What do you think?
Rate this book
Gap
Winner of the 2013 Queensland Literary Award – Best Emerging Author
When you’re at the end of the line with nowhere to turn – how far would you go to protect the one you love?
A man is found dead in an inner-city suburb, a police officer walks the blurry line between duty and loyalty, and a young woman from the wrong side of the tracks is on the run. Ana soon becomes a suspect in the murder investigation, and as sole carer for her younger sister is desperately trying to stay ahead of the law. In a surprising twist, the detective in charge of the case is no stranger and Ana is forced to face her past and the things she has left behind. Unsure of who she can trust and isolated by her crime, Ana is drawn into a passionate affair that breaks all the rules.
From the winner of the 2013 Queensland Literary Awards – Best Emerging Author category, Gap combines a gripping crime thriller with a style evocative of Dorothy Porter’s cult classic, The Monkey’s Mask.
When you’re at the end of the line with nowhere to turn – how far would you go to protect the one you love?
A man is found dead in an inner-city suburb, a police officer walks the blurry line between duty and loyalty, and a young woman from the wrong side of the tracks is on the run. Ana soon becomes a suspect in the murder investigation, and as sole carer for her younger sister is desperately trying to stay ahead of the law. In a surprising twist, the detective in charge of the case is no stranger and Ana is forced to face her past and the things she has left behind. Unsure of who she can trust and isolated by her crime, Ana is drawn into a passionate affair that breaks all the rules.
From the winner of the 2013 Queensland Literary Awards – Best Emerging Author category, Gap combines a gripping crime thriller with a style evocative of Dorothy Porter’s cult classic, The Monkey’s Mask.
232 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
1 person is currently reading
45 people want to read
About the author
Rebecca Jessen
7 books19 followersRebecca lives in Brisbane and grew up in South-Western Sydney. She is the award-winning author of verse-novel Gap (UQP 2014). Her debut poetry collection Ask Me About the Future is forthcoming with UQP in 2020.
Rebecca’s writing has been published in Overland, Meanjin, Rabbit Poetry Journal, Going Down Swinging, The Lifted Brow, Cordite Poetry Review, Mascara Literary Review, Tincture Journal, Verity La, Voiceworks and more. She holds a First Class Honours Degree in Creative Writing from QUT.
Rebecca is the winner of the 2015 QLD Premier’s Young Publishers and Writers Award. Her book Gap was shortlisted for the 2015 Sisters In Crime Davitt Award for Best Debut Book. In 2013 Rebecca won the Queensland Literary Award for Best Emerging Author. In 2012 she won the State Library of Queensland Young Writers Award. She is the recipient of an AMP Tomorrow Maker grant.
Rebecca’s writing has been published in Overland, Meanjin, Rabbit Poetry Journal, Going Down Swinging, The Lifted Brow, Cordite Poetry Review, Mascara Literary Review, Tincture Journal, Verity La, Voiceworks and more. She holds a First Class Honours Degree in Creative Writing from QUT.
Rebecca is the winner of the 2015 QLD Premier’s Young Publishers and Writers Award. Her book Gap was shortlisted for the 2015 Sisters In Crime Davitt Award for Best Debut Book. In 2013 Rebecca won the Queensland Literary Award for Best Emerging Author. In 2012 she won the State Library of Queensland Young Writers Award. She is the recipient of an AMP Tomorrow Maker grant.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 25, 2014
So proud to see Bec grow as an author and emerge with a lovely contained and taut verse novel. Watch this author she has many many great books in her to come.
January 22, 2015
Wolfed this down in two sittings -- last night and this morning. It's a fast-paced tight crime-cum-love story, but two types of love: family love (Ana's love for her younger sister Indie, rescued from Mum a few years before) and romantic love (her rekindled love/lust for old flame Sawyer, a cop). Both these loves, and a recent desperate act to save Indie, put her in a moral dilemma we see played out. This is plotted and written well, and the situation and characters believable. Jensen has delivered what she set out to, I think.
The fifth star I can't give only because I wanted more. There's such a rich subtext here that I would have liked Jessen to be a little more generous in developing the backstory and the characterisation of Mum and Indie; the brief glimpses felt too few and too late. It gave me the same feeling as watching an episode of a crime drama in which we follow the investigators but get a whole story of the dysfunctional family investigated...except that here we're meant to be following/knowing Ana, and we leave her just when her journey is getting interesting. There's something closed about this novel for me, something that ties it all up or lays it all out too much so that there's not a lot of room to sink into it and find my own way with the characters, the situation, the clues -- none of the journeying joy Orhan Pamuk writes about in "The Naive and the Sentimental Novelist". I don't think it's verse form is to blame, although that increases the challenge (fewer words to create the gaps). That's it, actually! She's called the work "Gap" but she hasn't left enough gaps lying around, within the text, for us to grasp: a bit like handholds/footholds we can use to climb down into a deeper story. But I read it quickly; there is skill here, so more time in a fresh read might prove it's me who's missed the opportunities, rather than the work.
The fifth star I can't give only because I wanted more. There's such a rich subtext here that I would have liked Jessen to be a little more generous in developing the backstory and the characterisation of Mum and Indie; the brief glimpses felt too few and too late. It gave me the same feeling as watching an episode of a crime drama in which we follow the investigators but get a whole story of the dysfunctional family investigated...except that here we're meant to be following/knowing Ana, and we leave her just when her journey is getting interesting. There's something closed about this novel for me, something that ties it all up or lays it all out too much so that there's not a lot of room to sink into it and find my own way with the characters, the situation, the clues -- none of the journeying joy Orhan Pamuk writes about in "The Naive and the Sentimental Novelist". I don't think it's verse form is to blame, although that increases the challenge (fewer words to create the gaps). That's it, actually! She's called the work "Gap" but she hasn't left enough gaps lying around, within the text, for us to grasp: a bit like handholds/footholds we can use to climb down into a deeper story. But I read it quickly; there is skill here, so more time in a fresh read might prove it's me who's missed the opportunities, rather than the work.
July 22, 2015
http://www.divabooknerd.com/2014/07/g...
Told in verse, Gap follows the sorrowful storyline of Ana, who had just reached the lowest point in her life thus far. After being kicked out of her mother's home at only sixteen, Ana has struggled to survive, but after taking in her underage sister Indie, it's given Ana a reason to pick herself and provide a life that their mother couldn't and Ana will do anything to keep Indie safe.
What I found so striking about Ana was her realism. Her emotions, willingness to admit her past mistakes and give everything she has to protect and provide for Indie. Her emotions, her genuine fear and her unconditional love for the girl who also rescued her in turn is honest, raw and readers will not only find themselves drawn to Ana, but can relate to her downfall. But being a prime suspect in a murder case will unravel the girl who is just barely keeping her life together.
Although she's made many questionable life decisions, Ana isn't a hardened criminal, she's merely a girl who finds herself in a situation now where she'll need to fight for her innocence, regardless of the legitimacy. As the storyline reveals itself, we see Ana's internal struggle against her only option, to admit defeat or fight to the bitter end. But hope comes in the form of her former partner, who Ana admits she can no longer trust. I loved Gap, the short, punchy style of verse not only had an enormous impact, but was incredibly engaging and left my heart aching for Ana and her situation.
My only complaint is that it felt unresolved, but rather it's left to the reader to interpret how Ana's story will end. But an incredibly worthy winner of the 2013 Queensland Literary Award for the Best Emerging Author.
Told in verse, Gap follows the sorrowful storyline of Ana, who had just reached the lowest point in her life thus far. After being kicked out of her mother's home at only sixteen, Ana has struggled to survive, but after taking in her underage sister Indie, it's given Ana a reason to pick herself and provide a life that their mother couldn't and Ana will do anything to keep Indie safe.
What I found so striking about Ana was her realism. Her emotions, willingness to admit her past mistakes and give everything she has to protect and provide for Indie. Her emotions, her genuine fear and her unconditional love for the girl who also rescued her in turn is honest, raw and readers will not only find themselves drawn to Ana, but can relate to her downfall. But being a prime suspect in a murder case will unravel the girl who is just barely keeping her life together.
Although she's made many questionable life decisions, Ana isn't a hardened criminal, she's merely a girl who finds herself in a situation now where she'll need to fight for her innocence, regardless of the legitimacy. As the storyline reveals itself, we see Ana's internal struggle against her only option, to admit defeat or fight to the bitter end. But hope comes in the form of her former partner, who Ana admits she can no longer trust. I loved Gap, the short, punchy style of verse not only had an enormous impact, but was incredibly engaging and left my heart aching for Ana and her situation.
My only complaint is that it felt unresolved, but rather it's left to the reader to interpret how Ana's story will end. But an incredibly worthy winner of the 2013 Queensland Literary Award for the Best Emerging Author.
January 2, 2015
I can imagine this being a cult favourite, solace for young lesbians trying to find their place perhaps, a paperback you’ll reread and reread until the cover falls off. I’m not sure if I should give it 4.5 or 5 stars now. But I am sure that you should read it. And then read it again.
Full review here: http://leatherboundpounds.wordpress.c...
Full review here: http://leatherboundpounds.wordpress.c...
November 25, 2014
It's hard not to race through this. Images stick in my mind. I'd like to read it again, later, more slowly: maybe out loud.
August 8, 2014
Wrenching, intimate verse novel from the perspective of a young working-class lesbian struggling to take care of her kid sister, hold onto their life, and maybe reach at love in the face of much trouble. My only quibble was that the whole book is probably only 30 minutes long to read and I wanted more but I also think it ended at the right moment so it's not a real complaint.
November 22, 2014
Wonderful debut verse novel from a young but accomplished voice. I forced myself to read 'Gap' slowly and over two days, savouring the words. The things I loved (and there were many) were the glimpses of the Gabba neighbourhood, the unresolved ending, the author’s voice shining through, the sparseness of the prose, and the cover.
August 26, 2017
Beautifully crafted and un-put-down-able.
October 7, 2015
Although I enjoyed this immensely, its similarity to Dorothy Porter's Monkey's Mask was a bit distracting. Another verse novel - this time about Ana - a down-and-out teenager struggling to look after her kid sister. The novel begins with Ana murdering a drug-dealer who has threatened to hurt her and her sister if she fails to pay debts. The remainder is Ana skulking around, trying to avoid the police. Of course, one of the officer's investigating is her ex-lover. There's lots to like about this - pacey and sexy - I just would've liked a bit more - it felt like it was just taking off as it ended.
May 30, 2018
A quick read. A gripping verse novel with likeable characters. Unsatisfying ending though, leaving it all up in the air.
March 30, 2016
Very easy read given its stanza like composition
Not overly Australian in style nor content
Not really a crime nor love story or even a coming of age
A mixture of the three I guess
Didn't love
Didn't hate
Not overly Australian in style nor content
Not really a crime nor love story or even a coming of age
A mixture of the three I guess
Didn't love
Didn't hate
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews