SuitabookThe boundless sublime
Lili Wilkinson
- Reading
- Consider reading alongside the young person, pausing after Ruby first encounters the community and again when its rules become troubling. Discuss choices and warning signs without revealing the ending.
- Themes
- Grief and vulnerability: Ruby blames herself after an accident tears her family apart and seeks relief from grief and numbness. The story links grief with increased susceptibility to another person’s influence.
- Belonging and coercive influence: Fox introduces Ruby to a community with its own rules, led by a man called Daddy; Ruby sees some of its ways as sensible before becoming more deeply involved. The community is presented as strange and increasingly threatening, with its influence described as taking advantage of grief.
- Fear and horror: Ruby’s introduction to Fox’s world is gradual; apprehension dominates early portions, followed by horror as the community’s secrets and acts emerge. The community’s acts are described as terrifying, and the narrative is framed as a thriller with an escalating emotional effect.
- Worth knowing
- Be prepared for family rupture after an accident, intense grief, emotional vulnerability, a coercive community led by “Daddy”, sinister secrets, panic and acts described as terrifying or horrific.