"......a brutal underworld...."

"Ana describes a brutal underworld, hidden by the veneer of polite society of Melbourne in the 1980s. Ana’s sister Danica and Danica’s friends are the people you cross the street to avoid, but they are emerging adults that are desperate for a kind word and a need to feel safe, especially from the people that are paid to protect them. Danica and her friends understand that things are not as they seem within the Victorian justice and mental health system, and because of who they are, and how old they are, no one would ever believe them. This is a powerful book written with the blunt tone of a survivor. Ana underwrites her teenage despair and the family’s heartbreak while they are Waiting for Danica, but that despair jumps off the page straight into my heart. I remember the city for what it was in those days, and Ana has nailed it. "