Review by garlicclove -- Ironbark Hill by Jennie Linnane

[garlicclove]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Ironbark Hill" by Jennie Linnane.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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The protagonist of Ironbark Hill, Natalie Chapman, calls herself herself "a girl of brave and independent nature,” but admits that others might call her “‘unwise and reckless.” At sixteen, she struggles to support her family while waging war against her abusive stepfather, Alex Townsend. She spends her days working as a maid for a well-to-do family and raising cattle on her grandfather’s ramshackle farm while Alex terrorizes her family and spends what little she earns on alcohol. Tensions come to a head when Alex decides to sell a cow Natalie has raised and keep the money for himself.

Natalie is a painter, and author Jennie Linnane uses her protagonist’s eye to capture the breathtaking, rugged landscape of rural Australia with evocative detail. Natalie describes her world, it’s colors and shadows, in vivid and engaging sensory details, as if she were painting it. Her story is deeply rooted in that landscape but rather than see it as a hostile environment, it’s the source of her inspiration, the subject of her paintings and the means to the income she hopes will lift her family out of poverty.

Natalie also struggles with the prejudice she has endured due to her Aboriginal heritage. She has internalized the standards of beauty that favor light skin, straight hair and a thin build. Ironbark Hill, like many coming of age stories, is about the conflict between how the protagonist perceives herself and the expectations and insults society heaps on her. Natalie often imagines what her life would be like if her half-Aborigine father had lived long enough to teach and protect her. Natalie eventually learns that his death may not have been the accident she was always told it was, and becomes determined to learn the truth.

Linnane’s book does fall into trope of depicting a black girl as older and more sexually available than her age. Natalie is not allowed to be a child. While her white half siblings play with her cousins, she goes to work as a maid where she is seduced by her much older employer. While it is easy to imagine a child in Natalie’s situation being forced to grow up fast, the way Linnane handled her relationship with Bruce Gardner made me very uncomfortable.

This novel does contain depictions of abuse, domestic violence, sexual assault, and a relationship between a minor and an adult, so readers who may be upset by these subjects should use their discretion.

3 out of 4

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Ironbark Hill
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