Kate Gordon, My Brother Finch, Riveted Press, July 2024, 187 pp., RRP $17.99 (pbk), ISBN 9780645869347
Kate Gordon has written another brilliant story about mental health struggles. My Brother Finch sensitively explores grief and the associated intense emotions – anxiety, sadness, guilt, a feeling of loss.
Starting high school is particularly difficult for Wren with ever present feelings of loss for her brother, Finch, who disappeared three years earlier. During the first difficult weeks, Wren finds comfort in a new friendship with an unusual, eccentric girl, named Freddie, who has recently moved to Wren’s town. When a sad looking, bedraggled, shy and mysterious girl, Johanna, stops coming to school, Freddie and Wren set about trying to work out what’s wrong with her.
The mysteries of Finch’s disappearance and Johanna’s absence and the obvious secrets that Freddie is keeping from Wren, make the story also a page turning psychological thriller.
My brother Finch had a big impact on me and my thoughts turned back to it for days after finishing. While reading it, I kept thinking how brilliantly Gordon has created an authentic 12-year-old character and realistic descriptions of her strong emotions, as well as believable family and friend relationships. And cleverly, too, Finch is very much a central character in the story, as part Wren’s imagination and memories.
Despite the intensity of Wren’s grief and the sad stories of Finch and Johanna, there is still a sense of hope in Wren’s loving relationships with her parents and the friendship with Freddie, as well as light moments with Freddie’s quirky sense of humour.
With the main character being 12 years old and the text being quite easy to read, My Brother Finch is suited to late primary or early high school readers. Some descriptions of Wren and her family’s grief are quite painfully realistic, and so I recommend some guidance for readers who are sensitive.
Kate Gordon has won awards for her previous novels, and I think My Brother Finch could be a winner too.
Reviewed by Barbara Swartz
