The Deviants

LoveReading Says

October 2016 NewGen Book of the Month.

In a Nutshell: Revelations | Revenge | Rebuilding relationships

Masterfully suspenseful rollercoaster of a read, with a genuinely jaw-dropping finale.

Once thick as thieves and known as “The Fearless Friends”, the light of Ella, Max, Corey, Fallon and Zane’s friendship was extinguished following the death of Max’s older sister, Jess. Only Ella and Max are still close. So close, in fact, that he’s desperate to go all the way with her. But Ella isn’t ready for that. She has enough going on already, including her commitments to a promising athletics career, which has already earned her the nickname “Volcano Girl”.

The group begins to re-form when Ella and Max see Corey looking for his lost cat. While helping him search, the three of them end up near Fallon’s house on the edge of town. While there’s bad blood between Fallon’s much-maligned mum and Max’s family, they reignite their friendship. Then, a series of revelations lead to a riot of revenge and Volcano Girl erupts, along with the action, as increasingly dark truths are excavated in heart-stoppingly unexpected layers.

As kids “we saw magic in everything,” Ella remarks. “Something about growing up kicks that out of you without you even realising it's happening”. While the teenagers in this remarkable novel have certainly had a lot kicked out of them, and while the unexpected twist will leave readers reeling, there’s much magic between its pages: this novel is plotted with incredible panache, and sparks of rekindled light glow through the darkness. ~ Joanne Owen

A letter from the author:

Dear reader,

This book has been with me for 15 years now. Little did I know when I began how difficult it would be to write. I learn something with every new project and with The Deviants, it was bravery. I don't think I was ready to be this story's writer 15 years ago. I wasn't brave enough. It took me four other novels to find the courage I needed to give The Deviants the story they deserved.

Though the central storyline has changed many times over during the past decade - the characters' names alone have changed constantly - my intention for it has always been the same: to create a modern day Famous Five where life's not all picnics and bike rides and the baddies aren't as easy to identify. To create five modern teenagers dealing with five modern issues who come together to find a joint way forward for themselves - and solve the horrendous mystery that's impacted all their lives. But it's become much more than that now; more than just a throwaway story about five depressed teens or a slapstick comedy about kids who drink home brew instead of ginger beer and ride discarded supermarket trolleys, rather than bicycles.

Back in the mists of time, the pitch was 'The Famous Five find a bag in the woods.' Then that turned into 'The Famous Five find a body in the woods.' Pretty soon, they were hunting for a serial killer, then a paedophile and now, they are The Fearless Five and they have found a body washed up on a beach. For some reason, the beach body became the pitch I stuck with, but this is just the beginning. For all the Famous Five-esque shenanigans going on within these pages, this book deals with three things above all else - growing up, the insidious effects of abuse and the colossal power of true friendship.

It is my absolute pleasure to share it with you and I hope something within these pages lights a fire within you the way it has within me.

CJ Skuse

Joanne Owen

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