Jess and her twin sister Andy fall out over a boy. Then Mum gets a call to say her operation is scheduled and the girls are to fly to Sydney to stay with Dad. When there’s a problem with air flights, Jess takes the opportunity to be apart from her twin and books a bus to go and stay with her grandmother. Easy, except that Jess has never met her grandmother. Her mother left the small seaside town at eighteen and never went back. Jess discovers that there are many secrets behind the fight that precipitated her mother’s departure all those years ago. Will she make the same mistakes her mother did?

Jess, in her mid-teens, is a gutsy and likeable main character, not unlike the grandmother she goes to meet. Spirit of the Deep examines a family and its pecadillos, unravelling their stories one by one. The narrative is all from Jess’ point of view except for the first page of Chapter 9, where the voice is Gran’s. This is disconcerting but only briefly so. Beames weaves the story threads to a dramatic and satisfying conclusion without tying it up too neatly. Recommended for readers 13 and up.

Spirit of the Deep, by Margaret Beames
Lothian Books 2006
ISBN: 0734408579