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Thrill Seekers by Edwina Shaw
JUDGES' COMMENTS
Edwina Shaw's spotlight-sharp portrait of teenagers growing up fast and loose, dazed and confused, in 1980s Brisbane is so real it hurts. Driven by a daily search for sensation, Dougie and his band of boys wander the streets with a mesmerising combination of aimlessness and pure, driven focus.
With whip-like prose Shaw lets us into the lives of the thrill-seekers, this gang of boys on the cusp of adulthood, and the girls who hang around them, unwisely in most instances. Shaw unsparingly scans the booze, drugs, sex and stupidity, but also sees the tender friendships, the desire to be understood and the near-permanent fear of teendom. At the centre of the novel is Dougie, a fearless schizophrenic. Shaw's brother, who suffered from the same condition, killed himself at 20. This novel is a quiet tribute to him, and a louder one to Shaw's talent as a writer.