best friend Jonah navigate the loss of their families in a devastating Mother's Day flood. For those who like their fiction to stray into uncharted waters and can live with unanswered questions at the end.

[ALPHAreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tom is 14-years-old. She lives in The Crossing, a small coastal town that recently experienced devastating floods. Tom’s Mum, Dad and sister all died and she has been living with Bill ever since. Now she finds herself pregnant with Bill’s baby, and caught in the middle of his shady business, which is gaining the interest of the local police.

So Tom moves into her best friend Jonah’s house – Jonah’s parents also died in the floods, and he’s happy to take care of Tom if it means getting her away from Bill.

While the baby grows in her belly – and takes on the persona of ‘the minnow’ – Tom goes about her life; visiting her Nana in the nursing home, talking to the ghost of her dead grandfather Papa and fishing when the mood takes her.

But grief is always there, waiting to bob to the surface and reel Tom back in.

‘The Minnow’ is the debut young adult book from Diana Sweeney, and winner of the 2013 Text Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing.

By now nobody should be surprised that the Text Prize is producing some of Australia’s finest young adult and children’s writing. But here I am, gobsmacked yet again that this Prize has unearthed such an original, tender and downright unique work as ‘The Minnow’ from debut novelist Diana Sweeney. I can honestly say, with hand over my heart, that I’ve never read anything quite like this disarming and haunting novel – I kept trying to think if Sweeney had echoes of Isabel Allende’s magical realism, or A.S. King’s subversion with perhaps literary touches of Karen Russell. But I have come to the conclusion that Diana Sweeney simply writes like no other – she is a wholly unique and welcome new voice to Australian youth literature, and ‘The Minnow’ is a majestic debut.

Sweeney tells Tom’s uncomfortable and tragic story of becoming orphan and pregnant to a much older man, but cloaked in beguiling prose and almost with vignette-like flashbacks. When we meet her, Tom is fourteen and indeed an orphan – having lost her Mum, Dad and sister to the floods a few months back;

The last time I saw Sarah she was floating head down with her arms and legs out from her sides like a star fish. I watched her from the roof of the fire station, counting the seconds. She held the record at fifty-two. I counted to sixty as she disappeared around the side of the newsagent. I remember thinking she was probably sneaking a breath.

She has been living with an older man called Bill – we don’t quite know how much older (though can assume it’s considerably) or how she came to be sleeping in the loft of his shack house. But when we meet her, Tom finds herself pregnant with his child after a one-off liaison and in need of her (two-years older) friend, Jonah’s, help for new accommodation when Bill’s extracurricular activities see him fleeing from the police.

As the baby grows inside her, Tom starts referring to the tadpole as ‘The Minnow’ and the two have frequent conversations and sometimes disagreements during the incubation.

Tom also visits the local pet shop and carries on thoughtful conversations with Oscar the Carp and Sarah the Catfish. Not to mention the vital relationship she has with her Nana, who lives in a nursing home, and her grandfather Papa – who died a long time ago but insists on haunting Nana, for he never stopped loving her.

Yes, these little asides with her dead Papa, growing baby and various forms of marine life are strange and certainly a nod to magic realism. But they’re not jarring or so disorientating when Sweeney’s entire story is about the ‘after’ of tragedy – when nothing ever feels right or normal ever again. And Sweeney is exploring devastation so beautifully, with such tender understanding and sparkling prose, that the reader can hardly begrudge Tom the friends and family she has amassed around her – real or imagined, living or haunting. She is fourteen-years-old and has experienced too much pain before her time, she is wiser for it but still a young girl navigating uncertainty and hurt.

And the flights of realism never feel so out of place because Sweeney’s writing captures them so perfectly to orientate the reader. Her words are at once sparse but beautifully constructed; she has the rhythms of a true storyteller so that I found myself finishing the book in a day without ever really feeling the passage of time. Her pacing is particularly impressive, particularly for how she says so much with so little. We get a few flashbacks, for instance, that can run the length of a paragraph but feel like a fulfilling vignette for how much detail she manages to cram into the more infinitesimal of memories:

Sarah and I hardly ever played hide-and-seek. Mum said it was an unfair game because Sarah always ended up in tears when she couldn’t find me. I absolutely loved hiding and it never bothered me if Sarah wouldn’t play, because I had just as much fun hiding on my own. Dad said I could hide in plain sight. I’m not sure how I did it, but I could stand flat against a wall and Mum would walk straight past and not notice I was there.
It took a few years of practice – and a lot of help from Papa – to hide from Dad. Papa said Dad’s army training was our biggest hurdle. I tried asking Dad about it once, but he just walked away from me.

I will say that I felt Sweeney was gathering storm-clouds and foreshadows as she made her way to the end, but when we finally got there I found myself wishing it had been tighter, maybe clearer and perhaps a chapter or two longer?

This books sticks with you – is it too much of a cliché to say ‘hook, line and (golden) sinker?’ Here is a book unlike any other on the YA shelves today. On the one hand it is dark and bush gothic, but also with a sense of whimsy and lightness. Tom is a protagonist too young for such tragedy but all the more interesting for how she has survived, and is still surviving, in the wake of it. Diana Sweeney carries you under with this story that is full of death and ghosts but with a deftly surreal touch and haunting prose … I want to read more from her, and soon.

[Nara · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Minnow is one incredibly strange book. "Whimsical" doesn't even begin to describe it.

I've seen many claims that the narration is incredibly powerful. And while the narrative voice was indeed very poignant, with the innocent tone highlighting Tom's youth, at times I felt almost as if the narrative voice was too young. It didn't really seem like a year ten student speaking, but someone much younger. And while I could appreciate the author's attempt at a "moving and powerful coming of age story" with roots of "the heartbreaking truth of grief and loss", honestly, I didn't particularly feel any strong emotion when reading the book. I felt very much like an observer rather than letting myself really get immersed in the world.

Probably the biggest reason for this was the very disconnected flow. The pacing just seemed off for me, leading to a slightly boring read, to be quite honest. The writing style was also rather problematic. While it was a very subtle writing style, where nothing was overtly stated, and sure, this follows the rule of "show don't tell"- it almost stuck too closely to that rule, because it was actually rather confusing at times. I would have liked some explanations, particularly at the end.

All in all, The Minnow was an impressive effort for a debut novel, but unfortunately, I found the execution lacking, with poor pace and a lack of emotional engagement.

Ratings
Overall: 6/10
Plot: 3/5
Writing: 4/5
Characters: 3/5
Cover: 4/5

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Minnow is a beautifully written tale about Tom, a 14 year old orphan who is pregnant to a much older man, and her best friend Jonah, who must navigate the world after the tragic Mothers day flood that stole both of their families. Throw in that Tom can talk to fish, and dead people, and the gorgeous character "the minnow" and you have a heartbreaking, lyrical and unique story. I have never read anything like this. I'm not 100% sure about anything in this book, and frankly that is a good thing.

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

i wasn’t sure about this book until the end. Tom’s rambling and introspective monologues often confused me, and I found myself questioning whether anyone was truly there at all. I also really valued the dialogue that this book opens on death and memory.

Finally, let me put this lightly- I would die a thousand times over for Jonathan.

[Chiara · Rating 4 out of 5]

A copy of this novel was provided by Text Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

The Minnow is one of the most unique novels that I have had the pleasure of reading. I’m so glad that Text sent this book to me, because there is a chance I may have never discovered The Minnow by myself. There is no question in my mind why The Minnow won the Text Prize.

To me, The Minnow felt like Tom’s memoir. The tense was all over the place, and the descriptions were all but non-existent, however this added so much reality to the novel. I found myself not caring, and creating my own images from the little tidbits I was provided by Tom.

I don’t really know how to categorise The Minnow, because even though the time, setting and story are very contemporary-based, there are themes that are very reminiscent of something more. For instance, Tom speaks to the dead, and to animals. It’s not made entirely clear if this is all in Tom’s imagination, or whether these conversations are actually taking place, but I found the whole thing absolutely beautiful. I loved the interactions between her and these non-human characters, especially her grandfather, and the sassy turtle in the hospital. They are one of the most unique qualities of The Minnow, and definitely endeared me to the novel as a whole.

Tom is an incredibly deep and complex character. She is one of those characters that feels very three dimensional; very real, and I loved reading about her life. She’s not perfect, but she’s funny and thoughtful and so very strong. The way she looks at life is a completely Tom way – completely her, and utterly wonderful to read about. There wasn’t one moment that I did not enjoy reading about her world through her eyes.

The cast of characters in The Minnow is as colourful as the cover (which has shiny bits on it, by the way – SHINY BITS), and each was completely individual from the next. I couldn’t pick a favourite because they all had traits and characteristics which I liked. We had Jonah who was the most supportive friend Tom could have ever had, we had James Wo who I can only think of in both first and last name now, we had Tom’s grandmother (who was alive) and grandfather (who was dead) – we had a beautiful menagerie of wonderful characters who tug at your heartstrings.

I would have loved a little bit more information about two aspects of the novel, though. The first is Bill. I truly have no idea who he is, and how he was allowed to live with a minor (Tom) for so long. Were they related in any way? Because if not, I find it hard to believe there was no one else Tom could have lived with. The second were these snippets where Tom had a tube in her throat and couldn’t talk. I don’t recall being given any context to these snippets and I am left wondering what they were exactly. Were they from when she was a baby? I would have liked to know.

Other than those two minor qualms, I enjoyed almost every aspect of The Minnow. It was a wonderful story of love, loss, becoming an adult, and learning to live.

© 2014, Chiara @ Books for a Delicate Eternity . All rights reserved.

[Paris Williment · Rating 5 out of 5]

If the author lets me, I’m making this into a stage show. It’s absurdly amazing. I love it and I can’t begin to understand some of the reviews on it- the writing style is obviously deliberate, the trauma she’s been through greatly influences how she reacts and interacts to the world around her. And Bill is never bad-mouthed by the narrator but somehow we all harbour seething hatred towards him. I love this book.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this, it was compelling and an interesting concept, but it got confusing at times when it jumped all over the place in time.

[Kelly (Diva Booknerd) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3½ Stars.
http://www.divabooknerd.com/2014/06/t...
The Minnow is a story of grief, loss and one young girl learning to heal. Tom, who's nickname is all she's known by, is an incredible character. Although her short life so far has been ravaged by incredible sadness, she lives with a fairytale type, whimsical outlook. She talks to the spirit of those around her who have passed, she speaks with fish in the pet shop and inlet, and of course The Minnow, which is what she's decided to call her unborn child. I'm sure it's not uncommon for those experiencing such sadness, to talk to the deceased, but Tom often describes their conversations and being able to physically touch the dead. I felt incredibly sad for Tom and her unborn child, although she now lives with her best friend Jonah, who is a huge support, she's a young girl without her mother who is potentially facing life as a single parent at only fifteen years old.

Throughout The Minnow, Tom shares her love of words plucked from her dictionary. It was incredibly endearing. But as much as I loved Tom's character, the storyline left me confused at times. I needed to reread passages to find a hidden meaning to unravel the story, constantly feeling as though I was missing something. It jumped from what was the present, to Tom recalling incidents that I wasn't sure had happened, or like talking to the dead, were a figment of her imagination. I have a theory on what the storyline was alluding to, but sadly it's never quite confirmed.My only main gripe was that so many in town knew who fathered The Minnow, but so many adults had let her down.

So how do you review a book that you didn't quite understand? Easy. It was beautiful, and a worthy winner of the Text Prize. I'm going with the premise that we're never quite meant to understand, and that's what the wonder of The Minnow is. It's supposed to provoke thought and for the reader to draw their on conclusions, It was simply lovely. It allows the reader to see the beauty of our world though the eyes of a girl who has a second chance, and a new life to live for. And it goes without saying, that cover is simply divine.

[Ameya · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Minnow means small fry.
The Minnow is written in the first person, in the voice of Tom. Tom is a girl called Holly who, at the age of 14, lost her family when a flood deluged her town. Many of the townsfolk died and there was immense damage. It was still quite creepy to learn that Tom shacked up with Bill, a shady character about town, and no adults intervened.

It is therefore no surprise to learn that Tom's grief is compounded when she finds out she is pregnant following what seems like a single encounter with Bill. And then the problems with the novel compound.

They are in no particular order:
• The present tense is largely used and uncomfortably juxtaposed with the past tense throughout the story
• Tom's character is not compelling and her voice is not unique
• The use of gimmicks and devices throughout the novel in the place of actual narrative to propel the plot, as there is no plot:
o E.g. the use of dictionary and thesaurus meanings to explain why a 14-year-old girl writes /speaks like a mature woman
o The use of ghosts speaking to Tom, without explaining why this `realistic' novel is packed with a paranormal theme
o The use of talking animals. Isn't that the domain of picture books?
o The use of a talking baby in the womb, without the same device used when the baby is born

And that ultimately is the greatest fault with this story: there is no plot. Bill doesn't get his comeuppance for paedophilia. Really?! Which editor worked on this novel and which competition judged this to be meritorious to win a major YA award?

[Gerti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tom, oder besser Holly hat bei der großen Flut ihre Familie verloren. Bill, der sie aufnimmt ist hinter jedem Rock her. Als er entdeckt, dass Tom ein Mädchen ist, wohlgemerkt gerade mal 14 Jahre, schwängert er sie.

Tom versucht nun, mit dieser Situation fertig zu werden. Ihr Fischlein, so nennt sie das Ungeborene, hilft ihr dabei. Ebenso ihr Freund Jonah, der zwar schwul ist, sie aber bei sich wohnen lässt und dessen Großvater Jonathan, der ihr väterlicher Freund wird.
Das Buch geht unter die Haut, da Tom den Leser an ihren Erlebnisse und Gefühlen so unmittelbar teilhaben lässt. Es finden ziemliche Zeitsprünge statt, was aber nicht ins Gewicht fällt, denn die Handlung um diese Rückfindung ins Leben ist atmosphärisch so dicht, dass man meint, selbst einer derjenigen zu sein, die Tom braucht um in die Realität zurückzukehren.

[Louise Cleary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this story. I read it in one sitting. I laughed, I cried and I will remember it for a long time.

[Mallory · Rating 2 out of 5]

More like a 2.5 rating.

Find this review and more fantastical things at The Leaning Tower of Tomes.

Source: I received this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. This in no way affects my review; all opinions are my own. Thank you, Text Publishing!

The review:

I guess you could call The Minnow "whimsical", but it's stranger than "whimsical". It's a unique book about Tom, a fourteen-year-old girl who is pregnant with what she calls "The Minnow". A flood devastated her town and killed many of her family members. (I wanted to know more about the flood, as the explanations were too vague for my liking.) She still talks to them, her grandfather and sister, mainly, as sort of figments of her imagination. (I found this really poignant.) The book is about her life as she struggles through her pregnancy, a sort of coming-of-age story, I suppose. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what The Minnow is, though. I couldn't put it down but was also extremely confused by it. Due in part to the jumpy narrative.

The story goes from present to past to present to past all the time. It was jarring and left me disoriented whenever I had to figure out what what going on when. I liked how it realistically felt like Tom's stream of consciousness, but as a reader it was too much work to follow.

You may be wondering... how did Tom get pregnant? Well, after the flood, she went to live with Bill, a man described once as probably "her father's age". (Why would she go live with Bill, though? Is he a distant relative, or someone Tom's parents made her guardian?) It's not clearly stated, but I believe that he rapes her. Anyway, then Tom goes to live with her best friend Jonah (why would anyone let two minors live by themselves? The logic here didn't do it for me, or a lot of other readers, I found out), who is sixteen-years-old, and who proves to be an awesome friend. He supports Tom through everything and helps take care of her baby. (Also, aside, Jonah is gay, so that was a nice bit of diversity to find here.) A lot of the book also deals with the police investigating a suddenly MIA Bill for a crime that's never explained. For so much attention to the crime, I wanted it to be revealed in the end so I could get some closure on Bill, the creep, but, alas, I didn't get it.

I liked Tom and really sympathized with her. I liked her direct, no-nonsense narration. I also liked her interest in words and their meanings: She constantly looked up definitions in her dictionary and thesaurus, and I'm a nerd like that, too, so I thought that was a fun little habit of hers. Tom also talked to fish. Greatest thing ever, in my opinion. I especially loved the conversations she had with the seahorse and turtle. It cracked me up. Tom also refers to her unborn baby as "The Minnow", which I thought was adorable. The Minnow herself was a great character, having conversations with her mother and intuiting things. The other supporting characters were all fine, but I never really cared for any of them besides Nana, Papa, and Jonah.

The Minnow reads very quickly, even though it's pretty confusing most of the time. (I read it in two sittings, each time half of the novel.) The book's ending is rather ambiguous, and I'm still not 100% sure what happened there... Basically, I'm still confused with what I read, but I did overall enjoy this unique book. ♦

So tell me...

Have you read The Minnow? If you haven't, would you be interested to? What was the last book you read about teen pregnancy? Comment below letting me know! And, as always, happy reading!

Follow me @ toweroftomes on Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | and Bloglovin’!

[Jillian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Copy provided by NetGalley

As a girl whose nose has been permanently in a book since she could actually read on her own, I like to think that I’ve read it all. It’s a ridiculous thought because there are millions upon millions of books in the world, and I’ve maybe read 2,000 or more in my eighteen years on Earth. I let myself have such this delusion because I have read a lot of books in my life so far, and sometimes they all seem to be the same for better or worse. The Minnow, for what it’s worth, will definitely stand out in my memory.

With such a bizarre summary, I didn’t know what to expect from The Minnow. I was really hoping it would turn out alright. After all, it did focus on a young pregnant girl who has recently lost her parents and younger sister in a devastating flood. Maybe there would be some serious character development, I thought, with a hint of drama for good measure. I had yet to actually meet Tom/Holly. Holly is her real name, but she has been nicknamed Tom most of her life by her family. In the beginning of the novel, Tom is living with a much older man, Bill, in the aftermath of the flood. It’s never revealed to the reader how this relationship came to be or why Tom decided to live with him. In fact, a lot of essential information is never given out by Tom. We don’t know when the flood occurred or why. We don’t see Tom find out she is pregnant. We never really learn what Bill is up to. Tom’s narration leaves out a lot of detail. Frankly, it is also bizarre. She talks to ghosts (her grandfather, her little sister, her grandmother’s old friend), fish, and her unborn baby whom she nicknames the Minnow. She never actually gives a name to her child, and no one else in the novel ever finds this strange. I was worried for Tom most of the time. Either she was so traumatized over what happened to her family she was having delusions, or she was heading for a psychotic break.

Despite the weirdness of Tom, none of the other characters are well developed or consistently portrayed. I had a soft spot for Jonah, who was actually a great friend, but not enough time was spent on him. It’s mentioned he lost his parents and lives alone until Tom moves in, but his loss is never expanded on nor that of his grandfather Jonathon. At the beginning of the novel Jonathon is more eccentrically portrayed (needing guidelines for having conversations and etc.) and changes dramatically towards the end as he falls in love with Nana. Nana herself was funny and delightfully, but even she was underutilized.

Diana Sweeney’ sophomore novel is just a mess. It picks up and drops plot points as quickly as you can turn the page. For example, Tom has to enter the hospital during her pregnancy for short periods of time, and yet it is never expanded upon. The plotline is scattered and difficult to follow from chapter to chapter. Memories from Tom’s childhood and her conversations with animals and ghosts are oddly interspersed with the rest of her narration. Tom as a character clearly does not have a firm grip on reality, and yet no one else ever notices or mentions this. There is no true resolution. Nothing involving Bill is clearly solved, and the novel ends just feeling incomplete and sloppy.

I never had high hopes for The Minnow, and I knew what I thought of the novel when I was only about a quarter of the way through it. With a more grounded main character and a more experienced hand, The Minnow could have been a whimsical but touching novel with some serious potential. Instead, it reads wacky and flat with characters that are never really explored. I would not recommend The Minnow, and I think it needs some serious editing and care.


Review also posted at With a Book in My Pocket: (https://jillianlaw.wordpress.com/)

[Emily Mead · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read reviews, see awesome GIFS and see my rambling thoughts at my blog, The Loony Teen Writer

Like all before me, I love this cover SO SO much. In the paperback version (you can’t really see just from the image) some of the images on the front are silver and shiny. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to read it. The others were that 1) it won the Text Prize in 2013, 2) it sounded amazing and 3) Text’s books have never disappointed me.

And I’m glad to say that I was not disappointed.

Ways to describe The Minnow: beautiful writing. Breathtaking imagery. Questions of reality. Counting sheep. An unusual protagonist. Past and present. And, of course, the Minnow.

So Tom is our protagonist. It’s a nickname – her real name is Holly, but I won’t tell you why she’s called Tom. Not that it’s a spoiler, but you can read for yourself why she’s called that. And I love Tom. She’s a character you wouldn’t see in any other YA book. She talks to fish (and they talk back). She talks to some of her dead relatives, especially her Papa. She talks to her unborn baby, whom she calls the Minnow. This created a sense of magic, I suppose, and is one of the most unique forms of storytelling I’ve ever had the pleasure to read.

A lot of it was just so calming.

Not that the story was calming, exactly. There was a lot of heartache and sadness and confusion. I mean, Tom’s a fifteen-year-old girl who’s pregnant – that’s not the easiest thing to go through. But the way the story was told, the slow pace, the heavy use of water-based imagery made for a really lovely read.

I should explain the counting sheep thing. I mentioned it before in how I would describe The Minnow. It was just a short section, but for some reason I really loved it. You know how counting sheep is supposed to make you fall asleep? This books describes an alternative version. Not sure why I’m devoting a whole paragraph to it, but that’s just one of the many examples of things that are re-imagined, the versions of reality that are recrafted to create this utterly incredible debut.

It made me want to be a better writer. In one of my first drafts, the main character has a pet spider who she talks to. It’s contemporary YA, and that’s the only non-realistic thing in it. I kind of thought that wasn’t allowed. But this book breaks all the rules, and I’d love to experiment with surrealism, which I’ve encountered often in drama but rarely in YA contemporary.

Then there’s the Minnow! I mean, the book is named after the Minnow. She is Tom’s unborn baby. Tom talks to the Minnow, and she talks back, and it’s generally just adorable and different. Throughout the book, there’s no explanation about why/how/if Tom is actually talking to dead people and fish, but that just adds to the mystery and whimsy. Don’t overthink it! Just go with the flow.

It was a little confusing at some points, and I think some things could have done with more explanation. It’s a difficult balance when you write a novel this unique, because if you explain TOO much, it loses that incredible writing quality. But I think even a tiny bit more explanation, or even transition into the past/present, would have helped.

If you enjoy characters over plot, talking to animals and beautiful writing, you should definitely give it a go.

Comparison books:

Bird by Crystal Chan and Girl Saves Boy by Steph Bowe – both Text books, both unique and incredibly well-written.

[Buchdoktor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ein Buchcover in Lackoptik, darunter ein farbenfroh mit Meeresbewohnern illustrierter Pappeinband verbergen die verstörende Geschichte des Mädchens Tom.

Tom lebt in Neuseeland und hat bei einer Flutkatastrophe Mutter und Schwester verloren, ihr Vater war bereits vorher ertrunken. Tom ist nicht die Einzige, der die Flut den Boden unter den Füßen weggezogen hat. Eine Lehrerin ist bei dem Unglück ums Leben gekommen, eine andere hat ihre Kinder verloren. Die 16-Jährige heißt in Wirklichkeit Holly Thomas und der Spitzname Tom (wie tomcat) passt perfekt zu ihr. Nach der Flut konnte Tom im Bootsschuppen von Billy unterschlüpfen, von dem sie nun ein Kind erwartet. Am liebsten würde Tom bei Jonah leben, der ebenfalls seine Eltern durch die Flut verloren hat, doch Jonah hat andere Pläne, die er noch nicht auf den Tisch packen kann. Für die Überlebenden scheint es keine Therapien zu geben, um die Katastrophe zu verarbeiten, sie müssen selbst füreinander sorgen.

Besondere Zeiten erfordern ungewöhnliches Handeln. Mit berührender Selbstverständlichkeit wird Tom von verschiedenen Menschen gestützt. Angefangen mit Jonah, der wie sie noch zur Schule geht, über Nan, ihre Oma im Altersheim, Jonathan, den Großvater von Jonah, bis zu all jenen, die Tom als schwangere Jugendliche umsorgen und betreuen. Ein besonderer Helfer ist der Lehrer James Wo, der Tom nach über einem Jahr Abwesenheit wieder an die Schule gewöhnen möchte. Wenn Tom noch nicht wieder zur Schule gehen kann, wird er ihr eben den Unterrichtsstoff nachhause zu Jonah bringen. Zum Hilfsmittel bei seinem Projekt wird ein Synonymwörterbuch. Am Beispiel der Schule wird deutlich, dass Spenden und Wiederaufbau die Wunden der Überlebenden nicht heilen können. Im Gegenteil, das neue Wandbild, das James Wo im Laubengang der neu gebauten Schule gemalt hat, erinnert Tom nur daran, wie sehr sie ihre alte Schule und ihre Kameraden vermisst.

Die Frage, ob Bill ihre Hilfsbedürftigkeit ausgenutzt und sie missbraucht hat, muss zunächst zurückstehen. Für Tom verschwimmen Gegenwart und Vergangenheit miteinander und ihre Toten erscheinen, um sich mit ihr zu unterhalten. Papa, Oma Nans verstorbener Mann, taucht ebenso auf wie Toms Vater. In verwirrenden Zeitsprüngen erlebt Tom in Flashbacks Szenen aus ihrer Kindheit gemeinsam mit dem Vater, der zu dieser Zeit vielleicht längst nicht mehr lebte. Auch die Zeitform gibt keine Orientierung; denn aus der Vergangenheit wird in wechselnden Zeitformen berichtet. Diese Übergangsphase schützt die Überlebende Tom zurzeit noch davor, sich mit der Endgültigkeit des Todes abfinden zu müssen. Ein wichtiger Gesprächspartner für Tom ist das Ungeborene, das Fischlein. In verwirrenden äußeren Umständen und innerlicher Verwirrung vermittelt Tom Lesern des Romans Einblick in die komplizierte Psyche traumatisierter Überlebender. Tom kann nur in kleinen Schritten Pläne für die Zukunft machen, weil sie noch immer nicht glauben kann, dass sie selbst überlebt hat. Für ihr Fischlein muss sie nun jedoch Pläne machen.

Verstörende Ereignisse verbergen sich hier hinter brüchiger Realität und poetischer Darstellung. Durch die Überlappung von Gegenwart und Vergangenheit, Traum und Wirklichkeit ist das Buch für die jugendliche Zielgruppe sicher eine Herausforderung. Dennoch ermöglicht die Figur der überlebenden „Tom“, sich in eine Situation einzufühlen, in der sie noch nicht bereit ist, wieder normal, sauber und dankbar zu sein, wie Nichtbetroffene es vielleicht von ihr erwarten würden. Den Zeitpunkt, an dem Normalität für sie beginnt, wird Tom selbst bestimmen.

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weird, different, but I liked it a lot. I WAS EMOTIONALLY ATTACHED SURPRISINGLY. My only problem was that the story jumped around without warning.

I received The Minnow from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

So, The Minnow, I liked it a lot. I did. The descriptive and poetic writing really pulled through to me, but it was also really confusing at some points.

Gah, you see this, The Minnow is complicated to rate because I liked the characters a lot, and the writing, but it was just so hard to piece what was happening together. The main character, Tom, a girl, lost her parents and sister to a flood. In addition to that, she's also pregnant (and it kind of hints that it's rape). The story starts with her living with her best friend, Jonah, and her visiting her Nana at the nursing home.

Even though Tom has gone through a lot, it doesn't drag her down that much.

But then again, she is talking to ghosts, and fish. And no this isn't some sort of paranormal novel, it's just her losing her mind. Or so I think? I'm actually very convinced that she does see all these people that she talks to, but that's up to further discussion.

Oh, and the most important little character, the one the book is named after? The baby, otherwise known as by Tom as the Minnow. You know how mothers bond with their baby by talking to them before they're born? This is kind of what's happening here, butttttttt the Minnow talks back.

No, but seriously, there is one point in the book where Jonah, the gay best friend, exclaims that he hears the Minnow speaking, and he thought Tom was making it all up because she's pregnant. But nope? Hm.

Yes, but by the way, there is LGBTQ here! Even though it's on the side.

As you can see, I'm still slightly confused at what is actually going on. Are there actually ghosts? Or is it just Tom's imagination? Some events make me think otherwise. The writing is incredibly dense, plus flashbacks occur with no warning. Basically, it is very hard to differentiate what is happening in the past and the present. However, I could still understand the general idea of what was going on.

Overall, yes it was a beautiful book. I felt emotionally attached to Tom and her Nana, and Jonah and even Jonathan. This is what really motivated to keep on reading, even though the writing was at times very confusing, and plus the plot itself is very interesting. FISH, FLOODS, MINNOWS, well one minnow. But still, I can't even bring myself to rate this a 3.5, because I really liked the characters. I definitely recommend The Minnow to readers who like the writing of Maggie Stiefvater!

[Sarah Mayor Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every now and again a book comes along that just TAKES MY BREATH AWAY. This is one of these books. I've had it on my 'to read' pile since it was published. I started it, and wasn't grabbed by it at first, so I put it down. And then just like the character Minnow in the book, it disappeared from sight for over a year. It resurfaced yesterday, when I was 'soggy with a rotten cold' and good for nothing. I gulped it down in two huge bites - morning and afternoon.

What an extraordinary book!

Tom comes to live with Bill after her town has been flooded and her house washed away; her family with it. Living with Bill is not as comforting and secure as her former life with her Mum, Dad and younger sister Sarah, but Tom comes to love it and Bill in her own way. Bill and Tom share things: the boatshed, fishing and the occasional Fisherman's Breakfast in town. They also share the Minnow, Bill's baby growing fast in Tom.

The Minnow changes everything: the way Tom feels about and around Bill, where she lives, and her ability to commune with Oscar (a carp), Sarah (a catfish who may just be Tom's dead younger sister) and of course the creature growing inside her. It may seem sad that Tom has been orphaned, but these watery creatures, and her deceased Papa (and other dead former residents of the Mavis Orstein Home for the Elderly) provide her with the insight, wisdom and company she needs as she puts together her life after the flood; and prepares for life with Minnow.

This is an extraordinary book - especially as a first novel. It is disconcerting and disorienting for the reader: Who is real, who is imagined? Who is alive, who is dead? Who can be trusted, who can't? But it is these features that make this such a profoundly interesting read.

Tom and her Grandmother Nana (a living resident of the Mavis Orstein Home for the Elderly), her best friend Jonah and his father Jonathan Whiting face tragedy and heartbreak, but they find hope too. The rawness of this coming of age novel is leavened with such memorable characters, a warm and reassuring narration and a dictionary and thesaurus that distract, comfort and provide humour for the reader.

I hope schools will find the courage to use this as a set text (Yr 9 and 10) or Literature Circle text. It is not a perfect novel, no first novel ever is, but it is as close to a perfect novel as I have read in a long time. The Minnow treats its readers with respect, providing enough clues, but plenty of gaps too. And goodness knows not enough books do that these days.

Highly recommended.

[Alix Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

*WARNING! SPOILERS!*

There haven't been many books that I have finished and had that period of silent reflection where I have thought woah. I flipping wish I had written this. There has to be that tenderness, that intensity, the pull you feel towards the characters that you can't help but get unconditionally drawn to. The Minnow was without question one of those books, for me. In my previous blog post, my interview with the author Diana Sweeney, I explored the idea of the coastal community, and how pivotal it was to the magical, watery atmosphere created in the book. When the setting is so contricted and the characters are confined to the small island that is, inevitably, their world, the stories that they tell intensify to the point of no return.

The Minnow is a tragically beautiful story following fifteen-year-old Tom and her journey to regaining her sense of self after the tragic flood that devastated her whole world and killed her parents and sister, Sarah. Tom is an unquestionably strong character who has had wrong after wrong after wrong commited to her. Entrusted to family friend, Bill, after the flood, Tom is sexually abused and finds herself pregnant with 'the Minnow'. The events that follow will change her, and everyone else around her, forever. Alongside her best friend and loyal companion, Jonah, Tom realises that she is never on her own.

The Minnow is not only a story about tragedy, however. There is a persistent hopeful tone throughout, as Tom continues to look at the things in life she is grateful for. The childish, slightly broken-sounding Tom at the beginning is radically different from the young woman at the end of the novel, and the reader leaves the story with the feeling that things can only get better. The story is a journey; about acceptance, friendship, and most of all, about moving forward. Sometimes you cannot forget the past, but moving forward with it and changing it into a better future is often the best thing to do.

Tom's strength is infectious, and The Minnow challenges your misconceptions about everything in life. In a world where everything has been turned on its head, Tom remains persistently unwavering, for herself and her baby. The Minnow is a story that doles out misery and hope in equal measure, keeping with the message that nothing is better than the tiny pleasures in life. Family doesn't always come in the category of 'normal', but the family you shape for yourself is often much more important.

[Olivia (Bookcomet) · Rating 4 out of 5]

If this isn't the definition of unique, then I don't know what is.

The Minnow totally met the bar for my expectations. Many of my fellow Aussie book bloggers has read this book and pretty much all of them raved about it. Being the very inquisitive bookworm I am, I just had to know what it was about.

But back to the unique side of the book: I have never come across a book about a girl who can talk to animals, ghosts AND an unborn baby. Or about a pregnant (then fourteen) fifteen year old girl before.

I think the thing about The Minnow that touched me the most had to be Tom herself. To be honest, I still don't know whether she genuinely was seeing ghosts or whether it was just her way of coping with her life, but either way it was so interesting. Tom was quite a strange character, but she was loyal and I liked reading about her. Everything about her was unique: her situation, her personality and yeah, well, everything.

This next comment is probably going to contradict my whole review though. Because something wasn't...unique. I'm pretty sure I just heard you gasp. The Minnow just had the same "character voice" as other purposely "weird" books do. I'm not saying that this is a bad thing, actually I liked it, but I can't say this is an honest review if I claim that EVERYTHING was unique.

The relationships formed in this book really seemed to grow. Or in at least one case, decrease. But I don't like that said relationship. But whether it was the friendship between Tom and Jonah, or Tom and Nanna or even Tom and The Minnow, it was all good.

There were quite a few turns I didn't see coming though. All of a sudden something very abrupt and life changing for the characters amid what was typically a slow story. A little too slow actually. But it made for an easy read. Which of course had deeper meaning.

I'm glad I read The Minnow and would definitely recommend it to someone looking for something a little different. I would probably suggest it for ages twelve and up. Just because it's YA doesn't mean that adults shouldn't give it a go. I think that this is the sort of book that could definitely be enjoyed by adults too!

3.5/5 comets

[Rae King · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book through edelweiss in exchange for an honest review

This is not the type of book that can be put in one category. This novel intertwines several themes to create something that is beautiful, unique, and heartbreaking.

Tom is a fourteen year old girl who has lost her entire family in a flood. She becomes pregnant with an older man, Bill's, baby. The way the author writes about the circumstance leaves the reader wondering if the conception was consensual or not. Either way, it was wrong. And now Tom is carrying Bill's child. Tom soon moves in with her best friend Jonah, who also lost his parents in the flood, and he proves to be the anchor that Tom needs in her life. With Tom' baby, The Minnow, growing inside of her, Tom starts to have conversations with The Minnow. She also talks to fish and her dead relatives, making this story pull the reader down into the mind of a young girl who has suffered terrible tragedy. Whether or not Tom was hallucinating or really talking to the dead, I can't say.

The story jumps around form the present to the past. At first, I was a bit confused with this writing style. As I got deeper into the story, it didn't bother me as much, but I still think the story should have had a more clear timeline. Throughout Tom's pregnancy, she spends time with her Nana, who is a wonderful character with a spectacular spirit. Their relationship is definitely my favorite. The relationship between Tom and Bill throughout the story is the most confusing. I think Tom really cared for Bill, but she was obviously too young to comprehend -in the beginning- what happened between them.

This book still has me in a daze.

Diana Sweeney wrote a powerful story that examines how one young girl dealt with severely traumatizing events in her life. Tom is the type of character that a reader can gather strength from.

The ending was a bit abrupt for my taste, but I still thought it was a strong, emotional ending.

Bravo, Mrs. Sweeney! I look forward to reading more of your work!

http://www.meetmybookboyfriend.wordpr...

[DonutKnow]

The Minnow by Diana Sweeney
The novel had quite a lot of things to digest. There are many topics that this novel touches on: Rape, Teen Pregnancy, Death, Coping with Loss, and even a little bit of Homosexuality- but I don’t think the character, Tom processed these issues/life experiences very well, nor very realistically. I couldn’t really take the novel seriously because you would think that with this arsenal of themes- well, I thought- there would be a realistic retelling of how one copes after experiencing these ‘hardships in life’.

Instead, unfortunately my focus was a little bit diverted, I was confused after realising that she could talk to the dead. There were also times when I wondered about the significance of a few of Tom’s anecdotes: such as dreaming herself as the digging animal- which I guess lead to understanding what Bill was in trouble for, yet I felt as though this wasn’t followed up with a backstory or something; the counting sheep story; or her anecdote about her father sleeping outside. What did this mean? I have a strong feeling that the novel is more complicated than from what I have comprehended it to be because on the back there is a ‘teaching notes’ web link so I am assuming there are many underlining meanings to all of Tom’s experiences.

I guess it was a bit too abstract for my taste. However, I could relate to Tom’s love of language and words, and I enjoyed the new words that she found and used in her vocabulary. Words that I have kept in my own repertoire, hopefully for future use.

I understand that this novel is in the perspective of Tom, and that as a teenager not everything is so easily understood, and the missing gaps are probably just because the knowledge of the character on these matters were also limited. Maybe this was the purpose of this novel. To live the life of a person who has experienced these things, and see how much we can relate it to ourselves- and the entire novel might have been confusing because not one person experiencing these things is able to share and make another person who has not, understand how it felt.

[Roseanne · Rating 1 out of 5]

I never finished reading this book. I guess I couldn't get passed the fact that the main character's name was Tom and she was a female. I am all about non-gender and all, but that is just really annoying. Most of what I did read I felt that she was a slow, under-average intellectual. And I really can't stand many more of those To-Kill-A-Mimic-Bird types of reads.

Also, I am not a fisherman nor a fishermen's girlfriend/wife and didn't know that a Minnow was a fishing term of endearment--no. Sorry. It doesn't work for me. Sorry Sorry, not sorry.

[Trisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quirky, magical, and slightly off-kilter.

But so much better book precisely because of its unusual structure, its surreal nature, and its complicated characters.

Small town Australian has never been depicted quite like this. And yet, it is grounded and familiar and affectionate.

Loved it to bits.

[Leanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an incredible read.

It was odd, and heartrending, and beautiful. Sweeney does a fantastic job of translating the effects of grief onto the page. I often found myself reading faster, desperate to figure out what was going on. But still my heart sunk as I neared the end, I really wasn't ready to have finished the novel and wish there were another 300 pages.

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Minnow reads like a series of short stories all jumbled together. The characters & the story are compelling, I really liked the way Tom interacts & the understated magic. I did have a few unanswered questions though, it felt like there was a chapter or 2 about Bill missing, which is why it's 4 stars.

[Clare M · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a delightful and strange story. I quickly lost myself into Tom's magical world. This book can be a tough read at times as Tom deals with her grief from the floods and the people left behind. Definitely worth it though!