The Australian published book In The Dark Spaces by Cally Black features a girl, Tamara, who falls victim to being kidnapped. But thats not the only thing she falls into. Tamara seems to find herself infatuated with her kidnappers, but not in the way you mights think. Set in the deep darkness of outer space, Tamara has been taken by the Garuwa, known for being killers. Unlike the family she never had, she is apart of something with her kidnappers, they take her in and give her a spot in their hive and on their squad. Can she really become one of them? or will she have to escape in order to be reunited with her baby cousin she left on the attacked ship, while she was being taken?
Tamara and her two year old cousin live as stowaways, a quite life, aboard the shipping freighter Starweaver Layla. Tamara’s aunt works in the ships kitchen. The living conditions are harsh and little comforts are available. Tamara and her baby cousin must stay quiet at all times. Tamara likes to roam the ship and stare on the different workers on each level of the ship, even though if she’s caught, she might get her whole family in trouble or worse. Tamara is 14 years old when the ship she’s on gets attacked by the Garuwa. Her aunt that looks after Tamara and her little cousin Gub, gets killed by the Garuwa during their attack. I enjoyed that Tamara just like in real life when something traumatic happens to someone they think its like a movie. They can’t believe that this is happening. I say this because through out the attack there are multiple points where she cannot believe that this is happening and the repercussions after going though something as traumatic as that, Cally Black captures her emotions so well and realistically.
When Tamara is taken from her ship she has to leave behind her baby cousin. The Garuwa people take her back to their hive, which is a living shelter that feeds and protects the squad. The squad are a group of Garuwas that live and work together. Tamara is smart and she shows respect and learns the ways of the Garuwa people. However they make her translate for them when they attack the other ships that come into the area. The Garuwa do this so that the ships coming from the Starweaver trading company stops stealing the minerals the hive needs to survive and provide for the squad.
Tamara was responsible for the loss of human lives during her translating sessions, because she would lure out the humans from the ships main cabin. The Garuwa would kill the humans so that their minerals would cease to be stolen. The humans just send more innocent lives and ships into the Garuwa area. In order to stop killing people and to get back to her baby cousin, Tamara must act and help stop the fighting thats escalating between the humans and Garuwas. But she isn’t able to do it alone.
When I first read the description of this book I was afraid that this would be about a young teen girl that represents what women shouldn’t be. And that Tamara would fall in love in a romantic way with her kidnappers. Turns out she does fall in love with them, but in a familial way.At first this novels dialogue between the character was difficult but its easy enough to pick up on. Interestingly some of the dialogue is from other earth languages, for example the first word that I found was, “makasih,” (Black 10) which is Indonesian for ‘thanks.’ As I continued reading this book it became astonishing how many different languages or euphemisms from other languages were used in this book. For example, it could be that this book has an Australian author or an effort into the books language mashups, the word “arse” was repeated throughout the book.
What else I liked about this book was the shier creativity in the writing. Other than the different writing styles and emotion this book consecutively communicated extremely well was the fact that it was just fun to read. One of the things I noticed in the book was when it mentioned the second Starweaver ship name. All the Starweaver ship names mentioned in the book all were titles of famous classic rock songs. The ships names were, “Layla, Hey There Delilah, My Sherona, etc.” This was just a fun thing that the author did that I thought was funny and appreciated. The fact that this book was also sci-fi made it fun because what about space isn’t cool and fascinating? It fun because you could write anything you want aboutwhat happens out in space. Lastly I really loved that this book made the main character Tamara a strong young woman. It pointed out many misconceptions about gender in this book. All the humans thought that the Garuwas were men, when they were actually all women. The humans thought this because the Garuwas are big and strong. Also when Tamara asks the Garuwa why there are no men, the Garuwa are confused. They say its because men eat more and are less bright and do not protect eachother. “Women protect.” (Black 81) This book highlights the strengths that women have. We care for one another and protect, we are strong and smart. I think that this book would be bennifitial for a young adult boy or girl to read. This book also shows that most the men in this book think that they hold power when in actuality, they don’t. I would reccomend this book to mostly females because it’s worth a read.
Black, Cally. In The Dark Spaces. Hardie Grant Publishing. 2017, August 1.