Too Much Lip

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Melissa Lucashenko: Too Much Lip (Paperback, 2018, University of Queensland Press)

Paperback, 328 pages

Published Nov. 1, 2018 by University of Queensland Press.

ISBN:
978-0-7022-5996-8
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5 stars (3 reviews)

Wise-cracking Kerry Salter has spent her adulthood avoiding two things: her hometown and prison. A tough, generous, reckless woman accused of having too much lip, Kerry uses anger to fight the avalanche of bullshit the world spews. But now her Pop is dying and she's an inch away from the lockup, so she heads south on a stolen Harley for one last visit.

Kerry plans to spend twenty-four hours, tops, across the border. She quickly discovers, though, that Bundjalung country has a funny way of latching on to people—not to mention her chaotic family and the threat of a proposal to develop a prison on Granny Ava’s Island, the family’s spiritual home. On top of that, love may have found Kerry again when a good-looking white fella appears out of nowhere with eyes only for her.

As the fight mounts to stop the development, old wounds open. Surrounded by the …

5 editions

Review of 'Too Much Lip' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Wow... starts off as your run-of-the-mill Spunky Native Lesbian Goes Up Against Crooked Developer yarn, then starts careening in interesting directions, picking up tantalizing characters and side stories along the way.

By all rules of the ordinary Universe, I should not have enjoyed this book: few of the characters are actually likable; the family dynamics are aggressive, well beyond dysfunctional and into the pathological; more than one element of triteness; and the everpresent (and mostly unclarified) Aussie jargon threw one roadblock after another onto my reading rhythm. The book, though, does not entirely respect the laws of my known Universe; and I loved it. Kept reading far past bedtime; even griping and moaning today because I had to leave the book to go rock climbing. (For those of you who don't know me: only bad weather has the power—usually—to stop me from climbing). It just hooked me in, more and …