BOOK REVIEW - THE PAUSE BY JOHN LARKIN

One moment. One pause. One whole new life. Declan seems to have it all: a family that loves him, friends he's known for years, a beautiful girlfriend he would go to the ends of the earth for. But there's something in Declan's past that just won't go away, that pokes and scratches at his thoughts when he's at his most vulnerable. Declan feels as if nothing will take away that pain that he has buried deep inside for so long. So he makes the only decision he thinks he has left: the decision to end it all. Or does he? As the train approaches and Declan teeters at the edge of the platform, two versions of his life are revealed. In one, Declan watches as his body is destroyed and the lives of those who loved him unravel. In the other, Declan pauses before he jumps. And this makes all the difference.

This is a young adult novel by the author of The Shadow Girl, winner of the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2012 Prize for Writing for Young Adults.  In this story John Larkin has put his finger on the pulse of those vulnerable teens who are unsure of their way in this 21st Century.  The feedback from one young reader was......."I enjoyed the complexities in the story and if I had a friend who I knew was depressed I would give them this book to read".

High praise indeed for this author.......