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On a remote farm in Queensland Cassie Shultz feels useless. Her perfect brother Alex has an uncanny ability to predict the weather, and the fortunes of the entire family hinge upon his forecasts. However, her own gift for prophecy remains frustratingly obscure. Attempts to help her family usually result in failure.
After meeting with her new genius neighbor Athena, Cassie thinks she has unlocked the secret of her powers. But as her visions grow more vivid, she learns that the cost of honing her gift may be her sanity.
With her family breaking apart, the future hurtles towards Cassie faster than she can comprehend it.
This book was shortlisted for the Best Fantasy Novel 2017 in the Australian Aurealis Awards
Kathryn Gossow is a masterful story teller who displays great insight and sensitivity in her handling of difficult themes. The result, her debut novel Cassandra, is an extraordinary and engaging read.
Sometimes a rare book comes along that draws you in to the lives of its characters so fully that you feel, at the end, as though you have walked alongside them in reality. Cassandra is one such book. Exquisitely written with excellent characterisation, it highlights Odyssey Books' expertise in discovering hidden gems that breakdown genre expectations. Though classified as young adult, it is literary and spiritual in nature, with a compelling story
I found this book intriguing, gritty and absorbing. Cassandra has a lot going on; she's dealing with all the normal teenage issues of wanting to be accepted and loved; while also trying to understand her gift of prophecy so that she can stop bad things from happening. There was some beautiful prose and I particularly liked the faster paced rhythms the author created to help us get inside Cassie's head.
Some people are so broken they can only cut us. With poetic dexterity, Aurealis Award finalist Kathryn Gossow interweaves eight short stories of longing and alienation featuring outcasts and the misunderstood. From a homeless storyteller to a gardening soothsayer, to a copy editor who owns a pair of stubborn chickens, readers will come face to face with the humanity of people easily judged by a rigid society. At the heart of these stories is the Dark Poet, a charismatic and broken man leaving a trail of debris as he drifts in and out of people’s lives.