Bugs (2013)

I bought this novel during my first trip to New Zealand. We were then in the windy and hilly city of Wellington, attending 2013 Pikihuia Awards in the midst of Maori writers as well-known as Ms. Patricia Grace herself. She was kind enough to have group phtos with us.

The Pikihuia Award is a biannual event in which contemporary Maori talents of genres are recognized and encouraged to carry on their trade. In addition to announce the winners of the year, the host organization Huia Publishers also uses this opportunity to launch the latest novel by a writer who previously earned herself via another competition a grant to finish a story within six months. 

In the year I visited, they launched the Bugs. That is, the second novel by a young Maori female writer Whiti Hereaka. She was born in Taupo, where the first and largest Maori tribe landed. I've seen her town; she describes it as "A place that is 'picture perfect' on the surface but is still bubbling with destruction below".

Her story is about three young people (Bugs, Jez and Stone Cold)  at their last few years of high school and confined to a small town. Eventually two drove away with no specific plans, leaving Bugs in the field - according to her will though - to return to school exams and their small town. 

Bugs and Jez were already friends before Stone Cold appeared. Both raised by single mothers, they had a lot in common and cared a lot about each other. Then Stone Cold appeared in town, a daughter of well-to-do parents and a cocky transfer; she caught Jez's attention, so Bugs had no chice but tailed along, sometimes unwillingly, in order to stay in the trois. 

Never mind the trois; there is nothing sexual in this fiction for young adults. As the story unfolds, readers are taken through the trois's school classes, families, troubles, haves and have-nots. Though Stone Cold is the rich girl with car and computer, she craves the love of a friend like Bugs and the love of Bugs's supportive family. She thought Bugs is very lucky to have her mother, while Bugs's mother thought Stone Cold is very lucky to have her as a friend (who looked after Stone Cold when she was in need). Bugs cried, and I almost cried too. 

The contrast may appear simple and the moral obvious; nevertheless, that's not how the judges of 2014 NZ Post CYA Book Awards see it. They nominated Bugs as a finalist in the competition, sending the author on the New Zealand Post Book Awards Festival and Finalists Tour for Children and Young Adults, because they saw the value of this genre. So I quote one of them, 

"As judges, we’ve acknowledged that young adult fiction, both in New Zealand and around the world, is following a number of trends and, indeed, young adult fiction has always addressed big life issues. Some young adult books have darker narratives which help readers explore what to them may be new scenarios and attitudes. Reading gives these young people a more controlled and structured framework in which to feel their own way through these themes."(BUGS finalist in 2014 NZ Post CYA Book Awards)

Controled it is. The author said she wrote this book quickly. With her fluent prose and structured scenes, a reader will not fall much behind her reading schedule but will be soon introduced to the world of Maori youth in the contemporary.