Jocelyn Shipley

Jemma is a 17 year old single Mum who has left the clutches of the baby's father Razor - a drug pushing, violent criminal who pimped out his own girlfriend. One night, desperate for diapers, she leaves the baby and heads to the local shop and on the way back witnesses the drive-by shooting of a local boy with what looks like Razor in the driver's seat. Jemma is now terrified. She wants to speak up but she doesn't want Razor to know about the baby. And then, there's a knock at the door...
Realistic, gritty, short novel for mature readers due to the content and language "f" word.… (more)

"Banished" to her grandmother's farm in the country for the summer, twelve-year-old Morgan is at first consumed by her anger at her strict mother, and her resentment at being constantly compared to her "lovely" cousin, Clare. But as Morgan becomes involved in Clare's secret romance, she begins to see parallels between her own experiences and those of her grandmother, whose older sister Seraphina was also involved in a forbidden love affair - an affair that ended tragically. When disaster strikes, Morgan wonders if the past has repeated itself...

This brief children's novel provides an engaging narrative, and a realistic but likeable young heroine. Shipley clearly has an understanding of the intense feelings of adolescence - the sudden bouts of almost uncontrollable anger, the subsequent repentant sorrow, and the confusion of conflicting emotions. This last is particularly evident in Morgan's relationship with her mother, whom she simultaneously hates and loves. Anyone who has been a teen will probably find something in this experience that strikes a chord.

On another level, Seraphina's Circle also functions as a discussion about the nature of grief, and the way in which the young romanticize tragedy. The cousins' "acting out" of Seraphina's story, their almost ritualistic game, is a fairly accurate portrayal of girlhood socialization. In many ways it reminded me of some of the passages in Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye.… (more)