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Low Expectations
I begin to record the history of it all, because if I don’t I will explode, leaving nothing to tell of me but a pile of ash. In this history I will try to leave nothing out, but I will also be careful not to incorporate any extraneous unnecessary shit. Like objectivity. Objectivity is for those who don’t have a point to make, or a side to take. There is only one side to this story and that’s mine.
1975, Western Sydney.A street where neighbours keep an eye on everyone else’s business.A boy and his mum—and a family secret, barely hidden.
Devon Destri flies under the radar. He doesn’t talk—calls himself ‘hard of speaking’—and does nothing to correct any assumptions of his low intelligence. If no one knows otherwise, no one will expect anything of him, and maybe he won’t need to expect anything of himself. Only his fiercely loyal friend, Big Tammy, and his neighbour, Krenek, know that Great Expectations is his favourite book, or that he can read at all.
But when the chilling revelation of his mother’s past unexpectedly blows open his view of himself, and of her, Devon realises he can have great expectations after all.
First, though, he has a score to settle.
Stuart Everly-Wilson lives in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales with his partner and their dog, Aspro. Low Expectations is his first novel.
‘Wild and uninhibited…with an unforgettable cast of characters whom I Immediately started to miss when I closed the book. There's no shortage of brutality—this is, after all, a story about grudges, long memories and revenge—but there's deep love and empathy among this strange cast of suburban exiles.’ Jock Serong
1975, Western Sydney.A street where neighbours keep an eye on everyone else’s business.A boy and his mum—and a family secret, barely hidden.
Devon Destri flies under the radar. He doesn’t talk—calls himself ‘hard of speaking’—and does nothing to correct any assumptions of his low intelligence. If no one knows otherwise, no one will expect anything of him, and maybe he won’t need to expect anything of himself. Only his fiercely loyal friend, Big Tammy, and his neighbour, Krenek, know that Great Expectations is his favourite book, or that he can read at all.
But when the chilling revelation of his mother’s past unexpectedly blows open his view of himself, and of her, Devon realises he can have great expectations after all.
First, though, he has a score to settle.
Stuart Everly-Wilson lives in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales with his partner and their dog, Aspro. Low Expectations is his first novel.
‘Wild and uninhibited…with an unforgettable cast of characters whom I Immediately started to miss when I closed the book. There's no shortage of brutality—this is, after all, a story about grudges, long memories and revenge—but there's deep love and empathy among this strange cast of suburban exiles.’ Jock Serong
- GenresFiction
Kindle Edition
Published February 2, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
January 30, 2021
"Low Expectations" is a modern counterpoint to Dicken's "Great Expectations," which is awarded with several mentions. It is a sort of Australian version of Catcher in the Rye, a coming-of-age story of a young misfit. It is told with an incredible narrative voice which never faulters in its brutally honest portrayal. Devon is daily battered by the school bullies and schools with the slow kids, the short bus kids. Devon has suffered from cerebral palsy in one of his limbs, but he's not stupid or slow. He just finds it safer to hang out there where he doesn't have to speak. It also doesn't help that he was the product of a violent rape and the whole small town thinks his mother had it coming. The two of them live in a small rundown place in a town so small and insular everyone knows everyone's business and not for the better. Part of the story is Devon coming to terms with who was guilty and how he's related in a rather creepy way. The author, Wilson, captures Devon's unique voice, his bitterness, his isolation, and his desperation. This is not that gentle growing up story. It's painfully honest, forthright, and uniquely Aussie.
February 2, 2021
4.5 stars. I just loved this novel. It’s raw and real and a fantastic coming-of-age story. What a debut!
Devon’s life is rough. He’s a misfit & treated like an outsider, but he’s far smarter than everyone thinks. His search for the truth and appetite for revenge propel this novel along amidst a 70s Western Sydney setting.
Everything about this book, from the setting, it’s protagonist and the interesting cast of characters felt so honest.
A real strength of this novel is the protagonist’s voice. Devon comes to life so well on the page that you’ll get caught up & forget that he’s fictional.
Devon is a truly memorable character, surprisingly endearing and even charming in his own way. His discoveries about himself, the past and his future all make for an exceptional read.
Thank you to Text Publishing for gifting me a copy of this book.
Devon’s life is rough. He’s a misfit & treated like an outsider, but he’s far smarter than everyone thinks. His search for the truth and appetite for revenge propel this novel along amidst a 70s Western Sydney setting.
Everything about this book, from the setting, it’s protagonist and the interesting cast of characters felt so honest.
A real strength of this novel is the protagonist’s voice. Devon comes to life so well on the page that you’ll get caught up & forget that he’s fictional.
Devon is a truly memorable character, surprisingly endearing and even charming in his own way. His discoveries about himself, the past and his future all make for an exceptional read.
Thank you to Text Publishing for gifting me a copy of this book.
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July 9, 2021The following reviews are shared by Text Publishing – publisher of Low Expectations
‘Wild and uninhibited…with an unforgettable cast of characters whom I Immediately started to miss when I closed the book. There's no shortage of brutality—this is, after all, a story about grudges, long memories and revenge—but there's deep love and empathy among this strange cast of suburban exiles.’
Jock Serong
'The power of this book…comes from its uncompromising first-person descriptions of what it is like to be different and highly intelligent in a world filled with ignorance, prejudices about disability—and everything else—and the small noxious worlds people create for themselves and others.’
Herald Sun
‘Starts out... in the Holden Caulfield vein, but Devon is both funnier and more interesting as he explores the forces that have shaped his life.’
Sydney Morning Herald
'The artfulness of Devon and business partner Tammy will have you cheering for them from the sidelines…Eye-wateringly funny.'
Otago Daily Times
'Stuart Everly-Wilson has created one of the most unforgettable characters I have been introduced to in a long time...For me, the thing that sets this novel apart is the genuine care I developed as a reader for Devon. A brilliant debut.'
Good Reading
'The coming-of-age story you didn't know you'd been waiting for. It's gritty, real and raw…[Devon Destri] has been called Western Sydney's very own Holden Caulfield but this anti-hero is funnier, more likeable and more relatable than Holden ever was…Heartbreaking and hilarious.'
Northerly
‘Wild and uninhibited…with an unforgettable cast of characters whom I Immediately started to miss when I closed the book. There's no shortage of brutality—this is, after all, a story about grudges, long memories and revenge—but there's deep love and empathy among this strange cast of suburban exiles.’
Jock Serong
'The power of this book…comes from its uncompromising first-person descriptions of what it is like to be different and highly intelligent in a world filled with ignorance, prejudices about disability—and everything else—and the small noxious worlds people create for themselves and others.’
Herald Sun
‘Starts out... in the Holden Caulfield vein, but Devon is both funnier and more interesting as he explores the forces that have shaped his life.’
Sydney Morning Herald
'The artfulness of Devon and business partner Tammy will have you cheering for them from the sidelines…Eye-wateringly funny.'
Otago Daily Times
'Stuart Everly-Wilson has created one of the most unforgettable characters I have been introduced to in a long time...For me, the thing that sets this novel apart is the genuine care I developed as a reader for Devon. A brilliant debut.'
Good Reading
'The coming-of-age story you didn't know you'd been waiting for. It's gritty, real and raw…[Devon Destri] has been called Western Sydney's very own Holden Caulfield but this anti-hero is funnier, more likeable and more relatable than Holden ever was…Heartbreaking and hilarious.'
Northerly
January 20, 2021
LOW EXPECTATIONS by Stuart Everly-Wilson is quite a funny debut novel! This is a revenge story about an Australian teenage boy, Devon, who wants to get payback against his “pet bully”. Throughout the book Devon has to deal with some very heavy issues besides the bullying as he discovers his family secret. The whole book is really quite funny and there was one part with such a good pun that it made me LOL! I was rooting for Devon the whole time and I loved all the quirky side characters. It was also fun how this book was set in the 1970s. There were some really shocking parts but this is definitely a good book to pick up if you’re looking for a good hearted laugh.
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Thank you to Text Publishing via NetGalley for my advance review copy!
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Thank you to Text Publishing via NetGalley for my advance review copy!
April 9, 2021
Quite simply, I wish I had written this.
An unusual cast of characters set in a gritty industrial Australian suburb in the 1970s. I was transported. Hard to believe this is a first novel. I hope to see far more by Stuart Everly-Wilson.
An unusual cast of characters set in a gritty industrial Australian suburb in the 1970s. I was transported. Hard to believe this is a first novel. I hope to see far more by Stuart Everly-Wilson.
March 15, 2021
Great book; great characters; great writing. A believable & thoroughly rounded build-up of Devon's character. Way above the average "coming of age" book.
July 24, 2023
Real Rating: 4.5* of five
The Publisher Says: I begin to record the history of it all, because if I don’t I will explode, leaving nothing to tell of me but a pile of ash. In this history I will try to leave nothing out, but I will also be careful not to incorporate any extraneous unnecessary shit. Like objectivity. Objectivity is for those who don’t have a point to make, or a side to take. There is only one side to this story and that’s mine.
1970s, Western Sydney. A boy and his mum living in a street where neighbours keep an eye on everyone else’s business. A detested bully. And a family secret, barely hidden.
Devon Destri flies under the radar. He doesn’t talk to anyone, calls himself hard of speaking, and doesn’t correct anyone’s assumptions of his low intelligence. If no one knows otherwise, no one will expect anything of him, and maybe he won’t need to expect anything of himself—that is, beyond running a highly lucrative porn-magazine racket. Only his fiercely loyal friend Big Tammy and Krenek the Hungarian refugee know that Great Expectations is his favourite book, or that he can read at all. But when Devon starts to piece together his mother’s secret, his intellect and charm are put to startling and devastating use.
Stuart Everly-Wilson’s Low Expectations is a heartbreaking and hilarious story of resilience, revenge and love that captures the complexity of vulnerability and bravado. Devon Destri, with his sharp wit and gift for one-liners, is a character you’ll never forget.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: Anyone who's read anything I've written here in the past ten years knows that I admire one thing about Dickens: nothing. A chore to read at best, an excruciatingly twee sentimental boor at least, he's famous wherever English is spoken because he makes average people feel smart, and smart people feel godlike, for "getting" his stories and their layers. To me, that's like congratulating yourself for knowing tomatoes are fruits but having the sense not to put them in fruit salad.
Low Expectations stars a teen, one with multivalent social and physical challenges, whose favorite book is Great Expectations. So coming of age, Dickens veneration, and Australian setting. Not an immediate fit for my US-centric, anti-Chuckles the Dick self, then.
I got within an ace of giving it five stars just for being raucously its ownself.
You who belong to the Church of Chuckles know he's fond of the sesquipedalian sentence, the orotund ekphrasis, the hifalutin verbiage. Quite why Devon, our PoV character, loves him, then is Dickensianly (in the "stop-hitting-me-with-the-message" sense) clear. He's "hard of speaking," a beautiful little Dickensian (in the best sense of fulfilling a need for a phrase that no one knew was there except him) creation for someone who simply doesn't want to speak much. Better not to let anyone in on his secret: he is a smart, observant, sensitive guy stuck in a world that just has no place for that kind of time-wasting, but expects people to be hard, both -working and -hearted, to make it in their working-class world. Devon feels safe in his hidey-hole with the special needs kids, he refers to it as the "spaz Gulag" and now let's talk about lanuguage. Diametrically opposite to Dickens, Devon's narrative voice is choppy and frequently heavy on the "worty dirds," as a teacher of mine called them. He absolutely has no respect for anyone who isn't worthy in his eyes, including himself. For the 2020s US audience this can lead to pursed lips and furrowed brows. Either check your fifty-years-later, wildly different culture expectations of politeness at the door, or don't pick the book up...and I straongly encourage the former choice. The alchemy of the story is, like Devon's favorite story, in the way the entire experience of reading it subverts the thoughts and expectations you started out with so often that the wonder is you emerge with any expectations left.
This bitter draft of gall and wormwood comes about because our hard-of-speaking narrator learns a truly life-changing secret about the mother he disrespects and denigrates. As she's raised him by herself, I don't think you need a lot of brainpower to figure out what it's about. I will say that it didn't seem hugely surprising to me when it was revealed; I was by that time exasperated with Devon for not picking up on it before he did. What matters in this rough-tongued kid's world is keeping himself a small enough target to avoid more than the irreducible minimum of abuse and also attention. It makes him a more-than-ordinarily solipsistic adolescent. His eyes are sharp...his attention is not focused outside his self-defined sphere of defense. As he's breaking the law, he's wise to keep his thoughts from straying too far afield. Adult readers who're parents will, I'm sure, think the right thoughts about how the family-related things end up before they do.
With the laundry list of CWs, why would I rate this book so highly? Because I'm Devon's age and, even though I grew up in Texas, the culture of cruelty wasn't a lot different there. Instead of someone telling a loudly pruriently foulmouthed and prejudiced tale of the modern day in order to shock and appall and titillate, this story recounts the way it was in that time and place, and does so with clarity and purpose. The world was what it was, but Devon is a work in progress, and by the end of the book the Devon we met is appreciably more adult in the postive ways than I ever expected him to be.
But for all that, peruse the CWs and make sure you're not going to pass out when they come to pass because they all do.
The Publisher Says: I begin to record the history of it all, because if I don’t I will explode, leaving nothing to tell of me but a pile of ash. In this history I will try to leave nothing out, but I will also be careful not to incorporate any extraneous unnecessary shit. Like objectivity. Objectivity is for those who don’t have a point to make, or a side to take. There is only one side to this story and that’s mine.
1970s, Western Sydney. A boy and his mum living in a street where neighbours keep an eye on everyone else’s business. A detested bully. And a family secret, barely hidden.
Devon Destri flies under the radar. He doesn’t talk to anyone, calls himself hard of speaking, and doesn’t correct anyone’s assumptions of his low intelligence. If no one knows otherwise, no one will expect anything of him, and maybe he won’t need to expect anything of himself—that is, beyond running a highly lucrative porn-magazine racket. Only his fiercely loyal friend Big Tammy and Krenek the Hungarian refugee know that Great Expectations is his favourite book, or that he can read at all. But when Devon starts to piece together his mother’s secret, his intellect and charm are put to startling and devastating use.
Stuart Everly-Wilson’s Low Expectations is a heartbreaking and hilarious story of resilience, revenge and love that captures the complexity of vulnerability and bravado. Devon Destri, with his sharp wit and gift for one-liners, is a character you’ll never forget.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.
My Review: Anyone who's read anything I've written here in the past ten years knows that I admire one thing about Dickens: nothing. A chore to read at best, an excruciatingly twee sentimental boor at least, he's famous wherever English is spoken because he makes average people feel smart, and smart people feel godlike, for "getting" his stories and their layers. To me, that's like congratulating yourself for knowing tomatoes are fruits but having the sense not to put them in fruit salad.
Low Expectations stars a teen, one with multivalent social and physical challenges, whose favorite book is Great Expectations. So coming of age, Dickens veneration, and Australian setting. Not an immediate fit for my US-centric, anti-Chuckles the Dick self, then.
I got within an ace of giving it five stars just for being raucously its ownself.
You who belong to the Church of Chuckles know he's fond of the sesquipedalian sentence, the orotund ekphrasis, the hifalutin verbiage. Quite why Devon, our PoV character, loves him, then is Dickensianly (in the "stop-hitting-me-with-the-message" sense) clear. He's "hard of speaking," a beautiful little Dickensian (in the best sense of fulfilling a need for a phrase that no one knew was there except him) creation for someone who simply doesn't want to speak much. Better not to let anyone in on his secret: he is a smart, observant, sensitive guy stuck in a world that just has no place for that kind of time-wasting, but expects people to be hard, both -working and -hearted, to make it in their working-class world. Devon feels safe in his hidey-hole with the special needs kids, he refers to it as the "spaz Gulag" and now let's talk about lanuguage. Diametrically opposite to Dickens, Devon's narrative voice is choppy and frequently heavy on the "worty dirds," as a teacher of mine called them. He absolutely has no respect for anyone who isn't worthy in his eyes, including himself. For the 2020s US audience this can lead to pursed lips and furrowed brows. Either check your fifty-years-later, wildly different culture expectations of politeness at the door, or don't pick the book up...and I straongly encourage the former choice. The alchemy of the story is, like Devon's favorite story, in the way the entire experience of reading it subverts the thoughts and expectations you started out with so often that the wonder is you emerge with any expectations left.
This bitter draft of gall and wormwood comes about because our hard-of-speaking narrator learns a truly life-changing secret about the mother he disrespects and denigrates. As she's raised him by herself, I don't think you need a lot of brainpower to figure out what it's about. I will say that it didn't seem hugely surprising to me when it was revealed; I was by that time exasperated with Devon for not picking up on it before he did. What matters in this rough-tongued kid's world is keeping himself a small enough target to avoid more than the irreducible minimum of abuse and also attention. It makes him a more-than-ordinarily solipsistic adolescent. His eyes are sharp...his attention is not focused outside his self-defined sphere of defense. As he's breaking the law, he's wise to keep his thoughts from straying too far afield. Adult readers who're parents will, I'm sure, think the right thoughts about how the family-related things end up before they do.
With the laundry list of CWs, why would I rate this book so highly? Because I'm Devon's age and, even though I grew up in Texas, the culture of cruelty wasn't a lot different there. Instead of someone telling a loudly pruriently foulmouthed and prejudiced tale of the modern day in order to shock and appall and titillate, this story recounts the way it was in that time and place, and does so with clarity and purpose. The world was what it was, but Devon is a work in progress, and by the end of the book the Devon we met is appreciably more adult in the postive ways than I ever expected him to be.
But for all that, peruse the CWs and make sure you're not going to pass out when they come to pass because they all do.
June 8, 2021
I wish I could give this book a higher rating. But the homophobia, ableism, fat phobia and racism laced throughout the whole book ruined what is a great story, great characters and great writing. Shame the author didn’t have enough insight into this kind of blatant discrimination is not socially acceptable in this day and age.
November 30, 2021
Hi Goodread's folks. It's been a little sleepy on the reader reviews for my debut novel Low Expectations of late - (forever) - and so, I, the author, thought I would post a review of my own - to lift my score!! Only - instead of a review penned by myself - I'm posting a review of my novel, from a dear old schoolmate - E.S.
It might be of interest to someone considering reading my book. And it is a review I am particularly humbled by. I'm sure you'll agree, if you take the time to read it, that it has to be a FIVE STAR! : ) Happy reading, readers!
Stu
Following up on how much I liked your book.
Very readable and enjoyable. I would have read it faster but family circumstances intervened. I seemed to be reading in bits. But to finish it I went in our garage, closed the door, then after meditating stayed there for a couple of hours reading.
I don’t want to piss in your pocket too much (an expression I never though made much sense, but I still use it). But a couple of comments:
· From a personaI perspective, I liked the setting and references.
· Liked how it was written. I think it had a lot of sentence fragments. Which works well. (See.) It makes it punchier. More like how we talk. And helps with clarity. (I may be overdoing it. Somewhat.) At work I used to try to start sentences with “and” and “but” in my submissions but they were always changed by my bosses (thought the writing courses we did actually always said nothing wrong with the practice).
· It kept wanting me to turn the page – the story kept you going, particularly as it proceeded to final parts (where books often fall apart).
· You described things in a concrete way which occasionally made me nostalgic.
· On a deeper level, I cared about characters, for example I was actually disappointed that Stephen didn’t come back into it. This is not a criticism, but shows how engaged I was with the characters.
· I said I like the mum, but I also liked Shane – even though you didn’t really get into his life. I think his leaving Uni due t o a nervous breakdown struck a chord with me.
· I’ve read Great Expectations only once, when I was around 40. I remember being very affected by the Joe Gargery character, particularly when he explained why he let his first wife “Mrs Joe” (I looked up Google on characters) treat him so disrespectfully. I found him quite noble. Shane reminds me of him a bit. And it seemed, like Joe, he was finally finding happiness.
· At the end when Devon seemed to accept being part of the Shane and mum’s family, it reminded me of Great Expectations, when Pip sort of became part of Joe and new wife’s family.
· Not sure if you intended, but it also reminded me of Somerset Maugham’s “Of Human Bondage”, a book which really affected me (it was a pleasant surprise, especially after I found his “The Razor’s Edge” shallow, with no more depth to it than the 1940s Tyrone Power movie). In “Of Human Bondage”, main character gives up dreams of bohemia and finds happiness with a working class life and wife. I actually found this a lovely ending, which I was reminded of (in opaque way) when reading your book. Then when I thought about it, “Of Human Bondage”, also has a main character with a disability (club foot).
Anyway, I think I told you before how proud your Dad would be. Do you remember I met your Dad?. It was on St John’s Church grounds in Parramatta, where you and he were playing in a band (think it was a Salvation Army Band). I found him very nice, and he talked to me as if he really knew me (which I actually liked – you seemed a little embarrassed). He had read something I wrote for English that you showed him (it was like a parody of an advertisement). He said I should be a writer.
This has turned out so ironic. But he obviously thought of writing as something special. And hence he’d be very proud, not just of the achievement but of the book itself.
Eric
(Additional note by author: It was actually the Parramatta City Brass Band!! )
August 24, 2021
I struggled at the start with the book due to the negative attitude of adolescent Devon. I grew up in suburban Adelaide - not too dissimilar an environment. There were plenty of characters in and around my block and I was fortunate to have my brothers and friends to share it all with. I guess I thought I was a 'normal'. We shifted to a remote mining town in the north west of Australia and then I went off to boarding school after my primary school finished. My perception of myself as a normal changed in high school where I found myself an outsider and lost the joy of life for a while
Anyway - that povides a little of the background for my review.
The main lesson I focused on in the book is the importance of not pushing young people away, anybody really, just because they're being obnoxious. It's something I've known for a long time but it was brought home strongly in the book.
I loved Carol the hairdresser - one of my favourite characters in all the books I've read. It is amazing the impact an act of kindness can have from a random stranger - the sliding door moment. I have a sister-in-law who is excellent at it. Krenek was also a pivotal character who resonated strongly with me. I'm trying to improve and not be a selfish prick and be more like Carol and Krenek - I'm hopeful of making a little headway.
One of the main reasons I chose this random book at the library was because it has an Australian author and I have had quite a few great reading experiences lately in this genre - this book was another.
Anyway - that povides a little of the background for my review.
The main lesson I focused on in the book is the importance of not pushing young people away, anybody really, just because they're being obnoxious. It's something I've known for a long time but it was brought home strongly in the book.
I loved Carol the hairdresser - one of my favourite characters in all the books I've read. It is amazing the impact an act of kindness can have from a random stranger - the sliding door moment. I have a sister-in-law who is excellent at it. Krenek was also a pivotal character who resonated strongly with me. I'm trying to improve and not be a selfish prick and be more like Carol and Krenek - I'm hopeful of making a little headway.
One of the main reasons I chose this random book at the library was because it has an Australian author and I have had quite a few great reading experiences lately in this genre - this book was another.
April 23, 2021
This is a brilliant book! I found it a hard, yet rewarding read. Hard, because of the many ugly, malicious, cruel people in Devon's small community, and his (understandable) bitter, cynical attitude towards life. Rewarding because of the remarkable, strong and unique voice of Devon, a highly intelligent 15 year old with cerebral palsy who has lived a life of hardship and bullying and is now set on revenge, and the way he endears himself to the reader as the novel progresses and he discovers things about himself and others which reorient his world. Rewarding because of the warm and big-hearted friendship between Devon and Big Tammy, a girl with an intellectual disability in the 'Spaz Gulag' class with him, and rewarding because of the many flawed characters showing glimmers of kindness and love, that eventually become an avalanche, sweeping Devon to his great expectations by the end of the book.
I have read reviews who found this book funny. I found it overwhelmingly sad, with some wryly funny moments and a gratifying, uplifting ending. Maybe, on re-reading, I might find it funnier.
I have read reviews who found this book funny. I found it overwhelmingly sad, with some wryly funny moments and a gratifying, uplifting ending. Maybe, on re-reading, I might find it funnier.
July 3, 2021
Dear Reader, allow me to introduce the new anti-hero, bad-boy of Oz Lit. It is 1975. His name is Devon Destri; he is a 16 year old student where the “normals” are separated from the “retards”, where the latter congregate in The Gulag. Devon has deliberately managed his way into The Gulag mainly through a technique of “hard of speaking “, his technique that has fooled enough into thinking he’s incapable of speech. His cerebral palsy only tends to confirm this near-universal diagnosis. Devon is a cunning, astute, foul-mouthed adolescent who displays scant regard for anyone in his life apart from his only friend Big Tammy, and Carol, his hair stylist. He loathes most Mr Novotny and son Peter, Devon’s “pet bully”. Novotny and Devon’s mum’s share a secret, one that neither wishes Devon to discover. Redemption for Devon comes in the unlikely guise of his mum’s unprepossessing new boyfriend, and the power of the written word. This last section of the novel feels rushed and reads a little unconvincing. However quibbles aside, this is a powerfully impressive debut for Everly-Wilson, and I can’t wait to see what he next produces.
May 22, 2021
For a boy who believes he is hard-of-speaking this certainly was quite the perspective! It's a good story to read and learn from on the power of secrets.
"I begin to record the history of it all, because if I don’t I will explode, leaving nothing to tell of me but a pile of ash. In this history I will try to leave nothing out, but I will also be careful not to incorporate any extraneous unnecessary shit. Like objectivity. Objectivity is for those who don’t have a point to make, or a side to take. There is only one side to this story and that’s mine."
Thanks Netgalley for the eARC.
"I begin to record the history of it all, because if I don’t I will explode, leaving nothing to tell of me but a pile of ash. In this history I will try to leave nothing out, but I will also be careful not to incorporate any extraneous unnecessary shit. Like objectivity. Objectivity is for those who don’t have a point to make, or a side to take. There is only one side to this story and that’s mine."
Thanks Netgalley for the eARC.
April 21, 2025
I loved this book about a teenage boy with cerebral palsy living with his mum and growing up in a small town in Western Sydney.He has learnt to be extremely resilient during to being bullied all his life and known as the boy who’s mother was raped.He hangs out with the other misfits who he is very protective of as they are of him.
He develops a racket selling porno magazines to his fellow students which increases his popularity which he enjoys.
This is a great story of hope,resilience,despair,anger and love.
He develops a racket selling porno magazines to his fellow students which increases his popularity which he enjoys.
This is a great story of hope,resilience,despair,anger and love.
May 9, 2021
I adore this book. In turn highly amusing, evocative, surprising and sad it takes me back to that time as I was the same age as Devon in 1975. The premise, the execution and the resolution are all highly pleasing and I look forward to more from this new author. I found this to be one of those books that are difficult to put down and I ended up reading it in one day as I couldn't wait to see what happened next.
August 3, 2022
I wasn't sure I'd enjoy this book when I started out. I know I sound like a Nana, but the language and how caustically Devon treats his mum, it was a bit shocking for me. No way would I treat my mum like that!
Devon isn't really likeable, I love that the author isn't apologetic for anything though, it's so honest and unsugar coated, kept me reading and still on his side the whole way through.
Great book, thanks for a thought provoking read!
Devon isn't really likeable, I love that the author isn't apologetic for anything though, it's so honest and unsugar coated, kept me reading and still on his side the whole way through.
Great book, thanks for a thought provoking read!
January 19, 2024
I really enjoyed this book. It moves along nicely, with a direct and punchy style. I read it in just a couple of sittings - which I usually don't do. The author shows a real insight into people, teenagers particularly, and he paints an authentic picture of western suburbs working class Sydney in the 1970s.
I recommend this novel, and have actually recommended this to friends who have similarly enjoyed it.
I recommend this novel, and have actually recommended this to friends who have similarly enjoyed it.
August 15, 2021
I think this book is outstanding debut novel, Devon Destri is a great character and very Australian in 1975, any criticism about the language used, are how things were and still are in Australian culture,this coming of age novel covers cruelty that can happen in Australian schools everywhere.I will look forward to more novels from this outstanding author :)
August 24, 2021
Not sure why this was set in 1975, except as an excuse to throw around derogatory terms like 'retard'' or 'spaz' that just wouldn't fly in a contemporary setting. Full of misogyny and homophobia. It's a No from me
September 25, 2021
Low Expectations by Stuart Everly-Wilson is quirky, offensive and hilarious! I absolutely loved this story set in Sydney during the 1970's. Devon, a crippled teenage boy who is sometimes "hard of speaking", tries to navigate his way through his difficult teenage years with the help of his best friend, Big Tammy. Life isn't always easy for Devon but at least he has his awesome hairstyle for company. Thanks to NetGalley and Text Publishing for my ARC.
April 3, 2021
Ebook. Kid with CP hides in the non-normal class pretending to be dumb, for his high school years. Bullying. A child of rape.
July 30, 2021
I feel like it could have been better edited because so many derogatory terms were just thrown around. I know it's 1970s western Sydney but I couldn't get through it.
February 6, 2022
A vey good novel, has undertones of the brilliant Adam Mars-Jones hero, John Cromer.
Read
April 25, 2022Perhaps too strong for stage 6 - rape, revenge, 1970s thinking, no regret for exploitation of girls/women; language; positive rep of cerebral palsy; positive rep of m a le creativity
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 31, 2022
Loved it. Couldn't put it down.
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