Words in Deep Blue, by Cath Crowley

Rachel is 18 and grieving. She has failed Year 12 after her brother drowned eight months ago and she can no longer bear the ocean, which she used to love. She moves back to the city, after three years away, to live with her aunt and try to get her life back on track. To do that she first has to reconnect with her friends, who don’t know her situation, especially her former best friend Henry. The action is set in and around a second hand bookshop owned by Henry’s divorcing parents that is also their family home. The chapters alternate between Rachel and Henry’s voices, which is fine to get each of their points of view on life and their friendship. Although, towards the end the repetition of events does get tedious. The book includes many letters to and from various characters that are tucked into the books in the bookshop’s library section of well-worn novels that have been annotated by many readers. This quirky conceit is interesting and integral to the plot, but is undermined by the choice of a script font for the letters, which is very hard on the eyes. It’s quite a moving tale of grief and friendship, but the romantic aspects are less credible and when it waxes poetic towards the end it risks disappearing up its own backside.