‘I’m going to read Black Rabbit Summer Now!’
By Samara Straker / Spinebreakers Crew
‘I’m going to read Black Rabbit’s Summer Now!’
Is Dawn on the brink of insanity? She seems like it with the mention of her ‘invisible coat,’ drawing letters on snails so the next morning she can see what they randomly spell. However, you could argue that this is something spiritual and back it up with the fact that she has a good relationship with her dogs –am I going too far? After all, 90% of all communication is unspoken! And no, I’m not trying to make Dawn out to be the ‘Golden Kid’, she’s really quite normal but if she’s special enough for me to make this comparison, aren’t we all ‘Golden Kids?’ I’m only joking, it’s Kevin Brooks through reading the book he’s encouraged me to philosophise. But back on to Dawn, as you may have guessed by now, she’s the main character. It could be the fact that she’s a melodramatic teen, that’s why she acts this way. You know how sometimes teens feel they are unheard and seek attention. Heck, she even says at the beginning that she exaggerates a lot.
Dawn is very confused, in fact so confused, that it confuses me all this talk about God. Her dogs are named ‘Jesus’ and ‘Mary’ and her favourite band are called the ‘Jesus and Mary chain’ and of course the mention of ‘Killing God’ and telling God to help her. Dawn is a very sweet teen, teenage fiction is always about self –discovery. By the end I promise you will understand why Dawn is like this. Also, despite the confusion, I can see a lot of Christians being offended. ‘Killing God’ appears big and bold on the front cover of the book, literally in bold, black and white. I swear, it’s kind of scary. Kevin Brooks is just lucky I’m a spiritual person, probably like him, quite liberal and I know what I believe in, otherwise I would be cursing insults at him.
The book takes on a philosophical aspect and you know how they say you write to find yourself? Well, that’s what I think is happening here. The reason for this, Brooks comes to some rational conclusions that you could only get from philosophising. For example, the bible have images of ‘meek’ women but Eve was ‘different’ she was ‘seductive.’ You know that’s true about the bible, here Brook’s is philosophising through his character Dawn about God and religion using it as standard to probably work out or strengthen his beliefs.
Very well written, I can really say that the way it’s written reflects Dawn. The way it’s aesthetically laid out on a page it feels like Dawn wrote it. Chapters named confusingly, ‘god help me (1)’ then about five chapters later ‘god help me (2)’ or ‘inside me (1), inside me (2)’ and then ‘inside me (3)’ chapter one after the other. Spaces lots of spaces, as if Dawn or Brooks didn’t just fill all the pages up conventionally, some are like half a page, I guess it’s the rhythm of life. I’m reading ‘Black Rabbit’s Summer’ now.