Obtain Immediately Holier Than Thou By Laura Buzo Made Available In EText

insightful, funny, clever, poetic but also authentic language of young people, These are just the first words that come to mind about 'Holier Than Thou', But there are so many more,

Almost the best book I have read all year, Apparently that doesn't mean much, People say that I claim that about every book I read, shrug whatever.

More words, specifically about Holly, who is an excellent character, She is alive and real, Full of longing and grief and wanting and loving, She fairly crackles off the page,

The structure of the book is sophisticated and random, yet so truthful, Holly's memories and missteps are so captured so vividly, I just wanted to keep reading,

Clearly, I heart TB this book, Another Aussie Hit! Are you surprised

My first experience with Laura Buzos writing was when I read her debut novel Good Oil.
I fell hard for that book, so I was all sorts of excited when I heard she was coming out with another contemporary.


When I was done reading Holier Than Thou what I was left with was a ton of notes written down that included scattered thoughts, music choices, character details and all sorts of musings.
Its something I find I do quite often for books that have an impact on me, The notes are all over the place, but one thing is for certain it was nothing short of a profound and fulfilling journey having traveled with these characters for a small moment of time.


There were parts of the narration that I struggled with a bit because it would jump from time frame to time frame, and Id be left not knowing where I was to go next with Holly.
However, I soon realized that was the whole point, She was a bit lost herself and had so much on her mind and in her heart to share through her narration that the only way she could achieve telling her story with the truest sense of honesty was to give the reader a VIP pass into her organized chaos in the most revealing way possible.


I find thats a signature move with Aussie contemporaries, The characters hold nothing back and you learn about every aspect of their lives and to not feel a connection or some sort of sympathy is to miss the magic of these stories.


Nicholarse and Holier Than Thou left me with a small pang regret, and there was a part of me that wanted these characters to achieve their own sort of happy ending, but in the end Holly did the right thing.
She made a choice that spoke volumes to her integrity, and she earned a ton

of respect from me as a character.


Holly was fierce, strong and worthy of her title Woman of Steel, She goes down in my book as a character I wont soon forget and would drop my afternoon responsibilities for a chat and cup of tea with her.
She shared her struggle and pain of losing her father and later her fear of losing her close friendships as they grow older and have to deal with real life.
This story felt honest and oh so very real,

It was very character driven with constant shifts in time frames, which made it hard at times to gain my bearings, but in the end its earned a spot in my heart for its realism and impact.
Overall, another Aussie contemporary that shouldnt be missed,

Song Choice: sitelinkWith Me Sum

This review is featured on:
sitelink Absolutely my kind of brilliance.
Loved this and then some, Please, Laura Buzo, write more books, I could read your stuff forever xo



So incredibly, crazily excited for this.
It's my fave bracket to read in, as well, new adult, HOLIER THAN THOU. I dont think I could handle being a Holly Yarkov, looking at things the way she did, seeing what needs be doing and what could be done.
All the things she asked of herself and of others, BIG, Was I ever her though, and have the day in and day out of my life pushed all questions like hers aside The way things were going it felt like she was almost here with me, where its just the day in day out, minus the questions.


Almost. But not quite as a lot of this is a real look at the life of a person in that stage of life where things are brand new, when things there are exciting.
Except its also bout how that shines begun to dull with each real world encounter and with each moment of her expectations not quite happening.


One thing that tugged at me: the closeness shes got with her people, How shed had all these notions of what theyd be and how theyd be later in the when.
And that Thats so me,

But then, theres real life and its not quite what you expect so couple her notions of Friends and Seinfeld, with early memories of heartbreak, feeling like shes no place where she should as well as the little then the big let downs from people unexpected well, was it empathy overdose, what she said And Holly, she makes sense, in this real authentic way of the not too perfect, but wants it to be perfect nonetheless kind of way.
Hell, every single one in this is perfectly real in how imperfect they were, Where some are more imperfect than others, of course, All roads lead back to Jindarra Street, . . or at least, they do for Holly Yarkov,

Holly is a social worker in the toughest town of Sydney, Elizabethtown affectionately called Befftown, She works closely with registered nurse, Nick affectionately called Nicholarse, and together they work the towns toughest hood, Jindarra Street.


After Holly and Nick make a gruesome discovery at the home of one of their clients, Holly starts backtracking through her life leading up to a potential crossroads that lies before her.
. .

Hollys story is sliced between now and then, and focuses on four important men who continue to exert their influence in her life, even though some of them are dead and gone.


Theres her beloved boyfriend Tim Timbo, who Holly has just moved into an apartment with, Nick is her coworker a bongaddicted nurse who isto Hollys, he attends circus school in his days off and Holly is becoming increasingly wary of their relationship, while also enamoured of their effortless friendship.
Liam was Hollys busfriend at school, a year above her and apart of the cool crowd Holly harboured a secret crush on him for years before he became an official member of her uni gang.
. . but the story of Liams absence in Hollys life now is a slow and painful explanation, and needs time to be told.
And then theres Hollys dead father an outspoken Leftwinger who used to crop up in the newspapers all the time and incited the Liberal fury of a few of Hollys classmates parents.
Her father died when Holly was in Year Ten, and she never quite recovered from the loss,

Events in Hollys life, from job dissatisfaction to inconvenient thoughts about her dreadlocked coworker, have Holly questioning her life and the path she is on and how she got here in the first place.
As Holly backtracks through the relationships and death that helped define her, she battles losing touch with the very people in the present who once defined her past.


Holier Than Thou is the new Australian young adult novel from Laura Buzo,

Last year I read Laura Buzos Good Oil, and found a new favourite Australian author, In Good Oil, Buzo told a deceptively simple story of firsttimelove and heartbreak, which was so brutally honest that it was simply sublime.
However, I was somewhat disheartened by the wideopen ending of Good Oil, and asked Ms Buzo in a QampA if she had plans for a sequel.
At the time she replied with an infuriating possibly and mentioned that her next novel seemed to be taking up a bigger canvas, and was unrelated to Good Oil.
Now having read Holier Than Thou I feel I should say that bigger canvas was an understatement, I should also say that, as someone who had my fingers crossed for a Good Oil sequel, I feel that Holier Than Thou is a logical sortof extension of Buzos first book, and I am actually glad that I read this book before any sort of sequel to Amelia and Chriss story.


Holier Than Thou is a prime example of why I love Aussie YA so darn much.
Buzos book is exactly what I was talking about back in Novemberwhen I tried to explain my affinity for the YA literature of my homeland It's about holding a mirror up, finding a spark and a connection, recognizing a little of yourself in the stories and setting.
It's that 'aha!' moment, when you're sure the author is writing about you and yours, the possibility that this story could be set in your hometown and you recognize a character from your own friendship group.
Holier Than Thou is that spark, connection and aha moment it is, simply, an incredible book,

The plot of Holier Than Thou sounds complex so much so that after reading the blurb, I really didnt have a clue what kind of book I was getting into.
The nuts and bolts of the plot are tangled and complicated, We begin in the present, and then backtrack to one year earlier and follow Hollys life leading up to the explosive opening chapter.
But as Holly begins reexamining her life, and friendships, she starts reminiscing about the past and her core group of high school/uni friends who are slowly starting to drift away and in one case, vanish to Canberra in the present.
Complicated Yes. But this is a book about that strange age of mids, when everything is changing and the ties that bind start loosening.
This is a book that explores the very tangled webs of friendships and buried hurts it is meant to be complicated such is life.
The tangles make this a tantalizing read and even though the back and forth timeshifts sound confusing, Buzo executes them beautifully.
She writes Hollys recounting of the past like trains of thought that she is following in the present she leaves breadcrumbs in her realtime narrative about her fathers death and the one that got away, and as readers we happily and hungrily follow the trail.
Tangled Definitely Worth the journey Absolutely,

We meet Holly when shesand past the point of newbie in her social worker job.
She is now at the part when she knows her job is to put bandaids on bullet wounds to work long hours for crappy pay and still be expected to meet Government targets and sit performance reviews.
She is starting to wonder what got her to this point, and if shes strong enough to stay in a job that seems determined to slowly suck the life out of her.
Hollys job is a real focal point of the book, and particularly fascinating, Laura Buzo actually is a social worker, and she writes her truetolife struggles through Holly beautifully, From the healthcare system that doesnt care about the crazies, to peoples misconceptions about what social workers do and the patients they treat.


Meanwhile, Holly has just moved out of home and into an apartment with her scrumptious boyfriend, Tim.
For a little while there, Holly had the trifecta her home life, love life and career in some sort of sync.
But then it all starts going pearshaped, Holly becomes more and more enamoured of her coworker, Nick, She becomes despondent in her thankless job, and her home life degenerates into nights spent on the couch with Tim, watching telly and spying on her neighbours in the building across the way.


Holly becomes increasingly despairing of the way her life is changing, and the myriad of ways that her past is disconnecting from her present.
Holly tries to organize catchups with her old high school/uni friends, with little success, Lara, Abigail and Daniel were her rocks in high school, particularly when her father died, But their jobs and commitments are pulling them all further and further apart, Abigail is training to be a doctor, Dan works for a corporation that deals in layoffs, and Lara works for a law firm with dubious bigbusiness clientele.
Holly especially doesnt want to lose these friends, since they are already one man down, Liam started as Hollys busbuddy in high school, Eventually, Liam slowly and thrillingly progressed into their social group and pretty soon they were an inseparable fivesome Dan, Lara, Abigail, Holly and Liam.
But then it all went horribly wrong when Holly started to act on her longstanding crush on Liam.


Memories of Liam start creeping back into Hollys thoughts when her casual work friendship with Nick takes on a new rhythm and connection.
In Nick, Holly has an intellectual and visceral bond much like she once did with Liam, Nick and Holly do have an enviously syncing connection they motivate one another with Gallipoli quotes “What are your legs” / “Steel springs!” and their banter is enviably witty and warm.
He affectionately calls Holly HolierThanThou, for her seeming unbending moral core, But Nick is proving to be a potentially dangerous temptation

A nurse and a social worker took fifteen minutes out of their shitty thankless job in the roughest corner of town, sat on a couple of milk crates drinking coffee, flopped their real selves out on the cement and both liked what they saw.

Nicholarse. Thats beautiful. I didnt know where to look,
You get me through the days, Hollierthanthou,
Likewise. I drained my coffee cup and our moment was shattered by the shouting of one of Nicks clients who had spied us in the alcove.


Dissatisfaction at work has Holly thinking about what led her to becoming a social worker.
One of the oldtimer social workers comments that its past hurt which equips social workers with more capacity for caring, and thats true of Holly.
Losing her father to cancer in Year Ten left a wound that Holly is only just starting to reopen and reexamine.


Holier Than Thou is definitely going to be afavourite, It feels like I read this book at the right time like Holly, I amgoing onand relatively settled in my first real job.
I too am dealing with drifting friendships and changing relationships, I could even relate to Hollys touchstones and young influences

Finishing Year Twelve had been a blessed relief.
Although, having read Looking for Alibrandi several times since Year Eight, I was disappointed that Year Twelve did not bring me a handsome, saltoftheearth boyfriend and ultimate emancipation from all that ailed my teenage soul.


Funny that Buzo references Melina Marchetta, because Holier Than Thou did remind me of The Pipers Son.
Like Marchettas Saving Francesca followup, Holier Than Thou is about that odd time in your life when you start growing and changing, leaving friends behind and trying to hold on tight to others.
Buzo reminded me of Marchetta they both favour gritty real stories and they dont shy away from teaching tough life lessons.
Likewise, Buzos characters are like Marchettas in that theyre enviably quickwitted individuals who banter beautifully and make the reader wish they were real people that we could be friends with.
These characters are also entirely fallible, and relatable for their imperfections, Holly makes mistakes in her friendship/relationship with Nick, not because shes a mean person or doesnt love Tim, but because her instant connection with Nick surprises her in its intensity, totally catching her off guard.
Holly has very high ideals of how shes supposed to be partly to live up to her dead fathers standards.
Holly reminded me of that Missy Higgins song, The Special Two And you make boundaries you'd never dream to cross.
Over the course of the book Holly also comes to slowly accept that she might have made mistakes in her friendship with Liam.
Likewise, she is starting to realize that her friends, those people she relied on so much in her youth, are not necessarily the people she needs around her in the future.
Thats a hard lesson to learn, when to cut ties and accept that the past is in the past.


Holier Than Thou is a story of tangled webs and grey areas, Protagonist Holly Yarkov is not perfect, but she is brilliant, You will wish Holly was a real person, so you could count her amongst your friends, She is caring, funny, equipped with steel springs and an enviable backbone, Holly is an entirely relatable protagonist shes at that midway point in hers when relationships start dropping off and life events begin changing us for better or worse.
. . What was really incredible in this book was the beautiful melding of Hollys past and present, We follow her memories as events in the present trigger thoughts of her dead father and Liam, her one that got away.
And although we know the outcome of those memories, Buzos writing is so seamless and addictive that even Hollys unfolding pastheartbreak with Liam keeps you on the edge of your seat, futilely rooting for a happy outcome, even though you know it cannot be.


Buzo has written another beautiful young adult novel that doesnt pull punches, but tells a beautifully relatable tale of lost love, missed chances, growing up and growing apart.
As good as Good Oil and further proof not that I needed it that Buzo is fast becoming a powerful new voice in Australian YA.
.