Published: 1 June 2017 (print)/1st February 2023 (audio) 
Publisher: Allen & Unwin/Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd
Pages: 247/6 hrs and 49 mins
Narrator: Nicole Nabout
Format: Audiobook
Genre: Young Adult
★ ★ ★ ★ – 4.5 Stars
We all love someone. We all fear something. Sometimes they live right next door – or even closer.
Kane will do everything he can to save his mother and his little brother Sam from the violence of his father, even if it means becoming a monster himself.
Mrs Aslan will protect the boys no matter what – even though her own family is in pieces.
Ada wants a family she can count on, while she faces new questions about herself.
Mr Bailey is afraid of the refugees next door, but his worst fear will take another form.
And Gugulethu is just trying to make a life away from terror.
On this street, everyone comes from different places, but to find peace they will have to discover what unites them.
I was wonderfully surprised by this story. It completely encapsulates what I love and adore about Aussie YA. It is a teen book but it is about real issue and real lives. This isn’t just going from class to class with high school drama. Sure they’re teenagers, but they have issues and the world is out to get them and they are young and brave and growing up.
The exploration of casual racism, intentional racism, and discrimination is so beautifully explored. It is woven in dialogue, behaviour, and from neighbours like Mr Bailey spying on those they feel are different.
So much is said without it being said out loud. Divaroren doesn’t need to spell things out, you see how wrong it is for the neighbour to be critical and what they deem are the right people to be in his neighbourhood – as if his heritage has any right. The different perspectives and the points of view show how people view their own lives and how others view those same lives with their own experiences. The idea of “proper migrants” is explored, about political refugees and misconceptions. The reactions of characters are of a kid from an abusive home, the effect of trauma and his behaviour, voluntary or not.
The topics and issues included are the perfect level of real without going too far into the adult. This is stuff kids would have seen and experienced, it’s good exposure and education without laying it on too much it becomes graphic or intense. Readers have got racist neighbours, they have been bullied, know about or experienced family violence. It’s all on one street and the fact these people all interact and live in the same place is a great example of you have no idea what people’s lives are like. Yes they are all in the same area but vastly different experiences happen behind those doors. It’s not a wrong side of the tracks thing, suburb versus suburb, these people are the same as anybody else.
As narrator Nabout makes it a little hard at times to distinguish voices, but does a good job overall bring each character to life. I loved the characters and the complexities each had. Even one of these characters would be deep enough and real enough for a book but Divaroren brings us more than enough to populate this street and this community.
It is a book with heavy topics, but they are real and reflect real lives. Divaroren balances it well for the intended age group and there’s power in the type of story being told. There is hope, and I love that we’re given hope. Community comes together, characters grow and even the smallest steps can make the biggest difference.
You can purchase Living on Hope Street via the following
Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible
