By Penni Russon, Monash University
On TikTok, one young woman is throwing her copies of Honeybee and Jasper Jones in the bin, with the caption ‘one of my favourite authors … no longer’.
In Jasper Jones, which defined Silvey’s career, 13-year-old Charlie is drawn into the aftermath of a young woman’s death by Indigenous character Jasper, who knows he will be blamed for it. Charlie helps him hide Laura’s body. In the novel’s denouement, we discover she was the victim of sexual abuse perpetrated by her own father; she died by suicide.
