When Isla meets Luke meets Isla

Two teenagers meet and form a friendship that slowly begins to turns into something more. They tell their story in alternate chapters and in their different voices – Isla is loud, brash even, Luke less confident, more thoughtful. They each have family worries – Isla argues with her parents and little sister while Luke resents his absent father – but there’s nothing exceptional about their lives.

Tragedy strikes suddenly and unexpectedly about a third of the way through the book when Isla’s nine-year-old sister is killed in a road accident. The effect on Isla is devastating but Luke too is changed as he struggles to support her. There’s a new pressure on their relationship, a pressing need to define what they are to each other and finally an examination of what it means to grow up. Tracey seems more comfortable in this section of the book and the more complex Isla and Luke’s relationship becomes, the more convincing and confident her writing. This is an ambitious book which requires quite a bit from its reader but offers much in return.