Winner, Commonwealth Book Prize, Regional Winner (Pacific), 2012
Looking back, Martha could’ve said no when Mr Booker first tried to kiss her. That would’ve been the sensible thing to do. But Martha is sixteen, she lives in a small dull town—a cemetery with lights—her father is mad, her home is stifling, and she’s waiting for the rest of her life to begin.
Of course Martha would kiss the charming Englishman who brightened her world with style, adventure, whiskey, cigarettes and sex.
But Martha didn’t count on the consequences.
Me and Mr Booker is a story about feeling old when you’re young and acting young when you’re not.
Read an interview with Riverbend Books.
Learn more about Cory and her writing by listening to this podcast with Valerie Khoo from the Sydney Writers' Centre.
Taylor’s take on the oft-explored rite of passage from sweet, open-eyed childhood into the dark sexually charged realms of adolescent turmoil is distinctive, disturbing and refreshed by the limitless aptitude of middle-aged men for acting like spoilt teenagers. A vibrant, questioning and unpredictable read.
West Australian
Me and Mr Booker is sexy, smart and brutally funny, and reminds us that while teenagers grow up fast, it’s only because they’re surrounded by adults who behave like children.
Benjamin Law author of, The Family Law
Me and Mr Booker is funny, sexy, moving: altogether a great read. Let us hope Cory Taylor has more like this one to share with her readers.
BookMunch.com
Me and Mr Booker is sharply observed and blackly comic, but it is also a tender depiction of love, sex, power and one girl’s heartbreaking step into adulthood.
Australian Bookseller + Publisher