The Anatomy of Wings by Karen Foxlee

Set in a Queensland mining town, this is the story of Beth, who died at 14, and her sister Jenny who wants to understand why.


The story begins as Jenny and her best friend, Angela, are rifling through a forbidden box at the top of Jenny's mother's closet. Inside, they find clues to Beth's death --- all ordinary objects yet each a key to Beth's downturn. "There were two blue plastic hair combs. A tough girl's black rubber-band bracelet. A newspaper advertisement for a secretarial school folded in half. A blond braid wrapped in gladwrap. A silver necklace with a half-a-broken-heart pendant. An address, written in a leftward-slanting hand, on a scrap of paper. Ballet shoes wrapped in laces."

As the narrative unfolds, the story behind each of these objects is revealed --- the beloved braid of hair their mother chopped from Beth's head while angrily wrestling with her on the kitchen floor; the flyer for secretarial school: a last-ditch effort to keep Beth from getting into trouble; the necklace worn by Beth and her semi-boyfriend/bed-partner Marco, the 17-year-old bad boy from across town. Watching Beth morph from responsible daughter to wild child hell-bent on doing what she wants is infuriating and depressing but realistic nonetheless. 


A heartbreaking story that really hit home with me. I can see this book staying with me for some time.