Review: Good Oil by Laura Buzo

Good Oil by Laura Buzo

Pages: 252
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: August, 2010
IBSN: 9781741759976

'Miss Amelia Hayes, welcome to The Land of Dreams. I am the staff trainer. I will call you grasshopper and you will call me sensei and I will give you the good oil. Right? And just so you know, I'm open to all kinds of bribery.' 

From the moment 15-year-old Amelia begins work on the checkout at Woolworths she is sunk, gone, lost...head-over-heels in love with Chris. Chris is the funny, charming, man-about-Woolies, but he's 21, and the 6-year difference in their ages may as well be 100. Chris and Amelia talk about everything from Second Wave Feminism to Great Expectations and Alien but will he ever look at her in the way she wants him to? And if he does, will it be everything she hopes?

[Synopsis by Goodreads]

Good Oil is a light-hearted coming-of-age story by debut Australian author, Laura Buzo. It comes from the first person perspective of Amelia, a 15 year old girl who's in love with her workmate, Chris, 6 years her senior. Parts of the story are told through his diary.

Amelia is smart, funny, shy, and angsty. She's a normal teenage girl, with an interesting voice. Nothing overly dramatic happens to her, but her narration is still compelling. It's written so true to life and honestly.

Chris is definitely a swoon-worthy protagonist. He's sarcastic, outgoing, broody, and smart. Chris and Amelia have such great chemistry that I felt bummed out for them over the age difference. They were the kind of characters you could easily connect with.

The writing style is fun; the plot, sweet. A good, short book to read for a pick-me-up.

I give Good Oil a 4 out of 5.

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I read this book for the Aussie YA Reading Challenge.