Before the Beginning by Anna Morgan

Before the Beginning is a sweet coming of age story that follows four friends, a mysterious stranger and the schoolies week when everything changed. The story is split into five different parts, each focusing on the four main characters: Grace, Casper, Noah and Elise.

Grace, who is Casper’s older sister, going Casper, Noah, and Elise on their schoolies as she avoids her friends from church. Together the four of them meet a strange girl with silver-like hair at the beach. This girl, Sierra, then convinces the group to join her on a camping excursion at an uninhabited island. On this island, their friendship is tested, and everyone learns a more about themselves and what they hope to continue to do with the upcoming future — while of course confronting their inner demons.

While in the surface it looks like your regular old coming-of-age story (and it sorta is) it does have an element of eternalness and mystery to the story. Especially as you learn more about Sierra through the perspective of the main for characters. However, the mystery isn’t a big deal as the blurb makes it out to be. It only comes up in the last 20-30 pages of the overall short novel.

Morgan tackles various difficult topics with sensitivity and care, such as dealing with anxiety, society’s pressure and leaving high school, which was the overall strong suit of the novel.

Overall, the novel was fast and lighthearted but very average. There were no twists, or big gasp moments and nothing that made sad to leave the characters as the story came to an end. While this book was not for me, I know a few people that will like this easy read.

This book was provided to me by Hachette Australia as part of a book tour. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

Publisher: Hachette Australia
ISBN: 9780734419651
Pages: 233
Publication Date: September 29th 2020
RRP: $19.99 AUD
Personal Rating: 3/5