warriorbarrd reviewed Good Oil by Laura Buzo
Review of 'Good Oil' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Amelia is a fifteen-year-old checkout chick at Woolworths – or, as her trainer Chris likes to call it, the Land of Dreams. Chris is twenty-one and doing Arts at uni, which makes him a prime candidate to guide Amelia through her English class.
Unfortunately for all involved, Amelia is in love with Chris. Fifteen-year-old, shallow, puppy love. It’s perfectly naïve and frankly, a little irritating after a while. Luckily, the narrative jumps to Chris’ diary for a time, which provides much more depth and interest that Amelia’s relentless, “ChrisChrisChris. He’ssoperfect.”
Don’t get me wrong, the writing is very good. There is a fine line between poetic metaphors and purple prose, and Buzo has done an excellent job of navigating that line. It’s interesting and pulls you into the Land of Dreams, which turns into the Land of Broken Dreams for the poor lovesick Amelia (and Chris, in his own way). …
Amelia is a fifteen-year-old checkout chick at Woolworths – or, as her trainer Chris likes to call it, the Land of Dreams. Chris is twenty-one and doing Arts at uni, which makes him a prime candidate to guide Amelia through her English class.
Unfortunately for all involved, Amelia is in love with Chris. Fifteen-year-old, shallow, puppy love. It’s perfectly naïve and frankly, a little irritating after a while. Luckily, the narrative jumps to Chris’ diary for a time, which provides much more depth and interest that Amelia’s relentless, “ChrisChrisChris. He’ssoperfect.”
Don’t get me wrong, the writing is very good. There is a fine line between poetic metaphors and purple prose, and Buzo has done an excellent job of navigating that line. It’s interesting and pulls you into the Land of Dreams, which turns into the Land of Broken Dreams for the poor lovesick Amelia (and Chris, in his own way).
Intriguing characters fill the story; unfortunately, Amelia is not one of these. She does have an interesting view on feminism – which, let’s face it, she’s right on the money with – but basically her existence seems to be about Chris. The conclusion to the story doesn’t quite wrap up well enough to make you feel like Amelia’s actually grown as a person. Which, frankly, feels like her entire side of the story was a bit of a waste of time.
Still a great debut novel from Buzo, hopefully she branches into the darker, more “Chris” stories as I feel like this is where her major talent lies.
