The Devil You Know

by Leonie Norrington

Damien is horrified when his father, a violent man known to his motorcycling peers as 88, moves back to live with him and his mom   88 is angry. Damien can feel it prickling the air between them. Every muscle in his body is taut, ready to run, planning his escape over the fire between those chairs and straight down to the creek. But he can't run. Not yet. Nothing has happened, yet. He'd just make a fool of himself. Out of the corner of his eye he watches as 88 slowly packs tobacco in a cigarette paper, rolls it into a cylinder, gets up and moves to sit right next to Damien, so close Damien has to clench his teeth and hang onto the chair to stop himself from bolting.
Damien can't bear the thought of 88 coming back to live with him and mom; memories of past violence are too strong. But there's glamour in having a father who rides a Harley Davidson, and it leads Damien to run with the in-crowd at school and abandon his real friends. Set in a small-town community in northern Australia, this gripping contemporary tale takes you inside the mind and under the skin of a troubled boy with a vivid imagination who must wrestle with his own violent impulses and minor betrayals.

252 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the real ness of this book. The reading fluidly transitioned from the narrator to Damien's thoughts, which was good because I really understood Damien's feelings and position. The changes in characters throughout the novel, especially Damien's thoughts towards 88, was realistic and done well. Plus it was cool reading a book that discusses the wet and dry season whilst I'm living in a place with a wet and dry season, and the mentions of Milo made me smile; so Australian.

[Taniplea · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is basically about domestic violence. But it didn't really teach me anything. I get that you have to show that households with domestic violence can still contain love and joy, but shouldn't there be a conclusion to show that it is most important to tell someone and make it stop? Especially because it targets a young audience.