Waterhole

A haunting and engaging debut from a talented Australian author. Sixteen-year-old Sunny Maguire is dreading the school holidays. She used to love visiting her grandmother's farm but ever since her mother died in a tragic car accident, Sunny doesn't feel at home anywhere anymore and the farm is a constant reminder of what she has lost. She knows it's going to be a long summer. Worse, she has to spend it with her distant stepfather, Kevin, the only ‘family' she has left. On her return to the small town of Kelly's Crossing, Sunny is distracted by a new resident – Matthew Bright – and the disappearance of local teenager Dylan Koslovski. She gets involved in the search for Dylan along the mysterious Constant Creek Gorge, a beautiful location tainted by tragic drownings. Complications arise when Kevin becomes a suspect in the case and rumours begin to circulate. Sunny doesn't trust him and she's beginning to lose faith in herself, too, especially when she starts to see her mother's ghost. There are a lot of firsts to deal with when someone dies on you. Theres the first meal, the first time you watch a TV show you both liked, the first time you laugh, the first day of the Christmas holidays. Without them. Ever since sixteen-year-old Sunny Maguires mother died in a car accident, Sunny has been feeling lost and alone. She dreads the idea of spending the long summer with her distant stepfather, the person she blames for her mothers death. But Kevin is the only family she has left and Sunnys got nowhere else to go. When Sunny learns that a local teenage boy has disappeared, she joins in the search along the gorge and at the waterhole a beautiful pool tainted by a suspicious number of tragic drownings. And when she sees her mothers ghost, she starts to lose faith in the only person she can rely on.