Category: Reviews

Where Pademelons Play
Terry Deague
Privately Published
9780648428701 $24.99 pbk / $9.99 Kindle amazon.com

http://www.midwestbookreview.com/sbw/mar_19.htm

Critique: Where Pademelons Play: A Presentation presents a unique take on the afterlife, as a bleak, eternal existence where there are few diversions other than observing, recounting, and performing events from the living world. One such intricate narrative follows a man with the luck of the Devil – or perhaps a talent for stealing good fortune from others who cross his path. Wry, satirical, and sharp-minded, Where Pademelons Play is darkly engaging to the very last page. Highly recommended, especially for connoisseurs of the macabre fantastic! It should be noted for personal reading lists that Where Pademelons Play is also available in a Kindle edition ($9.99).

Reading Where Pademelons Play was a real pleasure because it is very well written, and well written English is increasingly rare. The characters are all convincing and their interactions and development proceed effectively throughout the book.

The main character, Harry, is a frustrating blend of techno nerd and businessman, son, husband and father. In fact, all the characters are suitably flawed in their different ways and, consequently, both loveable and distressing, both to one another and to the reader. The description of suburban Melbourne towards the end of the twentieth century and into the twenty first century accurately reflects what I have observed after migrating to Australia in 1961.

Where Pademelons Play is such an interesting story that it is well worth reading more than once, again an increasingly rare occurrence in literature today.

Janet L Ward