An enjoyable tale of survival and Gods providence in the life and hardships of a London orphan boy and his voyage to Botany Bay as a convict.

I particularly enjoyed the impact of English evangelicalism on the setting of the story: the kindness of the parish minister, the reflections on the book of Job, etc. ( )

I don’t think it was possible to be a book-loving child in the 1990s/early 2000s and not know [a:John Marsden|28756|John Marsden|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1239501928p2/28756.jpg]. Not love John Marsden, even. [b:Tomorrow, When the War Began|71865|Tomorrow, When the War Began (Tomorrow, #1)|John Marsden|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388214812s/71865.jpg|1253352], [b:So Much to Tell You|51167|So Much to Tell You (So Much to Tell You, #1)|John Marsden|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327410610s/51167.jpg|1362019], [b:Checkers|82557|Checkers|John Marsden|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1171023261s/82557.jpg|570458], [b:The Rabbits|82599|The Rabbits|John Marsden|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1344739399s/82599.jpg|79745]...

He was an instant-read for me: no matter what the book was about, I’d read it because it was Marsden.

But this. Oh dear.

Firstly, this was shelved at my library as an adult book, but he’s famous for his YA works, and the blurb made this sound like it would land firmly in YA territory too. A child/young teenager transported to Australia from London in the late 1700s, struggling to survive... YA? Adult? Even after reading it I’m not sure.

It’s told in the first person by Barnaby Fletch, a 13-year-old (for most of the book) boy living on the streets of London who runs afoul of the wrong person and decides to get himself transported to Australia to escape, and find a better life. He’s telling his story from a point somewhere in the future, looking back on the events of his youth.

I want to say Barnaby’s an interesting character, but he’s really not. He’s an observer, more than anything, with very little to say for himself or distinguish him. And that’s disappointing, because one of the advantages of a first-person viewpoint is that it puts the reader deeply inside the character’s head. Give this poor boy a personality, for God’s sake! This isn’t helped by the quite formal language adopted by future!Barnaby.

(There’s a lot of God-talk in here too, and comparing Barnaby’s sufferings with those of Job.)

I also found his temperament deeply incongruous with his supposed upbringing. He’s lived on the streets of London his whole life and yet is Shocked and Appalled, at age 12, by mentions of sex/masturbation/sodomy/pedophilia? And Shocked and Appalled by hangings and floggings? That doesn’t gel with me. I can understand him being fearful for his life and terrified of pain, but there’s an innocence and naivety that I don’t think suits his supposed life to date.

It’s like Marsden wants to make sure the reader never thinks ill of his character, like he’s missed the memo that Flawed Heroes are all the rage nowadays. Which makes no sense, because from memory none of his previous YA characters were perfect AND they call had distinct voices and personalities. Has he genuinely forgotten how to write an engaging character in the last 10 years?

(You know what I think would have suited what Marsden was going for? A middle- or upper-class child, orphaned or separated from his parents, arrested for a crime he didn’t commit and unfairly sentenced. I would have rolled my eyes at this, but Barnaby’s not much better.)

Once Barnaby lands in Australia the plot turns into unbelievable drivel, all wrapped up neatly at the end with a bow of happiness on top, BUT simultaneously, the last page is clearly the set up for a sequel.

Please, John, you’re better than this. ( )

12 yr old Barnaby fletch tells his story of life as an abandoned youth on the streets of London in the 1700s to his transport to Australia as a child convict on the third fleet., and his early times in the fledgeling colony.
While factually correct, I had trouble reconciling the "voice" and language to the uneducated . boy telling his tale. ( )

John Marsden is best known for ‘The Tomorrow Series’ though he has written and published at least a dozen more middle grade to young adult novels as well as a handful of non fiction works.

“Having been asked by the Rvd Mr Johnson to jot down a few notes about my upbringing and the manner of my arrival in the colony, I will attempt to do so, but I should say at the outset that I have little of interest to relate. I have not contributed much worth to the world, as will no doubt become obvious in the pages that follow…”

South of Darkness is Marsden’s first novel for adults and features a young man by the name of Barnaby Fletch. It begins in late 18th century London where Fletch is struggling to survive on the streets of ‘Hell’. Orphaned at the tender age of 5, or thereabouts, he sleeps under bridges, thieving food to survive, his only friend another street rat named Austin. Though he is a recipient of some kindness by a church priest and later a family who fishes him half drowned out of the Thames, Barnaby is a hapless sort of fellow who often finds himself in dire straits and on one occasion, aged about 12, he sees no way out of a terrible situation other than to get himself transported to New South Wales to start a new life in the land that promises space and sunshine.

I have to be honest and admit that though I enjoyed Barnaby’s adventures, my experience of the narrative was not unlike that of reading an extended account from a school textbook as part of a history lesson. South of Darkness is related in the first person past tense by the aforementioned Barnaby Fletch, with not much in the way of dialogue and a tendency to tell rather than show.

I have no doubt that the historical details of Barnaby’s experiences are authentic, though his life is fictional. Marsden deftly evokes the grim streets of London, the bobbing transport ship, and the landscape of the fledgling Australian colony. I’m fairly familiar with the experiences of British convicts from an obsession with the era when I was in my mid teens but Barnaby’s interactions with the Australian ‘Indians’ (indigenous) are not something I had read about before.

South of Darkness is a tale of survival, adventure, fortitude and hope. Though I feel it lacks some excitement it is still a fascinating account of the era and a young boys life. I assume there will be more to come from Marsden as the end of South of Darkness leaves room for a continuation of Barnaby Fletch’s tale through adolescence and beyond. ( )