Bettina “Tina” Scott lives with her controlling mother and is focused on being a lady. Within a tiny Western Queensland town in Australia, there is very little to do and horrible local legends and tragedies. Tina feels strange, focusing mostly on getting her mother new library books on being a perfect homemaker, but she has so many questions about what happened to her father and brothers. She remembers little from the night they disappeared, only that her father’s car was found. Her friends say she was with them, but her mother says she was home safe and sound. Confused, Tina finds things more complicated when she returns home to see the word Monsters painted in their yard. With a fuzzy feeling something isn’t right, she begins to ask questions and unravels a strange world that is far too close to home.
If you’re looking for a dark gothic horror tale set in Australia, Flyaway has you. So rarely do I get to read a good horror novel set in Australia, so I was thrilled (this is only the second I’ve read since starting this site). Kathleen Jennings does an incredible job of setting the eerie feeling of a mining town that no longer appears to have any allure for the locals. Most of the neighbors feel like people you’ve actually met in a small town. The story fluctuates between Tina’s point of view, and the stories that other people tell along the way. What happens is a veritable jigsaw puzzle of a story is put together for the reader, piece by piece. Be prepared for shapeshifters, curses, plants that swallow entire schools in a day, and monsters that make everything seem way too normal.
Flyaway was definitely a page turner that I read late into the night. If you want to step outside American and British horror, I’d definitely recommend trying out this one.
Flyaway is available in the United States on July 28, 2020 from Tor.
