Chris Womersley’s coming-of age-story ORDINARY GODS AND MONSTERS (Picador 2023) has the beating heart of a thrilling crime novel. Skilfully written, with engaging characters and the familiar themes of adolescents transversing that liminal time between childhood and the adult world, the book is pulsing with authenticity with a touch of magical realism.
It reminds me a little of Trent Dalton’s Boy Swallows Universe, insomuch as it concerns an earnest, slightly anxious young boy dealing with badly behaved adults (from unfaithful or absent parents to proper bikie criminals) and their equally terrible actions.
The story is page-turning and breath-taking as we follow high school graduate Nick Wheatley and his best friend and neighbour Marion over a few intense days of summer, when ‘it was the end of some things, the beginning of so many others’. When Marion’s father is killed in a hit and run, there appear to be no suspects and no leads. Marion’s family is in mourning and Nick feels helpless. As they deal with their grief in teenage, casual yet angst-written fashion, they are drawn into the dark underbelly of their town through a psychic, some gangsters and some speed-dealing bikies. With nicknames like ‘Stretch’ and ‘Buzzard’, these dangerous characters (including a one-eyed conspiracy theorist) lend an sharp edge of menace to the story, which is balanced by more tender adolescent themes such as whether or not Marion has acquired a boyfriend or Nick might ever acquire a girlfriend, and the rather oddly endearing character of Nick’s older sister who perhaps has a mental illness or a condition but is certainly annoying and surprisingly funny. The book has many moments of comedy, much of it dark and brooding.
Womersley is a terrific writer, presenting fleshed-out and interesting characters complete with ethical and moral quandaries, wrapped inside the recognisable themes of a coming-of-age story, but with the addition of a mysterious unsolved crime which keeps the reader turning the pages fast. He writes great dialogue and makes poignant, miniscule observations of both the people and the places he explores. The title of this book for some reason made me think it would be a fantasy, but it is about the very ordinary gods and even more ordinary monsters that make up our mostly very ordinary lives. And while it deals with trauma and the uncertainties of growing up, and includes a barely there sense of ‘what if?’ (can’t quite put your finger on it; something not quite right; hairs on the back of your neck standing up; one too many coincidences), it also resolves in a satisfactory and hopeful way.