Monica Vuu is a Tasmanian based writer from Langley, British Columbia. When One Of Us Hurts is her first book.
In the coastal town of Port Brighton the locals look after each other. When two deaths occur too close together the town is on edge.
Port Brighton has always been wary of outsiders so suspicion naturally falls on the drowned boy Sebastian’s best friend Johnny and his mother Marie.
When a reporter descends on the town seeking to unearth the truth of the events all anyone knows is that they have to protect their own, because in Port Brighton when one town member hurts, they all hurt.
…
When One of Us Hurts is an absolutely wild ride through a dark pastoral landscape where small town values are viewed through the prism of a funhouse mirror.
Monica Vuu draws the reader into the township of Port Brighton and its xenophobic tourist policy through the eyes of Livvy and Marie. Marie is an outsider. Although she has lived with her son Johnny in Port Brighton for years, the residents still view them as foreign and untrustworthy. Livvy is an insider. When her father moves in with Marie she inherits Johnny as her step brother.
Livvy and Marie don’t agree on much but they are both fiercely loyal to Johnny. When suspicion falls on him following the discovery of two bodies both will do whatever they can to protect Johnny and the town.
…
It’s tangled web of loyalties that ties together the narrative of When One of Us Hurts. The bucolic pastoral idyll of small town life is magnified to horrific proportions as we see a town attempting to deal with the twin blows of death and notoriety.
Livvy sits on her favorite seat in the local cafe watching as towns folk come and go talking of the recent terrible events. The cafe is a hub for all in the area and the perfect place to gather information.
It’s almost as if Vuu is challenging the reader along with Livvy to unpick the strange occurrences before the nosy reporter unearths something he shouldn’t.
Marie sits in her room at Lacey House. Working through her memories of arriving in town, the death of her partner and Livvy and her father joining their family she seems to be seeking some clue as to how it all came to this.
Monica Vuu’s characterisation of the residents of port Brighton is a chill to behold. She slowly draws out the mystery even as she draws us deeper into the fold of Port Brighton’s windswept streets.
There’s a mystery barely acknowledged in this review but one that grips you as you work your way into the story. It’s a testament to the storytelling that the darkness that grips this novel is so cleverly hidden as to elicit a genuine shock as it comes to the surface.
Too often we talk about summer reads and beach books but When One of Us Hurts is the perfect companion to curling up by the fire on these cold windswept nights!
