Tidelines by Sarah Sasson

EXCERPT: ‘Do you ever see your dad?’ I asked/ The words fell out of my mouth before I had a chance to catch them. Zed was wearing canvas shoes. There was a hole where his right toe was wearing through.
‘Nah.’ His mouth was full of grey smoke, then he exhaled. ‘He walked out on us when I was six.’
‘Do you know where he is?’
Zed shook his head. ‘Not really. You wouldn’t understand,’ he said, for a moment speaking to me as if I was a child. ‘Your family is so nice. One day you will.’
‘Will what?’ I asked.
Zed flicked the butt of his cigarette onto the footpath, where it rolled up against the wall of the milkbar, a trail of smoke still piping out of it.
‘Lose something you love.’
He got up and walked inside to meet Elijah.
There was a certainty in the way he spoke that made me feel as though he knew something about my life that I didn’t.

ABOUT ‘TIDELINES’: It’s Sydney in the early 2000s, and Grub is spending the summer with her universally-adored older brother, Elijah, and his magnetic but troubled best friend, Zed. Their days are filled with surfing, swimming and hanging out; life couldn’t be better.

But years later, Elijah disappears and Grub’s family unravels. At first, Grub blames Zed: he was the one who derailed Elijah from a bright future in the arts. But as Grub looks back at those dreamy summer days, the sanctuary of her certainty crumbles. Was Zed really responsible for her brother’s disappearance? Was anyone?

Tidelines is a tender coming-of-age novel about growing up in the face of unimaginable loss. It examines the stories we subconsciously write for ourselves, and what remains later, when we have the courage to tear them apart.

MY THOUGHTS: Tidelines reads more like a memoir than a novel. The random memories, especially at the beginning, reinforce this. It is a novel raw with grief. Of a young woman battling to keep afloat even before her brother disappears.

This is a sad book but one written with great beauty; the writing stark and succinct at times, and at others melodic. Sasson takes us on a journey from childhood joy to the depths of despair as lives go wrong; detour down unplanned tracks full of potholes and dead ends. But there are also moments of light to be found in those depths of despair; hope to cling to.

Tidelines is not an easy read. It is raw and brutal, beautiful and sad, devastating and hopeful. If you have ever picked at a loose thread and had the garment unravel; that depicts Grub’s life. It is testament to her strength of character that she is eventually able to pick up the threads and fashion them into something new. The journey from one point to the other is a tough one as she learns to forgive not only others but herself.

This is an amazing debut novel.

⭐⭐⭐⭐.2

#Tidelines #NetGalley

THE AUTHOR: Sarah Sasson is an Australian physician-writer living on Gadigal land in Sydney.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Affirm Press via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of Tidelines by Sarah Sasson for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.