Lucy & Linh by Alice Pung #BookReview @Legend_Press

Lucy is a bit of a pushover, but she’s ambitious and smart, and she has just received the opportunity of a lifetime: a scholarship to a prestigious school, and a ticket out of her broken-down suburb. Though she’s worried she will stick out like badly cut bangs among the razor-straight students, she is soon welcomed into the Cabinet, the supremely popular trio who wield influence over classmates and teachers alike.

Linh is blunt, strong-willed, and fearless–everything Lucy once loved about herself. She is also Lucy’s last solid link to her life before private school, but she is growing tired of being eclipsed by the glamour of the Cabinet.

As Lucy floats further away from the world she once knew, her connection to Linh–and to her old life–threatens to snap. Sharp and honest, Alice Pung’s novel examines what it means to grow into the person you want to be without leaving yourself behind.

| Review |

Lucy & Linh has been described as part Mean Girls and part Lord of the Flies.  Which fits it perfectly.  In the book, we go on a journey with Lucy who wins a scholarship to a prestigious school which is just worlds away from her friends and run down neighbourhood.

As Lucy’s life changes drastically and she has to leave behind her old leave, she writes a diary/letter to her friend Linh and that is how we get to know her story.

At Laurinda the exclusive school for girls, Lucy tries to fit in. But a trio of girls who form “The Cabinet” run the school with an unkind hand and a true mean streak.

The book covers some intense and important issues, that kids and adults face every day.  The art of fitting in and being included. But with these dominating bullies, it’s difficult and frightening. Lucy has to discover who she is and what exactly she is willing to do to fit in. A form of bullying really goes on in everyone’s life. Alice Pung brings it to the forefront of the story.  Showing us the reactions to the actions of others. Mean is never acceptable and it’s a lesson that we have to be strong and stand up to the bullies. Who are usually only reflecting their own insecurities and upset.

I found the book somewhat difficult to connect with in the beginning chapters, I couldn’t relate to the cultural references and I found the pace of the book a little odd.  But the writing is incredible and I wanted to stick with it and I am very pleased I did. Alice Pung writes with such raw brutal honesty.

Lucy & Linh should be read by everyone in high school and especially by parents. It was a reading learning curve for me and I am eager to read more by Alice Pung.

 By Kelly Lacey