Rating: 
Thomas Mackee wants oblivion. Wants to forget parents who leave and friends he used to care about and a string of one-night stands, and favourite uncles being blown to smithereens on their way to work on the other side of the world.
But when his flatmates turn him out of the house, Tom moves in with his single, pregnant aunt, Georgie. And starts working at the Union pub with his former friends. And winds up living with his grieving father again. And remembers how he abandoned Tara Finke two years ago, after his uncle’s death.
And in a year when everything’s broken, Tom realises that his family and friends need him to help put the pieces back together as much as he needs them.
Literary Awards: New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards Nominee for Ethel Turner Prize for Young People’s Literature (2011), Children’s Book Council of Australia Awards Nominee for Older Readers Book of the Year (2011), Prime Minister’s Literary Awards Nominee for Young Adult Fiction (2011), Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards Nominee for Young Adult Book Award (2010)
*****
PROMISING.
The Piper’s Son burned me out a number of times (with its ever down-in-the-dumps atmosphere) but Marchetta always brought me alive again with the hopefulness of Tom’s story. This is not my fave among Marchetta’s works, but Tom is definitely on my top 10 book boyfriend list. 🙂 His character is that good.
Tom is lost and he’s pretty much in deep sh*t. As much as i hate what became of him after Year Eleven, i couldn’t help but hope that things would work out for him. It’s like life is out to get him, given his circumstances. But what I love about Marchetta’s writing is how she still managed to make me laugh and fall in love despite Tom’s family drama. His correspondence with Tara is what I craved the most. It’s antagonistic, funny, and swoon-worthy at the same time. I remembered Tom saying ‘What. A. B*tch.’ after Tara emailed him back, not to reply to his email, but to ask him to tell Frankie and Justine that she’s out of phone credits. 😀 Payback! There’s also this idea there about Tom and Frankie that caught me off-guard, and i was like, what the..?!! But if you ask me, I will choose Thomas Finch Mackee anytime of the day over Will Trombal. That’s a fact.
The Piper’s Son is a laborious read for me. It was good, but the drama was too depressing. Still, if I ever wanna hook up with Tom’s one-and-a-half night stand story, I would find myself reading this book again. =)
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.: maria :.
“giving up is the ultimate tragedy.”
reading is the ultimate aphrodisiac. 