Teen Book Review: Into the River

In a way then, the New Zealand Film and Literature Board of Review’s short-lived interim restriction on the sale and supply of Ted Dawes’ young adult novel, Into the River, was fortuitous for the author in terms of the increased interest this generated in the book.

This winner of the 2013 Margaret Mahy Book of the Year opens with a fine piece of storytelling as young Te Arepa and his best mate Wiremu’s swim in the local river takes a disturbing and life-changing turn. What befalls Te Arepa here cleverly sets the tone for his character development through the rest of the novel.

For the first quarter of the book, we learn about Te Arepa’s whakapapa through his grandfather’s excellently-spun tales of the brave pirate Santos, from whom his family are descended, and whose association marks Te Arepa as someone destined for great things.

With this somewhat whimsical backstory neatly in place, the tone of the novel suddenly changes and settles down to an earthy coming-of-age drama. Te Arepa makes a journey far from small-town rural New Zealand, earning a scholarship at a prestigious school. While fulfilling his grandfather’s hopes for him of a good education, Te Arepa learns what it is like to lose his identity and culture, as he seeks to blend in with his peers in order to avoid bullying by the privileged seniors. In so doing, he turns his back on his childhood, making new and dangerous friendships.

Along the journey, Te Arepa experiences sex and drugs, disappointments, fear and betrayal. The book is real life writ large, and in the telling of Te Arepa’s story, there is the truth of the world that many young people live in. Ted Dawe doesn’t shy away from controversial themes in the novel, nor does he dress the sordid and unsavoury aspects of a young adult’s life in dreamy romanticism, but if I was young again, I think I would find the novel to be a salutary lesson, rather than an invitation to jump on the wild bandwagon it portrays. I enjoyed Into the River – not an easy read by any stretch of the imagination, but absorbing and well-told. And while I would advise parents to read the novel themselves before deciding whether it is suitable for their child, I have to say it is a good read for young people if approached in the right way.

Kay Mercer  |  Events Coordinator