Reviewed by Rod McLary
According to the Urban Dictionary, ‘tight lines’ is a good luck wish between fishermen – meaning that if your lines are tight, you are catching lots of fish. And Tight Lines is the title of this coming-of-age novel by Allee Richards and tells the stories of Luke, Josh and Matty who are best friends as only ten-year-olds can be. They live in a small beach town called Cape where their days are taken up with fishing, swimming, riding boogie boards and surfing.
Covering the years from 1995 to 2008 and initially told through the voice of Luke, the narrative takes the boys from their early teenage years through into adulthood. Along the way, Luke discovers alcohol and although he doesn’t know it, his drinking will lead to a tragedy which reverberates through the boys’ lives for many years. Unknowingly foreshadowing his future, Luke says I never meant to get so drunk. Each time it happened I swore it would be the last, and the next time I had a drink I believed that I could chug it down and it’d somehow end differently [69]. But of course, it never does. And then he says I took the keys from my pocket [101].
The consequent sequence of events is only alluded to in the narrative adding an emotional depth beyond that which would be the case had the tragedy been fully explained.
The narrative moves to 2009 and tells the story through Matty’s voice. And it in this section of the narrative that we learn something more of what may have happened that fateful night. It is evident that whatever occurred, Matty is deeply affected by it. And as the narrative progresses, there are further allusions to the tragedy and its immediate and subsequent impact on the friends and their families.
In the following section of the novel, the narrative returns to the voice of Luke. It is now 2012 and Luke has reconnected with his older half-sister Chloe and her toddler son Rueben. He is reminded that ‘one bad decision doesn’t have to define who [he is] (231).
In the final section dated 2015 – continuing in the voice of Luke – there is a hint of redemption as he cares for Rueben and, circling back to the beginning of the novel, takes him fishing.
Tight Lines is an engrossing – and at times alternatively heart-warming and heart-breaking – novel told in the authentic voices of teenagers who have lived through an event affecting their lives and are now moving towards a more hopeful future. It describes the rippling effect of tragedy and how its consequences can extend in directions unknown at the time. The author has captured the social and emotional dynamics of teenagers and young adults as they negotiate their way through life. An excellent read.
Allee Richards’ short fiction has been published widely in Australian literary magazines and anthologies. Her debut novel, Small Joys of Real Life, was shortlisted for the 2019 Richell Prize for Emerging Writers and the 2020 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript. Her second novel, A Light in the Dark, was published in 2023. Allee lives in Melbourne and works as a theatre lighting technician.
Tight Lines
[2026]
by Allee Richards
Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 978 1 7616 3692 9
$39.99; 260pp