It’s August already! We are very super excited to announce our book for August 2023 is WE DIDN’T THINK IT THROUGH by Gary Lonesborough.
The thought comes to me: This is how I die. Dally is going to lose control and crash us into a pole or a house and we will be killed on impact.
The justice system characterises Jamie Langton as a ‘danger to society’, but he’s just an Aboriginal kid, trying to find his way through adolescence. Jamie lives in Dalton’s Bay with Aunty Dawn and Uncle Bobby. He spends his downtime hanging out with his mates, Dally and Lenny. Mark Cassidy and his white mates – the Footy Heads – take every opportunity they can to bully Jamie and his friends. On Lenny’s last night in town before moving to Sydney, after another episode of racist harassment, Jamie, Dally and Lenny decide to retaliate by vandalising Mark Cassidy’s car. And when they discover the keys are in the ignition… Dally changes the plan. Soon they are all in Mark Cassidy’s stolen car cruising through town, aiming to take it for a quick spin, then dump it.
But it’s a bad plan. And as a consequence, Jamie ends up in the youth justice system where he must find a way to mend his relationships with himself, his friends, his family and his future.
Gary Lonesborough is a Yuin writer, who grew up on the Far South Coast of NSW as part of a large and proud Aboriginal family. A massive Kylie Minogue and North Queensland Cowboys fan, Gary was always writing as a child, and continued his creative journey when he moved to Sydney to study at film school. Gary has experience working in Aboriginal health, the disability sector, the youth justice system, and the film industry, including working on the feature film adaptation of Jasper Jones. WE DIDN’T THINK IT THROUGH is the fantastic follow-up to his previous novels, THE BOY FROM THE MISH, and READY WHEN YOU ARE.
I hope everyone enjoys WE DIDN’T THINK IT THROUGH. We also have the discount code (LOVE2LOVEOZYA) now active in August for you to purchase the book for 20% off at Readings. Thank you so much to Readings! Look out for our author interview with Gary later in the month on our Instagram page LoveOzYAbookclub.
Emm xx